Olympian Megan Tapper and Montego Bay’s Mayor Richard Vernon lauded the effort to support education with massive backing in Sunday’s philanthropic Jill Stewart Montego Bay City Run initiative.
Event organisers set a goal to earn $7 million this year to provide scholarships for students pursuing tertiary education. More than 5,000 entrants were in the event held in Montego Bay, St James, more than double the 1,800 participants in the previous run.
Tapper, the Tokyo Olympic Games bronze medallist in the women’s 100 metres hurdles, expressed satisfaction to participate.
“I’m honoured to be part of this initiative for education. At any day, any time, any hour it’s always good to give back and to be in a position to help Sandals and the sponsors and the MoBay city to give back to children and to give back to Jamaica is a great opportunity,” she said.
“I heard that it was 2,000 last year and now 5,000. That’s spectacular. I can’t wait for next year; this year was amazing. I’m happy that the sun was very nice to us in the morning for the run and I hope that it grows from strength to strength,” Tapper said, relating to the rainy conditions that persisted the night before.
EDUCATIONAL THRUST
Vernon, who numbered among the runners, expressed strong support for the educational thrust, noting it was one of the pillars they’re targeting to build the city.
“The MoBay City Run is one of the biggest 5K events in MoBay and I’m happy to participate in it because it is for a good cause. We’re talking about educational development and trying to commit as many resources as possible to the development of education and investing in education because the development of education is critical to the development of the country on a larger scale,” he said.
The mayor shared about the numbers: “Montego Bay is getting a hang of the 5K… I remember some years ago we had a Guardian Night Run that was well supported and then we had COVID and a dip in participation and now it’s building momentum. Not only are we seeing more participation at each event, but we are seeing more events, more 5Ks from the churches, different societies asking Montego Bay to support a good cause, whatever cause,” he said.
This year’s event was renamed in honour of the late Jill Stewart, a former educator and competitor who had contributed passionately by working with the organisers to drum up support and create a group to attract participants.
AVID RUNNER
Janet Silvera, the event’s founder and chairperson of the organising committee, said, “Jill Stewart was an avid runner. She ran all over the world but she still found time to make an effort to support our run. She has won our run more than once, she won the 5K and the 10K.”
The main competition was focused on the 5K and 10K run for men and women, and there were other categories, which included walking events.
In the women’s 10K, Danielle Terrier was first, ahead of Alecia Green and Vanessa Stockhausen, while Kemar Leslie took the men’s equivalent ahead of Jomo-Rhys Zgilman. Andrew Gutzmore placed third.
In the signature, 5K, Mount Alvernia High schoolgirls Karma Lewin (21:52 minutes) and Chris-Ann Edwards (21:54) claimed first and second, respectively, in a neck-and-neck duel to the finish, while third went to Cindy Asoba (22:41).
Dwayne Graham was first in the men’s 5K in 16:45, while Winston Dehaney finished second in 17:07 ahead of Andrew Powell, who clocked 17:36.
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