KINGSTON – Ja­maica’s Min­is­ter of Sport Olivia Grange has ad­mit­ted that there are con­cerns about whether the resur­fac­ing of the track at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um will be com­plet­ed in time for next month’s IS­SA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Ath­let­ics Cham­pi­onships (Champs).

With the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed event slat­ed to be held from March 25 to 29, there have been calls for the resur­fac­ing of the track to be post­poned un­til af­ter Champs.

How­ev­er, Grange told The Glean­er that the un­pre­dictabil­i­ty of the weath­er re­mained a ma­jor con­cern as they face a race against time to have the run­ning track resur­faced.

“We are con­cerned about the time­line and that is what we are work­ing through … be­cause we can­not run the risk of not hav­ing the run­ning sur­face in good con­di­tion for Champs,” Grange said.

“We can­not pre­dict the weath­er and these are the con­cerns we have. So just work with us.”

Grange said the planned ren­o­va­tions to the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um ren­o­va­tion had al­ready start­ed and promised there would be a new fa­cil­i­ty to cel­e­brate by the end of the year.

“The sta­di­um is a very old fa­cil­i­ty, so as you fix one thing an­oth­er thing goes be­cause it is old.

“We have tried our best over time to hold it to­geth­er and to do the best we can and that is why we have made the de­ter­mi­na­tion that we are go­ing to re­build the fa­cil­i­ty,” Grange said.

“We have al­ready signed the con­tract for the fea­si­bil­i­ty and the pre­lim­i­nary work to be done. We hope to break ground lat­er this year.”

CMC