It was an exhilarating weekend for the participants in the Inter-secondary schoolboys track and field athletic championship. Both urban and rural schools displayed their best talents breaking and setting records. Kingston College came out on top for the 14th time.

Sunday Gleaner March 23, 1975

KC beat the odds for 14th straight win

Sunday Gleaner Sports Reporter

Defending champions Kingston College in a never-say-die performance dispelled all doubts about their athletic depth and won the 65th running of the Inter-secondary schoolboys track and field athletic championship for a record 14 successive years at the National Stadium yesterday.

They took up the lead from Friday and kept in front all of yesterday in what was a historical championship, with two schools gaining over 100 points.

Despite losing two of their best athletes – Maurice Beecher and Ronald Gray – they won several events in which they were given no chance.

If KC could have managed a performance of this magnitude after such a setback, it shows that in their weakness, they showed strength.

The hero of their 21st win since 1911 was Class I sprinter Bally Reid, a fighting athlete indeed who confounded the critics who questioned the authenticity of his record-shattering 10.4 for the 100 metres on Friday and won the event convincingly yesterday in 10.7 seconds. He returned to take the double, winning the 200 metres in 21.9. His archrival Everod Samuels, of St Andrew Technical, around whom a straight fight was built with Reid, languished in fifth in the 100 and a paltry third in the 200 metres.

Reid, who pulled a leg muscle about 50 metres from the tape in the 200, slowed from a split second but kept his lead, winning in a manner uncharacteristic of a man who had just pulled a muscle.

Improvement

As the championship drew nearer to the end and it was obvious that KC was winning again, their fans beating drums, blowing horns, and tossing papers, celebrated in the grandstand.

The expected threat from Camperdown to dethrone them did not materialise, and it was Calabar who became dangerous in the latter part of the evening. Their 102 points make them the only school outside of KC to have topped the hundred mark. Their improvement was distinctly remarkable as they disposed of Camperdown for the second position.

Five records were removed from the book yesterday, which brought the total to 13, with one equalled. St George’s retained the fourth-place position in the process smashed the medley relay in 3:35. 1 seconds.

Clarendon College removed Munro as the rural champions and captured the Harsham Trophy with 42 points. They gave Calabar a hard fight in the 4×400 metres relay to finish second. Camperdown, in a late burst, took two of the three sprint relays, setting a record in Class I, while KC took Class II, also in a record time.

Cornwall’s Barrington Campbell won the gruelling 3,000 metres from a “multitude of 48 runners” from favourite Michael Feurtado of St Jago in a record 8:59.8 seconds. Another to be lowered was the Class 1 high jump, which Owen Cunningham of Vere won with 6ft 6ins.

Final points standing were:

KC - 117; Calabar - 102; Camperdown - 90; St George’s - 64½; XLCR - 45; Clarendon - 42; Munro - 35; Wolmer’s - 34; STATHS - 33,;St Jago - 30; Vere - 25; Titchfield and Tivoli Gardens - 19 each; Manning’s  -17; Cornwall and Ferncourt - 13; Morant Bay - 10 ½; St Catherine - 7½; Frankfield - 7; St Mary - 7, Dinthill - 6; Meadowbrook, STETHS, and Trench Town - 5 each; JC, Knox, and KTHS - 3 each.

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