By Lawrence Trott From Royal Gazette

The 1,500 metre women’s race at next Friday’s Bermuda Invitational Permit Meet has been scrapped over a lack of entries, with a 200 metres men’s race added in its place.

Excitement is growing for the first Permit Meet in Bermuda with Troy Douglas, the national coach finalising the athletes for the various events. Not enough entries were confirmed for the women’s 1,500, forcing the Bermuda National Athletics Association to add a second men’s sprint race in its place.

It will see many of the same athletes in the 100 metres now also running in the 200.

“There was not enough response from the athletes, everybody is coming off indoors and are tapering off into a different phase of training,” Douglas said. “Some have gone into training camps at high altitude so it was hard to get some people right now.

“Plus we’re a new event so people don’t know about us that much, people are sitting like a cat in the tree waiting to see what happens this year before they make a decision. Things are looking really good, I’m very happy with what I see so far.”

The decision to add the men’s 200 will mean a second appearance on the evening for local sprinter Tre Houston who will be up against some top sprinters from Jamaica, Guyana, Bahamas and the United States.

The field for the men’s long jump is up to eight with Michael Hartman, a training partner of Bermuda’s Tyrone Smith, added to that event. Hartman, who has a personal best of 8.27 metres, will no doubt add some extra competition to that event, which will also include local pair Bruce DeGrilla and Ethan Philip.

Also confirmed for the long jump are Smith, Nicholas Gordon of Jamaica, Aubrey Smith of Canada, Jamaican Damar Forbes and Tyrone Harris of the US.

Aaron Evans will compete in the 800 and Lamont Marshall and Chayce Smith in the 150, while Shianne Smith will run in the 400 metres hurdle, and Sakari Famous in the women’s high jump, where she will compete against Tynita Butts of the US, Saniel Atkinson of Jamaica and Emma Kimoto of Canada.

Kimoto cleared a personal best of 1.85 metres in Bermuda last year at the National Championships.

The Permit Meet series will also include Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Trinidad. Bahamas will hold their Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational Meet on Saturday, with the T&T Grand Games on April 30, the Jamaica Invitational Track Meet on May 4 and the Cayman Invitational in George Town on May 14.

• NatWest has extended its sponsorship of the Island Games to the Gibraltar Games in 2019.

The deal was signed during a meeting of the International Island Games Association’s executive committee in Gibraltar last week.

“The partnership between IIGA and NatWest, which started in Gotland in 1999, has made it possible for the Association to develop the NatWest Island Games into one of the largest multisport events in the world,” the IIGA said.

“Apart from organising the biennial NatWest Island Games the IIGA and NatWest also contribute towards sports development within the member islands.

“The NatWest Sports Development Programme commenced in 1998 and has contributed over £160,000 [$228,000] to assist our member islands to travel to events, train and qualify coaches and officials and provide sports development opportunities.

IMAGE: Coming home: Smith will race in the 400 metre hurdles at the National Stadium next weekend

For more on this story go to: http://www.royalgazette.com/track-and-field/article/20160413/womens-race-scrapped-due-to-lack-of-interest