Spaulding celebrate golden double

Spalding High School is delighted with its double success at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Championships last week. According to girls' team coach Megan Wilson-Copeland, the school family is elated after Kimone Campbell and Dwayne Moore anchored their respective 1600-metre medley teams to victory on Saturday inside the National Stadium. Wilson-Copeland said the school is in celebration mode.

With Campbell extending a big lead, Spalding smashed the girls' record in 3 minutes 57.58 seconds. The Wilson-Copeland-coached unit made history by being the first to go under 4 minutes in Girls' Championships history. In the very next race, Moore carried Spalding to the gold medal in the boys' race.

The double win made Spaulding the first team to win both medley relay gold medal since Boys' Championships and Girls' Championships were merged in 1999.

Minutes after a happy session of morning worship at the school, Wilson-Copeland said, "Words cannot explain how kids, teachers, the principal, other staff members of the school feel, they're really excited and they're in a celebration mode at the moment."

She explained why Spalding targeted the medley at the Championships.

NOT SURPRISED

"I knew that I had a small team, a well-rounded but small team, but with the individual events, when I looked at the 800 especially with Kimone Campbell running through the rounds, it's really rough," she related. "So I wanted to take off the pressure off her and instead of getting three or four points from her, I knew I could get 12 points using her on a medley."

Campbell had clocked two minutes 12.20 seconds for fourth place in the Class Two 800 metres at the recent staging of Central Championships. With that in mind, the coach isn't surprised that Campbell controlled the anchor leg. Her split time was 2:13.4.

Wilson-Copeland reported that similar thinking led boys' team coach Milton Sargent to give Moore the responsibility of running the final leg.

Told that Moore, who took third place in last year's Class Two 1500 metres final, covered his leg in 1 minute 53.8 seconds, she had nothing but praise for him.

"He's an excellent athlete, short in stature but big in heart," she chimed. She commended the Spalding quartet for winning against some of the top boys' teams and for doing better than everyone else expected. "I guess this is a surprise for everyone,", she surmised.

Among those following in the footsteps of former Spalding star Simoya Campbell were Gizelle Shaw and Cheriece Cope. Shaw took third place in the Class One 800m and Cope finished second in the Class Three equivalent.