ROAD TO CHAMPS | #CHAMPS22 Camperdown moving again

Camperdown High School has made a brilliant contribution to Jamaica’s international standing in track and field. According to head coach Okeile Stewart, work is under way to reignite the Camperdown flame, and early signs could spark at the 2022 ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships, starting on April 5.

The school’s top athletes are Class One 400 metres hurdler Roshawn Clarke, throwing twins Brittania and Brittanie Johnson, and Class Two thrower Victoria Christie.

Clarke is a 2019 Carifta Under-17 champion and now, at 49.85 seconds, is the fourth-fastest Jamaican junior in the event in history. Stewart coaches him now, but is grateful to the team of coaches who helped to nurture the lanky hurdler and who work side by side with him to rebuild the Camperdown programme.

DEVELOPMENT

“His development was not just about me. There is Mr (Everton) Birthwright, who started with the basic hurdles at Camperdown, the one who would go through the rudiments and so forth. When they reach a particular point, then they’ll come over to me. And, you know, there are other coaches, like Adrian Pitter, Dave McPherson, Wayne Stewart. They have also been helping with the development, and those are some of the things I believe that has helped to guide his projection right now as to what he’s trying to achieve, in addition to his mother and father,” he said, with unstinting praise for his coaching team.

The twins went one-two at the recent Carifta Trials in the under-20 shot put, and Brittania is a medal contender in the Class One discus. Stewart attributes their progress and that of Christie to the hard work of his namesake.

“Wayne Stewart, he has been doing extremely well with the twins, along with Victoria Christie, who is in Class Two, and is doing extremely well for herself as well. So pretty much, it’s a rounded team going forward.”

Britannia stands at number three on the 2022 Jamaica under-20 performance list at 48.65 metres, behind Abigail Martin of St Jago at 50.01m and Cedricka Williams of Holmwood Technical, who is the world number one at this early stage in the outdoor season with a throw of 53.91m.

There was a recent hint that Camperdown’s honoured role as a producer of international sprinters may soon be revived. “Athletes like to be part of a rich culture, and Camperdown who had a rich culture as the ‘sprint factory’. We have lost that in recent years and we’re trying to see if we can get back to that level,” he said. “We now have a cadre of sprinters. I believe, as a team, we’ll do well. In a long while we haven’t gone ‘40 point’ in the 4x100m. At the Corporate Area Championships, I don’t think anyone was even looking forward to see us in Class One at 40.99 seconds, and I believe the team is able to do a lot better,” he promised.