TOP level track and field returns to Jamaica this evening after a long break, with the staging of the first Jamaica International Invitational meet at the National Stadium.
Several quality athletes will be on show on the 19-event programme. Action starts at 6:30 with the high school relays featuring some of the teams which had outstanding performances at the recent Penn Relays.
The athletes including Marion Jones, Jearl Miles-Clarke, Maria Mutola, Debbie Ferguson, Jamaica's 400m hurdler Kemel Thompson and Sandie Richards of Jamaica were excited about the meet when they were introduced to members of the media at the Jamaica Pegasus early yesterday.
"I am excited to be kicking off my outdoor season here in Jamaica. I will be jumping outdoors for the first time since Sydney and I am just taking it one meet at a time and I am looking to go up there (National Stadium) and put on a show," Jones who will be competing in Jamaica for the first time said.
Comeback trail
The women's 100m will be interesting. Jones is attempting to recover her best form since having her first child eight months ago and it gives the rest of the field a grand chance to defeat her. Jamaica's trio of Tayna Lawrence who was third to Jones in Sydney 2000, Peta Gaye Dowdie who is on the comeback trail and national champion Aleen Bailey should see that she is fully extended.
Also set to grace the National Stadium's track are Mozambique's Mutola, the undisputed queen of 800 metres running, American Gail Devers who broke many Jamaicans hearts twice, in 1993 world championships and 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when she clipped Merlene Ottey in the 100 metres.
Mutola who has been competing at the highest level since 1991 has swept all before her in the past four years, winning the world title in 2001 and last year and Olympic gold in 2000.
Devers will run her pet event the 100m hurdles tonight. At the world championship level Devers has won this event on three occasions, 1993, 1995 and 1999.
The top overseas men are world 100 metres record-holder Tim Montgomery of the United States, world 100 metres champion Kim Collins of St. Kitt's and Nevis, world and Olympic 400m hurdles champion Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic and world 200 metres silver medalist, American Darvis Patton.
Montgomery who finished behind his compatriot Maurice Greene at a recent meet in the United States is using tonight's meet as part of his build-up for the Athens Olympics.
Pressure on Kim
The pressure is on Collins to add an Olympic gold medal to the World Championship gold he won in Paris last year.
In an interview with CMC he said: "There is a lot of pressure. I was home last week and when I am home, all I hear is about is this wonderful Olympic gold that no-one has yet seen. However, I try not to get involved with the people who put bets on me. I try to put that out of my mind and focus on my preparation."
The 2003 world champion will run the 200m where he will face Jamaica's 2001 silver medalist Chris Williams, American Coby Miller a finalist in Sydney and Britain's Julian Golding.
The men's and women's 400 metres will also be interesting.
In the women's event it will be a clash of veterans, Jamaica's evergreen Richards versus American Miles-Clarke. In the 1993 World Championships Miles-Clarke won gold beating Richards into third spot. Miles-Clarke has since moved up to the 800 metres and is using this meet as part of her 'speedwork'.
The men's event features Sanchez, two of Jamaica's best, former world number one Michael Blackwood and Michael McDonald, American Derrick Brew and rising young Jamaican star Jermaine Gonzales.
In the field events the battle between American Savante Stringfellow and Jamaica's James Beckford should be exciting. They were one-two at the recent World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
The men's high jump field is small but it includes veteran Charles Austin, the world champion in 1991 and Jamaica-born Canadian Mark Boswell, a bronze medal winner in the event last year in Paris. Boswell is also the Commonwealth Games champion from two years ago in Manchester. Both men are capable of going well over 2.20 metres.
Late yesterday the organisers said tickets for the meet were going fairly well. A spokesman for the organisers said tickets were however, still available at the National Stadium ticket office, the Jamaica Pegasus, Petcom Portmore and at Sports Plus in Half Way Tree.
TONIGHT'S SCHEDULE
6:30: High School relays
7:00: Opening Ceremony
7:45: Long jump - women
7:50: High jump - men
7:55: 400m hurdles - men
8:10: 1500m - men
8:20: 100m - women
8:30: 100m - men
8:45: 800m - men
8:55: 800m - women
9:10: Long jump - men
9:10: 100m hurdles - women
9:20: 110m hurdles - men
9:30: 400m - men
9:35: 400m - women
9:45: 200m - women
9:55: 200m - men
MORE ON MEET...PAGE 60.
