Several big guns of Jamaica’s MVP (Maximising Velocity and Power) Club will begin their 2011 track and field season when they compete at the 10th running of the Queens-Grace Jackson Track Meet at the new UWI Usain Bolt Track in Kingston, Saturday, January 29.
Top female athletes on the roster include sprint hurdler Brigitte Foster-Hylton, sprinters Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Sherone Simpson, ¼-miler Shericka Williams, and 400m hurdlers Melaine Walker and Kaliese Spencer.
The recently married Fraser-Pryce is returning to competitive after a six-month ban for testing positive for oxycodone, a prohibitive substance, at the Diamond League meet in Shanghai in May last year. She is scheduled to run the 400m on Saturday, MVP president and meet manager Bruce James informed a January 18 press briefing held at The Queen's School to launch the meet.
Foster-Hylton will also be making her return, after suffering a severe hamstring injury in April 2010.
Asafa Powell will head the list of male participants that include Michael Frater and Germaine Mason, a former Jamaican high jumper, who now represents Great Britain. Nesta Carter, another prominent MVP athlete, will not be there. Prior commitments will have him competing at the Millrose Games (indoor) in New York on Friday, the 28th.
The Queens-Grace Jackson Meet, set to begin sharply at 8:30 a.m. and end promptly at 6 p.m., will feature two new events in the shot put and the 1500m for men, as well as match-ups in the 200m, 400m, 800m and 400m relay for men and women. Meet organizers expect about 2,000 participants.