Fantastic performances bring joy to Grand Prix sponsors

Jamaica – The third staging of the Digicel Grand Prix Series won by St Jago High and Edwin Allen High was a resounding success, says Digicel’s senior sponsorship manager Kamal Powell.
St Jago retained their boys’ title by amassing 84 points and edged Calabar High by a meagre one-and-a-half points in a thrilling climax in the 4x400m relay. Kingston College was third with 60 points.
Edwin Allen, however, retained their girls’ title by a comfortable 22 points as the Michael Dyke-coached team totalled 76 points. Excelsior High were second on 54, just ahead of third-placed Holmwood Technical High on 52 points.
Both St Jago and Edwin Allen pocketed the $1 million winning prize each, while the runners-up collected $500,000 with third spot earning $200,000.
“We’re really happy to see the outstanding and record-breaking performances of the athletes who participated in the Digicel Grand Prix this year. We saw more emerging talent that Jamaica’s athletics industry has already identified as the ‘ones to watch’ – coming from both traditional and non-traditional high schools like Spot Valley, Rusea’s and Hydel,” said Powell.
“Support for the series more than doubled this year and we anticipate that the championship will continue going from strength to strength each year,” he added.
The Grand Prix Series started on February 18 and involved five meets in western, eastern, central parts of the island, as well as the Corporate Area, and concluded last Saturday with the GC Foster Classics inside the National Stadium.
“From an execution standpoint, we hope to see more schools participating next year and we’d love if even more of corporate Jamaica came on board to help us grow the series,” said Powell.
A total of over $15 million in cash and prizes were won throughout the series with individual scholarships, plus monies going to record-breakers ($25,000 each) and top-performing coaches ($50,000 each).
“As usual, we’re always looking for ways to offer our customers an unforgettable experience, so we’ll be looking at ways to do even more for the schools and students who participate and make the development meets even more appealing for persons to come out and show their support for the athletes,” said Powell.
Meanwhile, Nathan Nelms, assistant brand manager of associate sponsor Malta, was equally satisfied.
“We are very happy to be a part of Digicel Grand Prix… we came on board this year after missing out last year and we regretted that because this is an excellent fit for the Malta brand. Malta is the Jamaican original brand and we have been around for 35 years and we thought that we would bring this energetic drink and introduce it to these youngsters,” said Nelms.
“The turnout on both ends was excellent we saw the spectators coming out to the various meets in their numbers and the performances both on and off the track. We saw some outstanding performances, records being broken, so it’s a really good look for Digicel and for Malta,” he added.
“We know that Digicel is doing really great things for the schools, but we thought that we would give the athletes something else to aim for, which is why we introduced the $25,000 prize for the champion girl and champion boy. We have been doing that since the onset and we are sure it will go a far way in assisting them with gear and so on. So all in all, it has been a really great series and we will definitely be on board to energise the athletes at the next Digicel Grand Prix,” Nelms concluded.