Penn Relays opening doors for Jamaican athletes

PENN RELAYS associate director Aaron Robison said the annual international track and field meet has proven to be an important avenue for Jamaican student-athletes to make their transition to the American collegiate circuit.

With this year marking the 60th anniversary of Jamaican teams’ first-ever participation at the Penn Relays, Robison was keen to acknowledge the relationship with Jamaican track and field and the Penn Relays.

According to Robison, scouts and coaches from the various National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools flock to the Penn Relays in search of the next big talent to blossom from Jamaica.

He said since Jamaica’s first participation in 1964, the Penn Relays have played an important role in helping Jamaican high school athletes transition to colleges in the United States.

“That’s been the case really since the ‘60s and ‘70s when Jamaican teams started coming consistently to the Penn Relays,” he said.

“Whether that was someone of high calibre coming out of the Jamaican high schools and ending up in a place like LSU or Florida or even someone on a smaller scale. Because when you come and run in the United States, a coach has an opportunity to see you in person.

“It’s definitely providing opportunities and even for schools that don’t come to the Penn Relays, they’re still able to dive into the results and see who’s who and who ran what. It definitely is making that transition for some of these Jamaican kids much much easier.”

Robison said the Penn Relays also provides an avenue for junior athletes who do not intend to continue the sport beyond the collegiate level to earn an education through scholarships.

He pointed to the case of Chené Townsend, a former Jamaican high school standout. Townsend competed at the Penn Relays while attending The Convent of Mercy Academy (Alpha) before attending West Virginia University.

Townsend is now employed as the assistant track and field coach at the University of Pennsylvania, where she focuses on women’s sprints as well as men’s and women’s hurdles.

“The best example that we have is our assistant track coach Chené Townsend. Chené first came to the United States for the Penn Relays. She went on to compete at the University of West Virginia and then fast-forward after her competitive career was done, she began coaching. She’s been here at Penn now for going on three or four years as the coach, and she was very instrumental in the success that we’ve had.

“So that’s just an example that obviously is very close to us here at Penn with Chené, but there are many other stories just like that, whether it be big schools like LSU or smaller schools, you know, whatever it is.”

However, Robison insisted that the benefits of the Penn Relays do not fall into the category of one-way streets. He said various junior athletes in America also benefit from Jamaica’s annual participation at the meet.

For several upcoming talents in the United States, the Penn Relays serves as their first international meet and exposes these athletes to a higher level of competition than what they would find locally.

The Penn Relays are set to run from April 25 through to April 27, with the three-day championships bringing together some of the world’s best athletes at the high school, collegiate, and professional level.