Spotlight on ‘Mr G’ in meet named in his honour
ALMOST a month after he died, the memory of William “Mr G” Goldsmith will again take the spotlight today when hundreds of athletes participate at the Youngster Goldsmith Track and Field meet named in his honour at GC Foster College.
Goldsmith, who passed away on January 5 at age 89, was responsible for transforming track and field in Jamaica in the early 1960s with his weights training programme.
Goldsmith, a former Jamaica weightlifting champion, joined the Kingston College aggregation and is said to have played a crucial part in their success at Boys’ Champs against the myth that the boys would be sluggish, winning the event for 14 consecutive years between 1962 to 1975.
Raffic Shaw, a member of the organising committee, told the Jamaica Observer that, unlike previous years, when a person would be honoured at the meet, this year, at the 16th staging, the focus and attention will be on the great pioneer.
“We saw it fitting to honour him instead, and the honouring aspect of the meet will be centred [on] the memory of him,” he said.
Over 2,000 athletes are expected to participate at the meet that will see a slight change in format in the hurdles event. The organisers will be running heats and finals for the sprint hurdles event, a first at development meet.
“We had a little spice to our event with the heats and final in the sprint hurdles, and you will find that all the top athletes in the hurdles will face each other on the day, and people will get a much better look at where the hurdlers are going forward,” said Shaw.
The events down to be contested are the 100 metres, 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles, 400m hurdles, shot put, discus, javelin, long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault, 2,000m steeple chase, 1,500m, and 400m.
Entrance fees are $400 for adults and $200 for children.