Calabar and Edwin Allen High have retained their respective ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships titles. The five-day event at the National Stadium in Kingston ended on Saturday with Calabar again holding onto the Mortimer Geddes Trophy, for the seventh year.
The boys were runaway winners, scoring 368.5 points, with Kingston College 278 and Jamaica College 224.5, closing out the top three.
On the girls’ side, Edwin Allen scored 326 points to take their fifth consecutive title and sixth overall, with Holmwood Technical 287 and Hydel 277 closing out the top three.
Twenty records broken
The five-day event ended with over 20 records being broken.
Among the record breakers on the final day were Edwin Allen’s Kevona Davis who smashed the Class Two girls 200m record for the second time at the meet, clocking a national youth record of 22.72 seconds to complete the sprint double.
Calabar’s Dejour Russell broke his own record in the Class One boys’ 110m hurdles, returning a personal best 13.10 seconds to retain the gold medal.
Disappointing moments
There were also disappointment moments as both Calabar and Hydel HS who won the boys’ and girls’ 4x400m relays were subsequently disqualified.
Calabar was disqualified for using Class 2 400m silver medalist Evaldo Whitehorn on their mile relay team as he was ineligible based on ISSA Rule 5B which only allows a class 2 male athlete to contest two individual races and a relay or two relays and one individual race.
Hydel was disqualified after one of their outgoing runners moved out of the position in which she was placed by a track official to receive the baton.
Sports minister “very impressed”
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Minister of Sport, Olivia “Babsy” Grange has congratulated the winners of the annual ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships.
Grange said she was “very impressed with the performances of the student athletes, especially those who set new records over the five days of competition.”
The Minister also congratulated “The coaches, organizers and all those who played a role in the successful execution of the Championships. The future of Jamaica’s athletics looks bright and is in very good hands,” said Grange.
