Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

THREE OF the island's top junior coaches, Kingston College's (KC) Lennox Graham, Calabar's Michael Clarke and Holmwood's Maurice Wilson, believe today's Gibson Relays will help them to assess their team's readiness for Champs.

KC have won Champs for the past five years, but many track and field experts predict a Calabar victory at the end of the four-day Championships, which start on March 28. At the end of today's Gibson Relays, the indications as to who will win Champs should be a lot clearer, not only to the coaches, but to track and field pundits.

Graham believes today's Gibson Relays will help him in one area in particular.

"This will help to assess a part of Saturday's evening at Champs," said Graham while making reference to the relays on the final evening of Champs.

"It's not going to tell me about the individuals, but it will give me a good indication what to expect in the relays," he said.

Valuable information

Clarke said today's meet gives him the chance to examine three areas - the psychology, physical and technical aspects of his team.

"All these three areas should provide valuable information, not only for the coaches, but for the athletes themselves. And the opponents because I will be assessing my opponents too," he said.

In these areas, he said the athlete'sspeed, strength and endurance and execution as well as mental readiness, would be revealed.

Clarke said: "The relay is the most high-pressure of all the events as it takes four people to add to a unit. It's the best way of assessment."

On the girls' side, Holmwood are once again favourites and coach Wilson said after today he would have a better idea of their hopes at Champs.

"Most definitely, though, Champs will be still a month away," he said.

"You can't be too complacent, but definitely it will give an indication of where the team is it is kind of difficult to tell with relays," Wilson said. "But it will give and indication of their conditioning."

Teddy McCook, council member of the International Association of Athletic Federations. - File

Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor

TODAY MARKS the 31st running of the most prestigious relay carnival in the Caribbean.

The Gibson Relays, the brainchild of former Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) president and Kingston College old boy Neville 'Teddy' McCook, have been putting the spotlight on the cream of local track and field at all levels since 1973.

McCook, a council member of the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) and one of the island's most respected sports administrators, had the very first planning session at his home. He had to conjure up a bit of deception to get the group together for that first meeting.

"I called 13 persons that I thought represented some of the finest minds in Jamaica and I used the same 'ruse' on each occasion. I told them that I had a little problem which I needed to discuss with them privately at my home. I did this because I knew we had individuals there who, if they knew that certain people were coming, they would not have come."

The original 14 for that meeting were McCook, Howard Aris, Jimmy Carnegie, Myrtle Robertson, Lloyd Keeling, George Thompson,Audley Hewitt, Franklyn Tenn, Leighton Duncan, Trevor Parchment, Dr. Keith Young, Col. Joe Moodie, Clinton Woodstock and Foggy Burrowes.

Inspiration

The inspiration for the Relays came shortly after Kingston College became the first school to send a team to the Penn Relays in the United States.

According to McCook , Thompson and Keeling had staged a relay carnival which was patterned on the Penn Relays and his group sat down and looked to see how they could improve on that.

"We (KC) were the forerunners and we came back and thought that we could do something similar. The whole idea of the Gibson Relays was launched in 1972 and we had our first running in 1973," McCook said.

Four members of the original 14, McCook, Carnegie, Keeling and Aris, are still active. As far as McCook and his colleagues were concerned, it was not difficult to find a name for the relays.

"When we thought of placing a name to the event we could think of no other person but the first principal of KC and late Lord Bishop of Jamaica, Percival Gibson.

Believed in sports

"He was a man who believed in sports. I remember as a youngster at KC, he told us that there were three things that an individual ought to have to make him a rounded person. He must have humour, he must love music and you must be able to enjoy sports. He said that very early and it captured my attention," McCook said.

The relays have been attracting big crowds since the inaugural running.

Over the years, a number of outstanding teams and individuals have competed at the one-day meet and McCook recalled one of his proudest moments.

"One of the things that we feel very proud about was 1975 when we had our first overseas participant, Houston McTear, a then outstanding sprinter out of the University of Florida. The very first time when he came outside of his environment was when he came to the Gibson Relays."

There have been many outstanding performances at the relays, but for McCook the greatest staging came in 1979.

"In 1979, the first Kerry Packer one-day cricket match came to Jamaica. I recall the late Franz Botek, a West Indies board member, calling me and he said, 'Teddy we are going to have this event and there will be a mammoth crowd. I would suggest you put back your event for a week'.

" I said, Franz, my good friend, look about yourself because we are going to also have a tremendous crowd. I was confident because it was the year in which we had Bert Cameron, Ian Stapleton, Merlene Ottey, Grace Jackson, Juliet Cuthbert and a host of other people.

Mammoth crowd at Sabina

Despite the fact that you had the one-day cricket and there was a mammoth crowd at Sabina Park, we had to close our gates at midday for a meet that started at 10.30 a.m.

"The day really lived up to expectations. I think it was that year that H.D. Woodson from Washington really brought the crowd alive. Four youngsters that not only came and won but they went back and sang the praises of the relays. They said if you want to see a track meet, you have to go to Kingston as they were coming from a great track meet." The meet has not been without its controversial moments. The most talked about happened when several schools boycotted the final event, the boys' 4x400m.

McCook remembers the night very well. "We have very strict rules that we do not yield to anyone. In the rules of the relays, we say the Gibson Relays are run by the rules of the individual organisation.

Followed issa rules

"In other words, whatever rules ISSA has in place for the high schools, we follow them. Whatever the prep schools have in place will apply the same and this also applies to the secondary schools and so on. We do this because we think it is unfair for these individuals to come and run under other conditions.

"When ISSA brought the rule that athletes had to sit out a year once they transferred to another school, we had the relays in 1990 and we heard that there would be a boycott of the final event, the 4x400m. Six of the eight schools which reached the final did not compete. Those six schools were not invited to the meet the following year. They were, of course, some of the top schools.

"Some people thought the event would not survive but we had a very good crowd that (next) year as a lot of people (other schools) took the opportunity to come and win some medals.