The monument to honour the legacy of the great Jamaican sprinter and Olympian, Herbert McKenley, OM, OJ, CD, will be unveiled at the National Stadium tomorrow.

Prime Minister Golding will officially unveil the McKenley monument tomorrow in the presence of the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and his wife, Salma Kikwete.

Sports Minister Olivia Grange, whose ministry led the arrangements for the commissioning of the statue, was at the stadium to observe the installation of the statue following its arrival in the island last Thursday.

"I'm really happy that everything is now in place and the statue has been completed," said Grange. "It has been mounted and it's ready for unveiling. This has been a journey, a short journey, I would say, although it seems like it took forever because there were some challenges."

Tremendous job

The minister also commended sculptor Basil Watson. The McKenley statue will be the third of Watson's works on show at Independence Park, others being the Merlene Ottey statue and 'The Netballer'.

"Basil Watson has done a tremendous job in recreating this image of Herb McKenley, and I look forward to the unveiling on the 25th by the prime minister," said Grange.

"I really feel honoured to be the person at the centre of all of this, to ensure that it happens, and I really want to thank everybody who has put time and effort and money into this effort."

Watson said the McKenley statue was a special project.

"It's an honour to be given the privilege of doing a monument to Herb. That's what was special to me and what was motivating and provided a lot of the energy and the enthusiasm for the project."

Watson said he viewed several images of McKenley to inspire his design of the monument that bridges the gap between the older, more popular image of McKenley and that of his younger, more athletic days.

"Herb was known way into his later years, and the more youthful Herb was not remembered as vividly," explained Watson. "So it was a challenge to get the kind of Herb that we know now and the Herb when he was as an athlete running. So it's a mature, but still young athlete."

The statue was funded by the Sports Development Foundation and the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education fund, while the Urban Development Foundation was responsible for mounting the statue.