Western champs defended title for late coach, Eldemire Smith

Western Bureau:

MIXED EMOTIONS flooded the St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) camp after defending both the boys and girls County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) Western Athletics Championships title in honour of late coach Eldimire Smith at home on Saturday.

“It’s mixed emotions for us. This is our first championship without him. He would have been celebrating with us. Today, we came out with the intention to do it for him, and that’s what we did winning both titles,” said Marvin James, head coach of STETHS.

He was most impressed with the distance athletes who performed even in tears. After each race, they ran over to the mural of Smith at the finish line.

“With every run, they would go over to the picture of him and cry openly. It’s really a sad thing,” James added.

Captain of STETHS female team, Habiba Harris, who led from the front amassing the most points for her team to defend their title, said she was even more motivated to do it for her late coach.

Harris broke the Class Two 100-metre hurdles record, clocking 13.52 seconds to erase the 13.73 set by Alexis James of Petersfield. She also won relay golds in the 4x100m and the 4x400m, as well as a silver in the 200m.

“It’s a very overwhelming feeling. We are so happy because we came out here with one goal in mind and that was to bring home the title for our late coach. This entire West Champs was dedicated to him,” said Harris.

“He definitely was a big motivator for me. It drove me a lot,” she added.

Arguably the most outstanding performer of the championship was Munro College’s young thrower Javontae Smith, who broke his second record of the championship with the Class Three discus. He broke the 49.22 metres set in 2018 by Altwayne Bedward on multiple occasions during his set, with his final attempt of 54.69 being his furthest. Four of his five throws were over the previous record. Bedward’s first record came in the shot put, where he launched the implement out to 16.41 metres on Wednesday at Herbert Morrison Technical High School.

Another record-breaking performance on the day came from Mount Alvernia High School’s Aaliyah Foster in the Class One long jump, her 6.19 metres, erasing Jodian Stewart of STETHS’ 5.88m, set in 2020.