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NMA postpones All-Schools track meet
Northern Marianas Athletics officials have decided to postpone this weekend’s 2015 Public School System/McDonald’s All-Schools Athletics Championship due to Tropical Storm Dolphin.
The All-Schools meet was set to open tomorrow, May 14, at the Oleai Sports Complex and was then supposed to shift to the Hopwood Junior High School Field on Friday and Saturday.
Storm Dolphin was still 900 miles east-southeast of Saipan located at Fananu village in Chuuk State as of 4pm yesterday, but is expected to hit Saipan in the next 48 hours.
Dolphin is packing maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour and is currently drifting west towards Saipan. Dolphin is expected to have damaging winds from 39 to 73 mph by Friday.
NMA secretary general Robin Sapong said this was the main reason behind the cancellation of the annual track meet, where close to 400 kids are expected to join in the three-day finals.
“We don’t want to risk the safety of the kids. We already sent an email to the teachers and coaches that we’re postponing Thursday’s opening. We’ll keep them posted when are we going to reschedule it,” Sapong told Saipan Tribune in a telephone interview.
“The NMA board doesn’t want to make a last-minute decision. We don’t want to push through with the opening on Thursday then cancel it the following day when it starts to rain,” Sapong added.
The All-Schools meet was supposed to open at 5pm tomorrow with the boys and girls long jump in all age divisions and the softball throw in the Under-8, U10, and U12 age groups.
The opening ceremonies was set at 6pm to be followed by the 60m sprints in both divisions of all age groups, and the javelin and shotput throwing events in the boys and girl’ U14 and U18 categories at 6:3opm.
The 100m dash in all ages in both he boy and girls divisions, and the discus throw for U14 and U18 boy’ and girls end the day’s competition at 7:30pm.
