SPOTLIGHT ON CHAMPS

The five-day ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships begins at the National Stadium and the excitement should be high today and over the next four days as the island’s top teams seek glory at the world’s leading high school track and field meet.

Cancelled two years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic and held in front of empty stands last year, the meet will welcome back spectators this year following the lifting of restrictions under the Disaster Risk Management Act by the Government. As many as 20,000 spectators, 16,500 in the bleachers and 3,500 in the grandstand, can be accommodated each day.

While certain restrictions have been lifted, president of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association, Keith Wellington, says they will keep certain protocols in place as they wanted spectators to return in a safe environment.

“Specifically, we will continue to encourage the various methods of sanitisation of equipment and individuals, handwashing, mask wearing, and physical distancing where possible,” said Wellington during the March 21 media launch of the championships at the National Stadium.

After several months of intense build-up, defending girls’ champions Edwin Allen High School and 2019 boys’ winners Kingston College will start as hot favourites to lift the main titles on Saturday night. Both teams have displayed better all-round depth than their opponents leading up to the championships and the head coaches are very confident of victory.

“Kingston College’s preparation has been good. The pandemic did not affect us that much and the boys are very excited and raring to go as we expect to do well and, hopefully, at the end of the meet, we are able to win,” said Leaford Grant, the head coach at Kingston College who are seeking their 33rd title.

CONFIDENT TEAM

The Michael Dyke-coached Edwin Allen are seeking to make it eight girls’ titles in a row and nine overall and the head coach is extremely confident of going all the way.

“We do have a fairly young team but one with a lot of experience. The girls are very confident of victory and they do feed off competition and will continue to improve as the meet goes on and will be able to stand up to any challenge. They have been prepared for any situation and I am very confident that they are ready to lift the title once again,”’ said Dyke.

No finals will be contested on today’s opening day where action will get under way at 9 a.m with the preliminary round of the 2000 metres steeplechase open for boys. Overall there will be some 30 events over two sessions on the opening day with seven in the field and 23 on the track.

Today’s preliminary round will include the 100 metres which for the first time will be contested on the opening day. In a big change to the usual schedule, the 100m finals will be contested on the second day of competition. This could attract the largest ever Wednesday crowd at these championships. In the recent past, the 100m finals were run on the fourth day of the meet.

Undoubtedly, the Class One girls’ and boys’ 100m are the most eagerly awaited events at the championships. The finals are slated for five minutes apart tomorrow with the girls to take the track at 7:45 p.m and the boys at 7:50 p.m.

A lot of interest will surround the female event as fans expect a sub-11 seconds clocking. The red-hot Brianna Lyston of Hydel High Schools will battle Edwin Allen’s twin sisters, Tina and Tia, in a mega mouth-watering clash.

Lyston, who dominated the wins five years ago as a 12-year-old in Class Four while competing for St Jago High registered world age group records in both the 100 and 200 metres, was hit by injuries as the twins went on to dominate in Class Three and Class Two.

Now at Hydel, Lyston is back to her best and is the hottest young female sprinter locally with personal best times of 11.14 and 22.66 seconds over the 100 and 200 metres, respectively, this season. Tina is the World Athletics Under-20 champion with a personal best of 11.09 and a season’s best 11.39. Sister Tia has a season’s and personal best of 11.41.