Thousands of Persons Take Part in Jill Stewart Mobay City Run

Thousands of participants turned out on Sunday (May 5) to support the eighth staging of the Jill Stewart MoBay City Run.

From as early as 5:00 a.m. persons began descending on the Jimmy Cliff Boulevard (formerly the Hip Strip) to take up starting positions at the Old Hospital Park.

Closed off to vehicular traffic, the route, which took participants from the Park all the way down Howard Cooke Boulevard and back, saw persons from a wide cross section of society, including local celebrities and government officials, partaking in either the 5K Walk, 5k Run or 10K Run.

An elated Sandals Resorts International and Appliance Traders Group Executive Chairman, Adam Stewart, in whose late wife Jill’s honour the event has been rebranded, said it was bigger than anyone could have anticipated and was happy “to be a part of it”.

“My wife was a racing enthusiast who ran the 10k and would have been out here running if she was with us today. The people turned out in huge numbers in her honour and I have to give a big shoutout to the event’s organiser, Janet Silvera and her team, for putting on quite a show for Montego Bay and, by extension, Jamaica,” he told JIS News.

Mr. Stewart, who is also Chairman of the Tourism Linkages Council, and one of four Ambassadors/Special Investment Envoys appointed by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, to drive innovation, investment, and economic growth for Jamaica, said he was particularly impressed with the level of camaraderie between local and overseas participants, noting that the event could now be seen as a major boost for health tourism.

“This has the potential to be even bigger and better,” he said, adding that he had personally received a lot of overseas enquiries regarding the event.

“We are just happy to be a part of it, watching people happy and excited and seeing the support from the people of St. James and adjoining communities,” Mr. Stewart added.

Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Richard Vernon, said while he expected the event to have a very good turnout, he never expected to see so many people.

“The organisers must be commended for putting systems in place to deal with this kind of turnout… and without any known incident or glitches.

This is impressive, and the St. James Municipality is very happy to play our part,” he noted.

For his part, recently promoted Commander of the St. James Police Division, Acting Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Eron Samuels, said the police, too, were impressed with the seamlessness that accompanied the event and that it was a very good look for the tourism capital Montego Bay.

Race Director, Janet Silvera, said the event attracted more than twice the number of participants anticipated.

“We have gone above, maybe 100 per cent over the numbers we anticipated,” she noted.

She said that the adoption of Jill Stewart’s name would have contributed to the huge increase, describing the late businesswoman and fitness guru as a “phenomenal person who was well loved”.

The MoBay City Run, which leading up to this year’s event had raised nearly $30 million to support needy students from mostly western Jamaica with scholarships, is Ms. Silvera’s brainchild.

“We have not yet crunched the numbers, but from the look of things I would say we should reach our $7-million target for this year,” she added.