HIGH school track and field kingpins Holmwood Technical and St Jago High have found themselves having to reconfigure their teams and adjust their plans after several members of their teams were denied US visas to travel to Philadelphia, USA, for next week's Pennsylvania Relay Carnival.

St Jago's principal Sandra Watson told the Observer that eight of 15 team members had their visa applications turned down, while Holmwood's vice-principal Edward Hector said of three boys who applied, only one was accepted and the school was not yet certain as to the position regarding another six applicants.

However, Watson told the Observer that after checks made through various channels, she had learnt that the United States council was more stringent about issuing visas to students who are 18 and have never travelled, or much younger students who had also never travelled.

"All the students who did not travel before were turned down, but all those who got through went with us before," Watson said.

Five of the eight students were girls and Watson said it meant the school would have to reconfigure their relay teams that will be participating in events at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field next week.

Students from a number of other schools including Munro College, Camperdown, Edwin Allen and Vere Technical have been visiting the Liguanea-based United States Embassy this week to complete the visa-application process for the annual Penn Relays.