RBSC

**Sir X** · April 9, 2009, 08:22 AM

Kingston College: Victory #31
Threepeat denied!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009
In a thrilling last race-decider, Kingston College defeated Calabar High in the boys' section of the 99th staging of the GraceKennedy Boys' and Girls' Championships, by one and a half points.
From left to right: Delano Williams, Rolando 'Midnight Express' Reid, Adam 'Sunshine Express' Cummings and Patrick Campbell of Munro College after they collected the Class Two 4x100m gold medal at the National Stadium last Saturday.
As usual, we were spot on as the girls from Holmwood surprised even themselves with their points total - almost doubling the second-placed Vere Technical.
Going into Girls' Champs for the first time without any big names, Holmwood, though expecting to regain their title, were not looking to win by any huge margin. So the 184-point victory over their nearest rival came as a surprise.
Bridgeport High's 16-year-old sensation, Jazeel Murphy questions the field after winning the Class Two 200m and completing the sprint double. Trailing is Delano Williams of Munro College. (Photos: Bryan Cummings)
With all-round performances from their girls in each class, Holmwood steadily took over the lead from first-day leaders St Hugh's High and simply never looked back. Indeed, as the Championships rolled on, Holmwood displayed the dominance they have possessed over the years and proved that they are here to stay as a Champs powerhouse.
Possessing an understanding that seemingly surpasses their years of experience and existence, Coach Maurice Wilson's young charges in Classes Three and Four stepped up to the plate and made their presence felt.
Class Four 100 metres champion Dianna Johnson, Class Three 100 metres champion Osheen Erskine and Class Three jumps queen Janeive Russell are a few names that Holmwood will be hoping stick around for some time as they showed up big time last week.
Another name that the entire nation hopes will stick around is Holmwood's Chris-Ann Gordon. This 14-year-old dynamo clocked the fastest 400-metre time of the meet (for girls) when she won the Class Three event in 52.68 seconds. She returned later in the day on Saturday to take the 800 metres and complete her double. As if that was not enough, this future star returned for the night's last event - the 4x400 metres final - to hold off the likes of Jura Levy and Natoya Goule. Collecting the baton in first place, Gordon brushed off the challenges from the advancing pair of Goule and Levy and won going away. What makes it even more impressive is that this girl last year won the Class Four 100/200-metre double. Holmwood ended the Championships on 378.5 points with Vere second on 194.5 and Edwin Allen third on 191.
Kingston College's captian Kieron Stewart eases to the line as he wins the Class One 110m hurdles to lead the North Street charge on the final day of Champs.
Other points of note at Girls' Champs were Carrie Russell cementing this as her comeback year with a win over challengers Jura Levy and Gayon Evans in the Class One 100 metres, Nikita Tracy of Edwin Allen leading her sister Ristanna home for the first ever family quinella at Girls Champs in the 400 metres hurdles and St Hugh's High making the top 10 solely from their dominance in the throws with all 43 of their points coming from that route.
And the boys
In the boys' section, there was a lot of excitement as well. Some of it was caused by Dexter Lee's 100-metre victory. Some of it by Jazeel Murphy's sprint double-winning performance. Some were also caused by K'don Samuels of Jamaica College breaking the pole vault record. Even more excitement was caused by the double record breaking performance of Bellefield's middle distance guru Kemoy Campbell (by the way, Campbell's 5,000-metre victory, which took 12 seconds off the previous record was highlighted by him lapping 13 of his 15 competitors. The other two competitors were caught at the line and if he had five more metres, they would have been lapped as well).
But where 90 per cent of the eyes were focused on for boys' Champs was the battle between defending champions Calabar High and there arch-rivals Kingston College.
Bellefield High's Kemoy Campbell on his way to erasing the 17-year-old Championship record in the 5,000m.
The omens started to show up indicating we were in for a thrill from Wednesday afternoon. After the only final for the day, pre-Champs favourite Calabar's Marlon Thompson failed to make the final (giving them no points on the first day), KC's two athletes overperforming and ending the day with their school in second. After day two the men from North Street were in the lead and Calabar was beginning to move up finishing in third spot. On Friday disaster struck for Calabar as their top 100 metre sprinter Oshane Bailey fell coming out of the blocks in the Class One 100 metres final. Because he did not finish the race his team received no points for that event. This came on the back of a superb quinella for Kingston College as Kieron Stewart and Andre Peart, their captain and vice-captain respectively, ran home for their third consecutive one-two in the 400-metre hurdles.
On the final day with Kingston College 29 points ahead of Calabar and both teams being strongly represented in the finals on the day it was anybody's trophy. The Kingston College camp was sombre early on as news began to surface of a number of injuries to key athletes, Class Two sprinter Jovon Brown was out for the remainder of the Champs before day four even kicked off. Soon they were to lose Akino Ming, a key member of their crack 4x400 squad and a sure point provider in the 200 and 400 metres.
After the hurdles, Calabar lost Warren Weir and KC saw a glimmer of hope. That glimmer seemed to have been rubbed out when Fortis captain and talisman Kieron Stewart limped home in the Class One 200 metres.
Manchester High's Nataya Goule wins the Class One 800m over Holmwood Technical's, Keno Heaven, to complete the double after easily capturing the 1,500m title earlier on.
Already winning both hurdles, Stewart was looking to garner some extra points in the 200 when he pulled up coming off the curve. Instead of stopping, Stewart valiantly fought on to collect one point for his school for finishing in eighth place.
After that the writing was on the wall as the fans of the North Street-based school believed the title was theirs.
Strong performances from Class Three jumps champ Clive Pullen, Stewart and Peart took KC to a four and a half-point lead over a marauding Calabar High going into the final event. With Wier out for Calabar and Stewart and Ming out for Kingston College both pre-event favourites had to send out weakened teams.
With both teams knowing what they had to do (Calabar had to beat KC by five clear points) as they stepped onto the track.
St Jago won that event and STETHS placed second, the defending champions, Calabar, were third. It didn't matter, however, as placing fifth Kingston College garnered enough points to stave off the Red Hills Road boys' charge. With a final score of 223.5 to 222, Kingston College took the trophy back from Calabar high (who took it from them in 2007) and denied them a threepeat.
We told you that this year would be one to remember and TEENage has been with you every step. We want to say thanks for being with us throughout our Champs coverage and ask you to remember that here Every TEEN Mattters!

**Sir X** · April 9, 2009, 08:23 AM

Baddaz yuh affi read dis...lol

Lessons from 'Champs'

Published: Tuesday | April 7, 2009

Kingston athletes celebrating their 31st victory after the 99th staging of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/Grace-Kennedy Boys and Girls Athletic Championships at the National Stadium on Saturday, April 4. - Anthony Minott/

The Editor, Sir:
If you, like me, never went to Kingston College (KC) it is hard to love them and their fixation on 'Fortis'. But you have to respect whatever it is that makes grown men agonise over a 4.5-point lead and erupt in uncontrolled glee when 1.5 of those points remain at the end of the last event of a schoolboy track and field championships. Such was the euphoria shown by the KC faithful as they bear-hugged, hit high fives and simply basked in the victory that was Champs 2009.
Championships 2009 was, in many ways, a metaphor of life itself. In four days away from the stricture and formality of the classroom, there were many lessons for the who participated. Lessons in executing after months of preparation, lessons of magnanimity in victory (some have not learnt), lessons in dealing with disappointments, lessons in respecting other competitors and officials, lessons about getting up dusting yourself off and going again - lessons in life.
Special moment
There was Foga Road High School, the quintessence of an unknown entity winning their first gold medal after all of two years in existence. Amidst the rivalry at the top, this new school from central Jamaica basked in their special moment. One should be mindful that, despite what else is happening around you, keep your head and focus on your prize and do not become distracted by the din and dance of others.
Of , there will be conflicting views on how it was won. As I passed one of our Beijing medalists who was one her way to the restroom, she was clearly upset about the idea of sending a heavily bandaged athlete to participate in the finals of a 200m race. But for the KC faithful, that was the true "Fortis-never-say-die spirit". As the youngster jogged through the last stages of said race some decried the cruelty; they lamented long-term damage and waxed about the welfare of the lad. But the men (and boys) in purple simply outlined that is how Champs is won and spoke of "Bally Reid" and his heroic run over a similar distance many moons ago.
Rescue attempt
The antithesis of that will make the Calabar supporters uncomfortable. When their athlete fell at the start of a 100m final, he got up and walked away from the fray, all the fight, like the wind, seemingly knocked out of him. At that moment, he never appreciated the need to jog to the line and get that one point. Yet the final race saw a huge effort by one of Calabar's champions trying to rescue what was already lost.
In many ways, schoolboy track and field is a of our socio-economic dichotomy. The haves and the have-nots. Some schools have tremendous school pride born, for the most part, from outstanding achievements. Other schools lack that kind of confidence by virtue of not having similar achievement. And, like the socio-economic set-up, the haves control the 'means of production', the haves are in the position of power and the haves tend to 'attract' to similar positions of power only their kind.
But lest we descend into bashing those who achieve, let us for a moment, as bitter as it is for some, be inspired by their achievement, learn from how they organise themselves, learn how they build on their success and use each one to inform the next.
I am, etc.,
PAUL F. BROWN
Linstead P.O.
St Catherine

**Sir X** · April 9, 2009, 08:25 AM

Champs fever and social skills

Published: Thursday | April 9, 2009

Keith Noel, Contributor

NOEL
The week before Easter is always 'Champs' time. Young people (and the not-so-young) pour into the National Stadium over a four-day period to watch hundreds of young athletes pit their skills against each other - all for the glory of their and for personal feelings of well-being.

The atmosphere in the stadium on the Saturday evening is always electric. There is always an intense battle for supremacy between the top boys' schools and the cheers often reach to thunder pitch.

Marvellous clashes
But of interest to all is the head-to-head competition in individual races. Some are still spoken of today: the clash between Bert Cameron of St Jago and Ian Stapleton of Kingston (KC); between Usain Bolt and Jermaine Gonzales.

KC supporters still speak of the exploits of Lennox Miller to Davian Clarke; Calabar enthusiasts of those from Denis Johnson to young Ramon McKenzie. The St Jago faithful of Bert Cameron to Yohan Blake; Camperdown from Donald Quarrie to Remaldo Rose; Jamaica College from Peter Morgan to Waquar DaCosta.

And there are the marvellous girls. Vere Technical's stream of greats starting with Merlene Ottey and continuing with Olympic medallist Deon Hemmings and now the exciting Jura Levy. Then St Jago High with Juliet Campbell and continuing to Melaine Walker.

It is an exhilarating time. We exult in the performance of these athletes who, after long months of disciplined and rigorous training, turn up for this four-day festival of physical and psychological brilliance. In them we see examples of what our youth can do.

But the vast majority of our youth do not have the talent or the mental toughness that is needed to perform well at Champs. What they do is those who represent them.

Glory of supporters
And here's the rub. We do not understand the importance of this.
After his or her family, and the community, the next most important membership group to which a child belongs is the school.

When children are members of dysfunctional families, live in violence-torn, don-ruled communities, it is at school that they build and learn the social skills to carry them through life. Remember, a child with a positive self-concept is more likely to become a productive adult.

When a school produces a good team, its achievements are those of the entire school. The youngsters share vicariously in its success.
The joy, the pride, is theirs. Even when it is an individual's success, they share in the achievement of their classmate or schoolmate.

This feeling of well-being, though temporary, is of importance to the child and infinitely more important to those children who belong to families and communities of which they cannot be proud.

COMBATING THE NEGATIVE
Champs fever is something that can be used to positive ends. In my own experience as a teacher at Camperdown, vice-principal at Calabar and principal at St Jago, I have seen this euphoria used to improve the attitudes of not only the athletes, but of other students who are caught up in the joy.

It provides an opportunity which must be clutched with both hands and acted upon vigorously, or we run the risk of it becoming a negative.
We have seen this negative at work. In recent years students, influenced by 'the culture of the don' and all that this stands for, have twisted this school loyalty into an opportunity to play out their feelings of anger and aggression by openly clashing with boys from competing schools.

Thousands (literally) of students from these schools involve themselves in a campaign to prevent this violence but the scores of youngsters who, twisted by the realities of their lives and fuelled by the words of some DJs, continue to perpetrate this antisocial behaviour.

This tends to make the headlines, but I am confident that our educators will control this so that we can exult in yet another area where our youth do us proud.

Keith Noel is a retired educator. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.

**Sir X** · April 9, 2009, 08:39 AM

Xcellent 2 commentaries above !

**Baddaz** · April 9, 2009, 01:28 PM