Cornwall aiming to do well in field events at Champs

WESTERN BUREAU:

MONTEGO BAY-based high school, Cornwall College, aims to make their presence felt at the ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championship, which starts at the National Stadium today.

Cornwall, despite coming off a second place finish at the recent County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) Western Championships, harbour no hopes of lifting their first Boys' Champs title this year.

“We are not going to Champs to win, we are going there to make our presence felt,” said Cornwall College’s track and field athletics coach, Shawn Rhooms.

“We placed second at Western Champs with a small team as a number of them didn’t take part because of the vaccination,” he added.

Vaccinations and injuries had a telling effect on their team, but even then, Rhooms expects a decent Champs showing.

“We’ve a nice little team overall,” he said.“The work will just get better and better each day.”

They are looking to score most points in field events, with Class One thrower (discus and shot put) Tiojosh Mowatt, triple jumper Kishawn Rhooms, who cleared 13.29 metres at Carifta Trials, Class Two high jumper Amiuki Beckford, and Lansford Cunningham, who cleared 2.01m in the high jump at the season’s first meet at Jamaica College among their main charges.

The coach expects much from his namesake, Kishawn, in the triple jump.

“He jumped 13.29 metres at the Carifta Trials. So I’m looking to see him jump at least 14m at Champs because that (Carifta Trials) was his second attempt at the triple jump. He just started the triple jump in February.”

Along with the jumpers and throwers, Rhooms expects several runners to stake good claims.

“We’re looking to Richardo Thompson (co-captain) in the 400 metres hurdles, Matthew Webster to do well in the 400 metres, along with Mario Birch, a finalist at Champs last year in the Class Three 400m,” he said.

Webster clocked 51.81 to win his heat at the JAAA/Puma Development meet in January, finishing 12th overall on the day.

“Webster just ran 52, he has a slight injury and we’re looking for a good show from the medley team and the Class Two 4x100m,” Rhooms noted, adding that Champs finalist Zachary Cox is also being nursed to contribute for Cornwall this year.

“Zachary Cox didn’t run most of this season because he had a groin injury, and then a shin injury,” Rhooms shared.

What has not helped Cornwall College much is the announcement, almost two weeks ago, that athletes who are not fully vaccinated will be allowed to compete. This is because most of their athletes had pulled out of training long before and would not have had enough time to get their preparation up to speed for Champs.

There was no Champs in 2020 due to the pandemic and at last year’s scaled down version, the Montego Bay-based institution finished 11th with 18.5 points.

Rhooms said they started preparation at the time they usually do and the programme built slowly to attract a large number of athletes. However, he said the numbers started to dwindle with an earlier announcement that athletes had to be fully vaccinated to compete at the meet.

“We were able to get the programme off very early in August, with about 24 athletes, and then in November our numbers grew to about 36, and come January it went up to about 60. And then when the information came about the COVID-19 then it started dwindling, right down to 30-odd,” Rhooms pointed out.

The effects, he continued, were having “a big impact”.

“I was begging some of them to take the vaccine and they still refused,” he noted, relating to the week preceding an announcement by the Government to lift Disaster Risk Management Act which was followed days later by ISSA shedding its rules which blocked athletes who were not fully vaccinated.

Despite the setbacks, Rhooms said they have a very enthusiastic group of athletes and he reckons they will make their presence felt.

“The ones who we have are very enthused,” he said. “The boys who participated last year, they’re looking forward to go again with the same amount of effort as last year.

“It’s what you do on the day, especially in those areas, the jumps and the throws,” Rhooms highlighted. “It’s those who show up on the day and decide to work.”