Several changes were made to this year’s staging of the Digicel Grand Prix Athletics Championship, set to run from February 18 to March 11.
Chief among the changes is that points accumulated at the regional meets will not be used to determine the champion schools.
Another of the eying catching among them is that the top boy and girl will win a once-in-a-lifetime all-expense paid trip to the 2017 World Relays to be held in the Bahamas this April.
Two meets have dropped from 2016 – Youngster Goldsmith Development Meet and Camperdown Classic while Eastern Champs will be among them series for the first time.
The other rule changes are:-
(a)There will be no wild cards now that there are four regions, Western, Central, Eastern and Corporate.
(b) Selection of 4x400m teams for the finals will be the top two places from each regional meet
(c) In relation to seeding, the four winners from each region will be awarded lanes 3,4,5,6.
The Digicel Grand Prix series, which has attracted a prize pool of over $15 million, will see record-breaking athletes taking home individual scholarships ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 each.
The top schools will one again walk away with the Digicel Grand Prix Championship Trophy and $1 million towards gym equipment or development of their school’s training facilities.
The events to be contested over the course of the series will be the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, long jump, high jump, discus, and 4x400m.
2017 DIGICEL GRAND PRIX SCHEDULE
(1) Saturday February 18 – Western Championship – Catherine Hall, Montego Bay
(2) Tuesday February 28 – Eastern Championships – Usain Bolt Track, UWI
(3) Thursday March 2 – Anthrick Corporate Area Development Meet – Usain Bolt Track, UWI
(4) Wednesday March 8 – Central Championships – GC Foster College, St Catherine, Spanish town
(5) Saturday March 11 – GC Foster Classics –National Stadium, Kingston
