The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has announced a major initiative to improve Jamaica’s performance in the hurdles.
The plan includes the provision of hurdles equipment to schools in a bid to increase participation in hurdling events and build proficiency in the discipline.
Today, Minister Grange announced that the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport will be providing hurdles equipment to 25 schools in the first pilot phase of the initiative being funded by the Sports Development Foundation at a cost of $12.6M.
The Minister credited the Board of Directors at the Sport Development Foundation for coming up with the idea.
“The Board of the SDF in preparing its development plan identified a problem – the performance of our athletes in the hurdles is outstanding but participation is not widespread – Jamaica is excelling in the hurdles at the international level, yet only a minority of our schools participate in the discipline at Champs. The conclusion was that if the pool were wider then we could be even more dominant,” Minister Grange said.
Each school will receive 20 hurdles. The schools include:
Mount Alvernia High School
Merlene Ottey High School
Ewarton High School
Green Island High School
Claude McKay High School
Convent of Mercy Academy Alpha
Christiana High School
Rhodes Hall High School
Gaynstead High School
Herbert Morrison Tech. High Sch.
Edith Dalton James High School
Spalding High School
St. Andrew Technical High School
Petersfield High School
St. James High School
Immaculate Conception High School
Merl Grove High School
Buff Bay High School
Mona High School
Morant Bay High School
Charlemont High School
Holmwood Technical High School
Waterford High School
Jonathan Grant High School
New Forest High School
Minister Grange made the announcement at a ceremony to reopen the Stadium East Track at Independence Park Complex today.
Minister Grange said she was “extremely proud” that work on the Stadium East Track was completed ahead of the start of the Boys and Girls Champs which begin tomorrow at the National Stadium.