JII meet added to World Athletics' Continental Tour

The Jamaica International Invitational (JII) meet has been included in the 2020 World Athletics Continental Tour as a silver level meeting. The meet had to be cancelled last season due to financial constraints, but Meet Director Donald Quarrie is confident that next year's staging will see it back at its usual level.

Quarrie also explained that the meet was given silver status instead of gold like the Racers Grand Prix because they weren’t able to show that they had enough money (in excess of JA $1 million) in account as one of the pre-requisites for a gold status meet.

“Fortunately for Racers, they had a couple people or company that were able to do that (provide sponsorship) because the decision was not on merit as to which meet is better,” said Quarrie. The 2020 edition of the Jamaica International Invitational will be held on May 2.

The brand new World Athletics Continental Tour was invented to replace the World Challenge Series and will run as the second tier competition below the Diamond League.

The Continental Tour will be divided into three levels – gold, silver and bronze – whose status will be determined by the quality of competition and prize money on offer.