This year’s USATF Grand Prix will be the culmination of a weekend of athletic prowess in Bermuda.

The event, which will feature reigning 200 metres world champion Noah Lyles and Bermuda’s Olympic hopefuls Jah-Nhai Perinchief and Dage Minors, will take place on April 28, with the Athene Fastest Kid on the Rock taking place on the Friday and the Convex End-to-End moved to April 27.

The USATF Grand Prix will be shown in prime time by NBC, and for Olympian Hazel Clark, director of global sales and business at the Bermuda Tourism Authority, the ability for local student-athletes to witness some of the world’s greatest athletes could change lives.

“For me as a young girl coming up, exposure was my biggest point of inspiration,” Clark said.

“When I think of our athletes here on island, the opportunity to have them mingle with and have Olympians coach them in the clinic, and have the Athene Fastest Kid on the Rock Celebration, all of that is so key to their development.

“This is the type of thing that even if they don’t become Olympians they will never forget. This exposure will really get their minds thinking about the possibilities of just seeing greatness.

“Our grassroots development events will provide the exposure to excellence that serves as a foundation of greatness to our children. A welcome addition to the event will be the first-ever Special Olympics exhibition, which provides opportunities for inspirational athletes with intellectual disabilities to remind us there is no limit to greatness.

“This represents the best Bermuda has to offer.”

According to official figures, the USATF Grand Prix provided $972,000 of earned media value to Bermuda, but Owen Darrell, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, believes the island benefits greatly from coverage of the event.

“The fact that NBC is putting this on in primetime spot is just huge value for Bermuda,” Darrell said.

“Anybody watching will not just see the runners on the track but the camera crews that come beforehand and take pictures of the beautiful scenery, that gets shown around the world.

“Some of the values that we get, such as the exposure to Bermuda, goes far and beyond what you can actually capture. I’m happy that this is an event that the BTA saw fit to continue and we see more and more events like this get worldwide exposure for Bermuda.”