News Releases

Run for Sport Scholarships UWI SPEC and First Citizens launch 16th International Half-Marathon

For Release Upon Receipt - July 25, 2019

St. Augustine


Head of The UWI Academy of Sport, Professor Emeritus Funso Aiyejina; First Citizens Senior Manager of Communications and Public Relations, Dexter Charles; Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal, The UWI St. Augustine Professor Brian Copeland; Director of The UWI SPEC, Grace JacksonSport Scholarships is the clarion call for runners this year’s UWI SPEC 16th International Half Marathon. Race proceeds will go towards sport scholarships aimed at increasing access to tertiary education for regional athletes. The race which officially launched yesterday, July 25, expects to see some 1,600 runners participating in this year’s race carded for Sunday October 20, 2019. Unlike previous years, the race will now take place the weekend before UWI’s Graduation Ceremonies. First Citizens is once again title sponsor, continuing its now 14-year relationship with the St. Augustine Campus.

Director of The UWI Sport and Physical Education Centre, Grace Jackson announced some interesting elements of this year’s race.  Participants would be given the option to register as part of a relay team and run the half marathon in four 5 Kilometre legs.  The relay option was implemented last year for the first time as an experiment which proved to be a success. “The response last year was so overwhelming we had to put a cap on the amount of relay teams we could have,” Jackson said, “We hope to have at least 100 teams participating.”

Jackson also introduced a new category, corporate relays, where teams from various corporate entities can compete in the relays and in a t-shirt competition. Additionally, Jackson shared plans to use the relay hand off zones as hubs that will facilitate supporters and food sales, engage the surrounding community and generally make the relay more exciting for both participants and onlookers. 

Dexter Charles, Senior Manager of Communications and Public Relations at First Citizens, recalled running the half-marathon in 2017 and, in a symbolic gesture, was the first registered participant for this year’s race.

UWI is now at the forefront of tertiary level sport development, sport academics, and physical education in the Caribbean through its regional Faculty of Sport. This year’s race is the campus’ first since the introduction of new undergraduate programmes in sport – BSc Sport Coaching and the BSc Kinetics under The UWI Faculty of Sport, represented locally as the St. Augustine Academy of Sport. Speaking at the launch both Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal, Professor Brian Copeland and Head of the Academy, Professor Emeritus Funso Aiyejina, underscored that students now have access to the best lecturers and specialists at each of UWI’s four campuses.

In light of this year’s cause, Professor Emeritus Aiyejina also highlighted the holistic development that athletes receive at The UWI. “Raw talent is no longer enough to keep athletes and sport administrators at the top of their game… we are creating a UWI-wide educational environment that acknowledges that the best athletes and the best scholars of sport are those who understand that the future of sport belongs to those whose bodies, minds and souls are calibrated for maximum impact. No athlete wins solely on their own steam,” he said. 

Registration for the UWI SPEC Half-Marathon is open at sta.uwi.edu/spec/marathon. For more information on UWI St. Augustine new sport degree programmes, visit http://uwi.edu/sport/.

End

Notes to Editor

Audio Recording of Launch:

The full audio recording of the event can be accessed here

About The UWI

For over 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and four campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES); the UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. 

As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. Times Higher Education ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018. The UWI was the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists.  For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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