Boys Champs going down to the wire
A battle royal is set to get underway when the final day of the Inter Secondary Schools Boys and Girls Championships gets underway inside the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica on Saturday afternoon.
While Edwin All seems to be on the way to confirming pundits’ predictions that they will defend the girls title successfully, a different scenario is being played out in the boys’ section.
In the weeks leading up to the championships Kingston College were installed as odds on favorites to dethrone five-time defending champions Calabar, but when the points were tallied at the close of the penultimate day, only seven points separated to the perennial rivals. Kingston College were ahead with 139 points, with a resolute Calabar lurking on 132.
After 18 finals. The top five are completed by Jamaica College (JC) on third with 98 points ahead of St Jago High on 69, and St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) on 40 points.
The top 10 is rounded out by Wolmer’s Boys on 37, Petersfield High with 31, Rusea’s High on 16, Munro College on 15, and Green Island High with 14 points.
There are nervous moments in the KC camp as their top sprinter Jhevaughn Matherson is out injured, after false starting in the finals of the 100 meters Class One. They will have to pull out all the stops to fend off Calabar on the final day.
A mouth-watering finale awaits with the momentum clearly in favour of the Michael Clarke-led five-time defending champions.
The highlight of day was the Class two 1,500 meters in which Ugandan national, Aryamanya Rodgers, was expected to be a shoe in for KC, but Calabar’s Kevroy Venson and Kimar Farquharson had other ideas.
The pair came with a solid race plan and executed it brilliantly. They raced in front like scared hares for the first 600 meters and drew Ridgers with them. Midway the race the pair eased up on the throttle and Rodgers took over the lead to the cheers of the frenetic purple and white-clad KC supporters, but Venson was not done and joined the Ugandan teenager at the top of the stretch before motoring past him to win comfortably in a record time of 3:55.3. Farquharson was third in 4:00.13.
