Milo Western Relays meet manager, Tony Myers (left), and meet director Ray Harvey accept a signage depicting the cheque sponsorship during the launch of the Milo Western Relays yesterday from Suzanne Wilson-Wong, consumer marketing manager for beverages at Nestlé. - Sheena Gayle

Western Bureau

The Milo Western Relays received a boost in sponsorship yesterday to host the 31-year-old event that is slated to take place on the grounds of G.C. Foster College in St Catherine.

Despite the downturn in the economy, consumer marketing manager for beverages at Nestle, Suzanne Wilson-Wong, announced at a press conference that Milo will provide sponsorship to the tune of $1.2 million, up from the $1 million that was given last year.

Craving normalcy

Wong said: "In the face of high inflation, currency devaluation and redundancies, our people are craving some sort of normalcy. This is why as a committed corporate citizen to Jamaica, Nestlé have increased its cash sponsorship and this underscores our commitment not only to the development of our nation's youth, but also the desire to affect social changes."

Based on a report from the planning committee, all the Jamaican medallists in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games participated in the Milo Western Relays at some stage of their careers.

Based on this fact, she defended the continuous sponsorship from Milo's parent company, Nestlé towards the event at a time when no one was willing to take up the mantle of title sponsorship.

"Fifteen years ago when there was no bandwagon to jump on, Nestle was true to its promise to develop future champions and after 15 years we are proud to be title sponsors and still be a part of this event," Wong noted.

For the first time since the inception of the Milo Western Relays, the major track event will be held outside of western Jamaica this year in order to facilitate construction at the Catherine Hall Stadium.

But this move has raised concerns about transportation from some of the teams which will be participating in the event.

In a bid to alleviate this cost, meet director Ray Harvey explained that efforts are being made by the planning committee to subsidise the transportation cost to St Catherine for the event on February 14.

Harvey said: "We are working on assisting some of the St James teams with transportation to St Catherine, but I cannot make a solid commitment at this time on the issue."