Raymond Graham, Gleaner Writer

Two track and field meets are scheduled for today as the season steps up a gear following last Saturday's WATA/Jamaica College Invitational.

The Kirkvine/Puma Invitational meet will be held at Kirkvine in Manchester while the National Stadium will host the Douglas Forrest Invitational.

Both meets, which will start at 8:30 a.m. should showcase some high-quality performances as athletes seek qualifying standards for the ISSA Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships set for March 12-16.

Unlike last week's meet where the 100 metres was the highlight, most attention will be focused on the 200m at both meets.

At Kirkvine, there will also be the 400m, 800m, 3000m for girls, 5000m for boys along with the 4x800 metres for both sexes.

At the Stadium East, in addition to the 200m, there will be competition in the 400m hurdles, 800m, 1500m, 4x400m and 4x800m while in the field there will be long jump and discus events for both males and females.

Olympic 200m bronze medallist, Warren Weir, will be the patron of the Douglas Forrest meet. Weir, the former Calabar High hurdler, will be the first local patron of this meet. Past patrons have all been from overseas.

top boys' school teams

Most of the top boys' school teams will be in attendance in Kingston while in Kirkvine it is expected that the top-four female high school teams will grace the track. Vere Technical's Shericka Jackson and Olivia James along with Edwin Allen's Christania Williams and Monique Spencer, and Holmwood Technical's Diana Johnson are some of the top athletes who are expected to shine in their first appearance on the track this season.

Following a low-key turnout last week where concentration was on the field events, defending boys' champions, Calabar, are expected to turn out their runners in large numbers today with the talented Class Two athlete Michael O'Hara to lead their charge along with World Junior Championships 400-metre finalist Javair Francis.