On saturday I got the opportunity to attend the JN Jamaica International Invitational meet, this was a welcome event for me as I haven't been to any sporting events since the year has started which is unlike me because I like sports that much. This is an event I've attended for the past 3 stagings and I must say that this was filled with an unprecedented level of excitement. The first way in which I could see that the environment has massively changed was the massive crowd at the stadium. Unlike previous years the stadium was packed to the brim and I had to search high and low to gain seating for me and the crew of people with me. The stadium was also a buzz with noise and cheers of excitement coming from all angles, this excitement reached a fever pitch especially when star athletes such as Yohan Blake, Veronica Campbell, and Keron Stewart came unto the track... When Usain made his presence known I could barely hear myself think as the crowd cheered completely ignoring the other events that were also taking place at the same time.**Taken from Jamaica Gleaner

The crowd came out to see some high quality athletic performances, and they were certainly entertained. The evening officially started with the Women's 100m sprint, and what a start to the evening that was. Kerron Stewart and Carmelita Jeter ran side by side all the way to the finish line but Jeter managed to pull  a victory through at the last second. Along from the exciting womens side was Novlene Williams-Mills pulling a victory in the 400 with a world leading time of 50.32 ahead of Monica Hargrove, while Kenia Sinclair set a meet record 1:58.62 to take the 800m. Veronica Campbell also stamped her class as a 200m champion by dominating in her race with a time of 22.60, ahead of Cydonie Mothersill and Bianca Knight. Another notable performance came from US High Jumper Chaunte Howard-Lowe who made a world leading 2.00m jump all while showing some skills in popular Jamaican dances much to the crowd's liking.

**Taken from Jamaica Gleaner

On the men's side Nesta Carter's 100m victory was marred by the elimination of up and coming sprint star Yohan Blake who made a false start and was eliminated from the race, however Carter still showed fine form taking the race in 10.09 ahead of World Championships silver medallist Darvis Patton and Olympic silver medallist Richard Thompson. Jermaine Gonzales also showed some amount of return to fighting form coming second to American sprint sensation Tyson Gay in the 400m race. Gay ran a quick 45.05 to stave off the challenge from Gonzales who was closing in on Gay towards the end of the race, however Gay seemed to have over-exerted himself in the race however as in the end he was throwing up all over the place, but all in all he seems to have been fine in the end. The excitement of the evening came in the 200m race where world renouned record breaker Usain Bolt was set to blaze the track. This he did successfully, setting a world leading 19.56 second run, finishing about 10 meters ahead of his closest competitor in Wallace Spearmon. This was made even more remarkable by the fact that as of that race Bolt has run 6 of the top 10 200m times and with the form he is in, it certainly looks like he will try to have all 10 times.

**Taken from Jamaica Gleaner

Notably missing were the majority of the MVP camp including Bridgette Foster-Hilton, Asafa Powell and Shelly Ann-Fraser. It is not strange to people who follow the local athletic scene however, as for the past 3 years the MVP camp has opted to not take part in the largest local meet much to the chagrin of the Jamaican public. However the lack of their presence was truly felt, as it would've been nice to see the current form of our stars.

Another notable annoyance that was shown in this meet is the one false start rule that the IAAF has put in place. It is an unwelcome rule because it is unfairly giving the athletes no single margin of error in the race, even though officials are given a chance to correct their errors as at any point they may call "stand up" to start over the race. However it is highly unlikely that the IAAF will see the error in this rule until a big name athlete such as Gay, or Bolt finds themselves eliminated from a race because of a simple flinching action. The subsequent riot in the stadium ought to be enough of a wake up call to the IAAf to change their stance.

However all in all the event was wonderfully put together, and the performances have certainly wet the lips of track and field fans who now have much to anticipate for the rest of the season.