Champion schools Holmwood Technical and Calabar High celebrate together on Saturday night on the playing field in front of the grandstand at the National Stadium after wrapping up victory at the GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships. - photo by Anthony Foster
Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer
Calabar High and Holmwood Technical are still celebrating their success from the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships, which ended at the National Stadium on Saturday night. And two of the happiest coaches are Michael Clarke, who led Calabar to their first title in 10 years, and Maurice Wilson who was guiding Holmwood to their fifth straight.
Despite the points margin, Calabar, who won by 73.5 points ahead of second-place and dethroned champions Kingston College (KC), and Holmwood over 100 points ahead of Vere Technical, both were quick to point out that it was not easy.
Wilson described it as a "great Championships."
He added: "It wasn't as easy as the points indicated. The first two days were actually difficult days because anything could have happened, but we didn't become too complacent and that made a difference."
PREPARATION
"Whole heap a work, whole heap a work," was how Clarke described Calabar's preparation, "Give thanks we came through."
Calabar took the Championship title with 273.5 points, ahead of KC (200), Jamaica College (161), Wolmer's (137.5), and St. Jago (120). Herbert Morrison (64), St. George's College (51.5), Munro College (45), Camperdown (41), and Bridgeport (30) complete the boys top 10.
In the girls section, Holmwood topped the field with 353.5 points, ahead of Vere (232), Manchester (226), Edwin Allen (217), and St. Jago (168.5). St. Andrew (91.5), Immaculate (77.5), Wolmer's (71), STETHS (42.5) and Alpha (42.5) complete the top 10.
Ramone McKenzie was the star of Calabar's first victory in a decade. He won the Class Two 200m (20.89) and 400m (47.24), both record times.
While Clarke described the Championships as "very exciting, high quality," he said the highlight for him was the overall performance of his Red Hills Road-based school.
He noted: "We saw a number of records going that we could consider world-class at the junior level and probably bordering at the senior level," he said.
One of the most impressive performances could be that of KC's Kerion Stewart who lowered his national 110m hurdles record from 13.69 seconds in the heats, to 13.53 in the final. He also won the 400m hurdles in 51.42 seconds.
Blair hurled
On the girls side, Holmwood's Taneisha Blair hurled the javelin 47.85 metres, also for a new national junior record, but this and Salcia Slack's performance in winning two individual gold medals were singled out by Wilson as the highlight for the Christiana-based school.
"Those performances really stood out for me," he said.
He, however, believes his programme is now benefitting big time in the field events. Slack won the Class Two long jump with a record leap 6.11m, discus (36.87), heptathlon and finished second in the triple jump.
Deborah Rose won the shot put open with a record throw of 12.57m, while Osheen Erskine won the Class Four long jump (5.44m).
"We have really broadened the whole scope of the programme in terms of the field events, which gave us some cushion ... but overall it was a very interesting and exciting Championships, not withstanding the amount of points we won by."
Wilson, who thanked his support staff of assistant coaches Dave Anderson, Patrick Johnson and Kirk Brown, along with Lascelles Harvey and Chester McCarthy from the managerial point, said his only disappointment was in the sprint relays.
"We would have wanted to be more dominant in terms of the relays since that is my area of specialisation. But when you are involved in a Championships, it's all about points, the quality of the performances matters yes, but accumulation of points matters even more."
Looking to next year, Clarke said: "A good percentage of our Class One team is going, but we have good replacements," said the man who has also won Champs as coach at St. Jago and Jamaica College.
Never be relaxed
The former Calabar student added: "With KC you can never be relaxed. They are a powerful, never-say-die-team, so you have keep them on the run and always look out for them."
Holmwood, with Keno Heaven, Schillonie Calvert, Bobby-Gaye Wilkins and Anastasia Le-Roy, and St. Jago with Nickel Ashmeade, Rykert Hylton, Andre Wise, and Yohan Blake, closed the Championships with mile relays victories - 3:38.49 and 3:09.51 (record) respectively.
The Holmwood trio of Bobby-Gaye Wilkins (One), Slack (Two) and Janeive Russell (Four), along with Herbert Morrison's Antonique Campbell (Three) were the Class champions.
Wolmer's Julian Reid (One), Calabar's McKenzie (Two) and JC's Waqar DaCosta (Three) took the boys champion athlete titles.
