Green and Black, Purple and White , Maroon and Gold - among many others - were the colours that covered the Jamaican National Stadium from March 13 - 15 at the staging of the 99th annual ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls championships.
The track and field meet, which is one of the biggest High school events in Jamaica was highly supported and successful. The mighty Lions Defending Champions, Calabar High and Holmwood Technical High retained their titles after the three day championship.
Among the boys, the battle for school boy supremacy was fierce as Calabar had to put up a fight with Kingston College to retain their title but Calabar managed to keep their lead for the entire competition warding off the Kingston College athletes.
The track meet highlighted the talent of the youth of our country as they performed at world class levels. This year was no different as the athletes shattered many records, making it clear that no records are sacred at “champs”. The young sprinters performed exceptionally.
Munro College’s Adam Cumming finished the class three boys 100m in 10.91 seconds from 10.99 seconds set in 2003. Vere Technical’s Juna Levy broke the class two girl’s 100 m events running a time of 11.46 seconds, four hundredth of a second better than the previous record of 11.50.
The athletes in the field events performed at world standards as well as Micara Vassel broke the shot put record by 0.23m moving it from 12.80m to 12.57m. The high Jump record of 11.74 was equaled by Wolmer’s Shanice Hall and Peta-gay Reid of St. Elizabeth Technical high school.
The most exciting part of the Boys and Girls champs are always the relays and this year was no different. After a sizzling run of 39.78 seconds in the Class One boys sprint relay, St. Jago failed to finish in the finals of the boy 4 by 100m due to baton problems on the third leg.
The Calabar team took advantage of this mishap and finished first at 40.28 seconds ahead of Camperdown 40.59 seconds and Herbert Morrison 40.79 seconds. St. Jago however came back and redeemed themselves in the 4X400 relays as they breezed past all the competitors to win the event in a time of 3:11.86.
It was clear that Holmwood would have retained their title even before the final day of the championship as they completely blew away the competition and dominated the events. This was the sixth time that Holmwood has won the coveted championship title.
The top five teams (girls) of the championship were Holmwood with 321 points, Vere 196.5, Edwin Allen 184, Manchester High school 141 and St. Jago 120.5. The top five boys team were Calabar High School, Kingston College, St. Jago, Jamaica College and Wolmers High school.
This is the 21st time that the young men from Calabar High school are holding the title. Preparations have already started for the 100th staging of the ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Championships in 2009.
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hey wart up i saw u guys run it was fun