 prize money live television coverage and two spanking new trophies the main attractions for the 11th staging of the corporate area development meet which was launched in Kingston on Wednesday the two-day event serves as a regional championship for schools in Kingston and parts of St Andrew here is Kimani O'Sullivan who attended Wednesday's launch your home of champions sports Max returns for the first time since 2021 as the official broadcaster for the two-day meet set for Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th of February at the Ashenheim Stadium home of the dark blues Jamaica College automatic qualifying spots for boys and girls champs will be big on the agenda for athletes and coaches but this year there are other major incentives as well Ricky Martin is founder of the event this year there will be prize money one hundred thousand fifty thousand dollars a first place on the boys and girls side one hundred thousand for the runner-up and fifty thousand for the third place winners and for the first time here here it is we'll be having trophies while the meet has always crowned a girls and boys champion the winners have never received championship trophies a trophy means a lot when you compete every region have a trophy and when you compete you want to win something there's a champion's league there's the world cup there's the Olympics even though you don't get a trophy the Olympics but a medal and your contribution in giving points and winning a medal even though we don't win a medal but your points your contribution that goes towards your schooling winning a title because we're not titled is a points and a numbers game so everybody contributes once you make a final your contribute and hence the trophy the boys trophy has been named in honor of current Kingston College principal Dave Myrie a supporter of the meet since its inception and the girls trophy after a long-time sports educator dr. Carol long I am really and truly honored and as they say I like working behind the scenes my greatest pleasure is mentoring athletes that is what I love to do I see them the scared ones when they're just starting and I try to nurture them so that they become great persons sports max will have live coverage of the meat on both days across all platforms linear YouTube and the app yes so that's gonna be a big one and of course the embryonic stages of Jamaica's outstanding track and field product that is advertised globally at majors world championship Olympic Games and so on Ricardo a lot of it we are seeing the the the start of it at meets like these yeah very much the case and this is significant and so first of all I'm really happy that sports max is back on board with this meet if you remember that during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was no live sports happening and definitely not in this part of the world this meet was among the first to be shown live on television in February of 2021 yes and we had a wonderful staging and everyone was so delighted to have television coverage and quality television coverage again and so it is fitting that sports max who has been with this meet for a number of years now is back on board and we'll be able to give not just fans in Jamaica but right across the region because when you think about it lads in the corporate area you have Kingston College Jamaica College Calabar who all have Caribbean non-Jamaican athletes from the rest of the Caribbean as part of their setup and a number of them in fact and those numbers are growing and those numbers are very much growing and we're talking about Trinidad and Tobago we're talking about the Bahamas we're talking about St. Lucia and the Grenadines St. Martin I probably shouldn't have started to call names because I probably won't get through all of them but right across the board in the corporate region and number of Caribbean nationals will be competing at this meet so it is significant in my estimation that sports max is back on board and part of this initiative yeah and Ricky Martin a dedicated servant of track and field in this kind of atmosphere and he continues to give yeoman service to the project and I tell you something lads this corporate area meet and I have to be careful how I put some of this so I don't get into trouble if you notice it is called the corporate area development meet as opposed to officially the corporate area championships note that every other region central championship eastern eastern championship western championship but for some reason this event has not been given the official name as a championship and so it has had to be referred to as the corporate area development meet but before this meet came on board 11 years ago started by Ricky Martin and Dwight Sulf there was no opportunity for teams in the corporate region to have a regional event yes and so they would not be on the championship style competition until they get to the ISSA now grace canada boys and girls athletics championships and you have to understand that you have a lot of athletes in all the regions who may not make a final at the big champs who may not win a medal at the big champs but at a regional event like this they have a wonderful opportunity to do so and it is significant for their own development it is significant for the type of work that they put in year in year out and I think that is a major part of why it is so significant that this meet was started and continues despite the fact that there is a reluctance to recognize it as an official championship even though now the intersecondary school sports association ISSA has said that yes it is one of the meets from which automatic qualifiers will come from for the ISSA grace canada boys and girls championships but I can't wait until we can officially say the corporate area championship rather than having to officially refer to the meet as the corporate area development because I think yes there is a development aspect to it but more than anything else it is really a championship for schools in this region yeah and one of the things that we have to constantly recognize to Ricardo is that the Jamaica track and field in infrastructure at the school level or the teenage level as we're seeing here is highly sophisticated oh dear and I started covering events like this in the media from the mid-1980s and if you look at the records now at the boys and girls championship well when I started boys championships was a separate meet from the girls championship there there is hardly a record if any that is standing now and I saw outstanding athletes from I started in the mid-80s I saw athletes who you could see would become world-level athletes and the program has continued to develop and it has continued to improve partly through projects like this yeah and one of the long-standing records that you speak about lands the class one boys 800 record which was held by Sherwin Burgess yeah I think that was the longest standing one and that was broken only a couple years ago what you're right with I saw that I saw I saw that they're all gone yeah they're all gone now and this is such a significant part also it is an opportunity for the coaches so let's talk about the boys because in this region you have the top boys teams Kingston College Jamaica College people don't take me on I didn't say it in any particular order and so they get an opportunity to really test where they are in terms of their readiness to win the big champs the ace of boys and girls athletics championships and then on the girls side where you don't have the strongest teams nationally it's an opportunity for them to win something so for Excelsior this is their champs for Immaculate for the Queen's school this is their opportunity as I'm sure Ricky will put it to win a trophy yes so it is significant for these schools and I think they have done an amazing job despite over the years what I consider to be a lot of pushback and I think they'll all be proud to see where they are with this meet and it's gonna be cracking I think yeah and of course the planning for the coverage has already started I see Phil Riley I think he's he'll probably be the main main producer getting ready to to cover the event television wise for Sportsmax because Sportsmax the home of champions we don't do substandard things and the quality of our product has to project a certain output from our organization so I know Ricardo that we're we're having big plans for good coverage yeah and I just love how you say Lance I couldn't have said it better myself and I look forward to it next week I will be at Jamaica College the Ash and I'm stadium from Thursday night getting ready for I know you will be the start of action on Friday morning yeah that's it let's take a more after yeah after this year the top corporate area high schools will lay down their marker ahead of champs and it will be live on your home of champions yes the top stars of tomorrow will begin to show their light this season in the corporate area development meet it is one not to miss catch it live Friday February 16 and Saturday February 17 on Sportsmax and the Sportsmax app