MONTEGO BAY, St James — Calls were made at Thursday’s launch of the Hanover Co-operative Credit Union’s Western High School’s track and field championships held at the International University of the Caribbean in Montego Bay for more sponsors to get involved in regional high school track and field.

After Tuesday’s massively scaled-down staging of the Central Championships held at Vere Technical, the calls came from Hanover Co-operative’s Jennifer Taylor Wilson and Stephen Smith, president of the County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA), organisers of Western Champs.

Central Champs was this year held just one day at Vere Technical and saw the athletes compete in timed finals instead of the regular two days with heats and finals.

Schools from the central area have dominated the female section of Jamaica’s junior track and field programme for decades, and according to Smith, it was a shame that they could not attract sponsors for this year’s meet.

Smith said he was grateful for the level of sponsorship he had received this year for Western Champs which has allowed them to maintain the three-day format and host the finals on Saturday, February 16 at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.

The boys’ eliminations will be held at St Elizabeth Technical next Tuesday and the girls’ eliminations two days later at Irwin High.

Hanover Co-operative Credit Union presented a cheque for $500,000, while other sponsors include Jamaica National Building Society, Linkz FM and Royal Pharmacy.

Taylor Wilson said she was “surprised” at the low level of sponsorship that Western Champs had received as, given the long and successful history of the event, she was expecting “an auditorium full of sponsors lining up”.

She said, however, that her company plans to stay with the product and “take it to higher heights and create some vibes here”.

Hanover Cooperative Credit Union, she said, wasn’t one of the larger financial institutions but said they had a responsibility to give back to the region, adding they were already involved in scholarships at the GSAT level and were thinking about moving up to the tertiary level.