IT WAS refreshing to see the number of people who turned out to watch the University of Technology (UTech) 50th Anniversary Track and Field Classic on Saturday, at the National Stadium.
Only the grandstand was open for the event and nearly all the seats were taken.
This is a major improvement on the crowds which generally come out to watch track and field meetings, including the National Champs.
Obviously, Champs is a huge exception, as it possesses incredible drawing power. A lot of that support is based on the fact that it's a competition among schools, and you know everybody went to a school and people love to support school sports, particularly the more popular ones.
So, Saturday's turnout was indeed heartening, considering the fact that this nation has, and continues to produce, track and field athletes of the highest order. Athletes who have drawn huge crowds to bigger stadiums in bigger cities, globally.
However, it is not hard to imagine why it is easier to attract bigger crowds for other sporting engagements such as football, more so the national football team, as opposed to track and field at the National Stadium.
National team
Track and field is basically individualistic until it gets down to global competitions like the Olympics, World Championships, etc. when athletes become part of a national team, which is what football always is.
The fact, though, that more people support the national football team must never be based on the notion of team, as is shown time and again when the stadium is empty at international matches. This remained so until recently when the Reggae Boyz, who have advanced to play professionally with clubs in Britain and the United States, were re-inserted for international games.
A huge factor, therefore, has to do with the quality on show, the choice (economists call it the opportunity cost) for which people are being asked to spend their hard-earned dollars against something else, because people always have another option.
Like any well-attended show, the main ingredient is quality, and there was quality in the person's of 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell, 2006 top sprinter Sherone Simpson, sprint hurdling ace Brigitte Foster-Hylton and much-loved sprint relay gold medallist Aleen Bailey, among others, did a great deal in pulling out the crowds on Saturday.
Performances
With such quality on parade at this meet with an international flavour as many athletes from the US, Puerto Rico and Cuba participated, there were bound to be exceptional performances and in four instances, world-leading times were established.
The MVP Track Club, with Powell, lowered the 4x100m standard this year to 39.22 seconds, well below the 39.38 established four days earlier by Hinds Community College in Mississippi.
G.C. Foster's women's team did 44.12 to better the time set by Australia's national team, 44.26, in Canberra in January, while Nesta Carter and Simpson also got in on the act.
Carter's 20.38-second clocking in the 200m bettered Brazilian Bruno de Barros 20.47, while Simpson's fighting victory in 51.25 seconds in the 400m was some distance ahead of Australian Tamsyn Lewis' 51.44 that was recorded on the last day of February in Brisbane.
Simpson had a torrid 2007 and proved that she's in good nick with a good quarter-mile prep. People were really happy to see that. It was also good to see Foster-Hylton in competition and showing decent early season form, too, with a 13.16 reading running against the clock, as she had been bothered by injuries for some time.
Disappointment
On a negative note, a number of people were disappointed that Powell did not run in the 200m event for which he was advertised and marked on the programme to compete. Besides locals, several Jamaicans living abroad turned up expecting to see the big man but he didn't show for the event.
Some even thought he would have been participating in the 100m, but at no time was he advertised or listed to compete in his pet race.
The announcers were good throughout, updating patrons on athletes in the respective events but no mention was made that Powell would not have been competing and people are still wondering why.
The hosts have said they will make it an annual affair, but they will have to try their best to ensure that the quality, as advertised in its package, is showcased, unless there are exceptional circumstances. In such instances there should be proper notification.
That's one way to keep the people coming out to build support levels for track and field that measures up to the quality of the nation's athletes.
