Old boys' club ruins Champs coverage

Sherine Williams & Renée Dillion, Guest columnists

If the Jamaican media were the only outlets that we used to get information about the ISSA Boys and Girls' Championships, we would be led to believe that the event was the ISSA BOYS' Championships!

Once again, the Jamaican media have outdone themselves by presenting biased and unbalanced coverage of a phenomenon (Champs) which, by its very nature, makes it easy for them to do otherwise (it is the Boys and Girls' Championships, after all).

Whatever happened to those lovely stories about Edwin Allen who won their second Girls' Champs title despite their long Champs history? We have not been hearing much about this historic win on the radio, watching enough on television, or reading enough about these champions in the Jamaican dailies.

top schools overshadowed

Is this because these stories are being overshadowed by those schools that placed first, second, third, fourth and even fifth in the Boys' Championships? We think so.

We believe, the fact that these girls have won Champs for the second time, after so many years of brilliance, is a much bigger story than Calabar High School winning Boys' Champs for the umpteenth time.

Whatever happened to stories about rising stars like Hydel High - mere toddlers who catapulted their way into third place, slaying giants like Vere Technical and Holmwood Technical High convincingly? We believe that this is a bigger story than the undying rivalry between Kingston College and Calabar.

Oh, how we long to see headlines like: 'Higher heights for Salmon', the 14-year-old from Hydel who leaped her way to a record-breaking 1.78m in the Class Three high jump. Doesn't she demand the same amount of attention given to Christoffe Bryan from Wolmer's Boys, who showed impressive form in the boys' high jump at Champs?

Oh how we long for stories about those like the great Edwin Allen star, Christania Williams, who, though she didn't break a record, won the girls'100m event in 11.19 seconds, the second fastest time ever in the history of Girls Champs. Her performance is record enough for feature stories like the ones written and told about Javon 'Donkey Man' Francis, Michael O'Hara, and Jaheel Hyde.

Where were the media when Peta-Gaye Williams defeated the World Junior record holder, Yanique Thompson, in the Class One 100m hurdles event - with a fractured wrist! Isn't that impressive enough for a feature story?

Because of the media's poor performance at Champs, we give them not only a failing grade for this assignment, but we are left to ponder a few things:

Are journalists and media practitioners focusing almost solely on Boys' Champs because most of them are men? Or is it because they are associated with boys' schools who dominate at Champs yearly? There is still a place for objectivity, balance and fairness in journalism.

'country' girls being left out?

We wonder if the girls are being left out because most of the schools that perform well at Girls' Champs are not in the Corporate Area and are, therefore, too far away for the media to get a hold of. Social media is the solution if it is too hard a task to drive all the way down to Frankfield or Vere in Clarendon, or all the way down to Ferry in St Catherine.

We take nothing away from the boys who reminded us that there are many more Bolts where Usain came from. We only want a little light to be shed on the ladies who reminded us that there are many more Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryces and Kimberley Williamses in the making. They deserve more of the spotlight.

Sherine Williams and Renée Dillion are third-year journalism students. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com,sherwill18@gmail.com and dillyyes90@yahoo.com.