President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson and founder of the Jefford Track and Field Classic organisation, Edison Jefford met Tuesday evening to formalise several important features of the upcoming Jefford Classic Mile scheduled for March 12 at the National Park.
This is according to a release sent out to the media yesterday.
According to the release, the key items on the agenda were the use of the professional Meet Management System to electrically produce the times and results for each race.
In the release, Hutson said that this technology will raise the profile of the event and bring it in line with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) standards.
Hutson said that the IAAF has been pushing affiliates to support more meet organisers in an effort to promote athletics and generate increased competition. He said the initiative from Jefford was well received and it is something that the athletes have been yearning for some time based on feedback he has received.
“We are proud to be associated with the Jefford Classic Mile because we are very serious about supporting our local athletes. We see this event as a serious one on our calendar for athletes because they have complained that there are not enough road races like this for them, “ Hutson said.
“We need the Golden Mile and I am happy that it is on and I applaud what Jefford is doing. This is a good competition and it will help aAthletics in Guyana to rise,” the AAG president continued.
Jefford had previously stated that his aim was the resuscitation and rebranding of the prestigious Golden Mile under his brand. He had indicated that the competition is to give middle distance athletes a signature event to call their own.
In addition to the Meet Management System, it was also disclosed via the press release, that the races will be streamed live. According to Jefford, the vision is to have a big screen stream the races for patrons present and those tuned in via social media all over the world. This will be a mammoth undertaking because the team is trying to figure out our source of power as well as the strongest internet connection possible and its range to have this done around the circuit of the National Park.
“We have a very active social media presence and we will leverage that to showcase our athletes to the world while also giving our corporate sponsors the mileage they deserve for supporting our athletes. The aim is to make the event as big as possible, we are therefore trying to make our dream of what the event should look like possible,” Jefford said.
He added that because of those features, much work has to be done to improve the optics of the event, including branding. The organiser said that the entire aura of the Jefford Classic Mile must be in line with what is seen internationally to ensure that Guyana looks good to the world.
Importantly, Jefford also disclosed that the prize monies for the Open categories will now be stretched to fifth place to reward more athletes while first to third will get medals. He said the same will apply for the training and educational grants for the athletes under 20 years of age. There will also be a special prize for the athletes who break the four-minute barrier, and all the top results from this year will become meet records.
