Coach Francis hails UTech teams

Champions University of Technology (UTech) are still celebrating following their double success at the recent NCB Intercollegiate Track and Field Championships where they unseated G.C. Foster College and captured both the men's and women's titles.

The female team ended the two-day championships with 222 points, 14 more than defending champions G.C. Foster. In the male section, UTech scored 211, well ahead of G.C. Foster's 184.

UTech's Simoya Campbell and Elaine Thompson also walked away with individual awards as Campbell scored the most points while Thompson had the most outstanding performance of the meet. Campbell won the 800 metres in a record 2:05.91, the 1500m in 4:44.40, and the 3000m in 10:42.08.

Thompson clocked a sizzling 11.10 seconds in winning the 100 metres to break Sherone Simpson's 10-year-old mark of 11.33.

UTech's coach Paul Francis said they had hoped for the double success and worked hard for it.

good teams

"We had two very good teams, also, G.C. Foster College had good teams and the University of the West Indies had a good male team, and we are just happy that it went our way," Francis said.

He was, however, unwilling to make any predictions on performances at future championships.

"Sport is unpredictable. UTech and all other universities competing at these championships understand the necessity of having good student athletes. All athletes must be students and, as long as they maintain the grade requirements and perform well in their training, we (UTech) will continue to have good teams in the next couple of years, but I cannot predict the future," Francis added.

Francis was impressed with his team's overall performance.

"UTech team has stars galore," he said.

"We saw our team captain, Janieve Russell, running close to a world-leading time in the 400 metres hurdles and she had two brilliant relay legs. We have Simoya Campbell winning three events, Elaine Thompson doing tremendous in the 100 metres. We had a great team effort as both males and females stepped up and did a wonderful job," Francis said.