St Elizabeth dethrone St Andrew to win JTA/Sagicor Champs

KINGSTON:

The final day of the JTA/Sagicor National Athletics Championships came to a nail-biting end on Saturday, June 10, at the National Stadium as St Elizabeth dethroned three-time consecutive champions St Andrew to win their fourth overall title.

St Elizabeth, who started day two on 48 points, ended the meet with 268 points, 21 ahead of St Andrew, who finished second with 247. In third place were Manchester with 235, and rounding out the top five were St Catherine in fourth with 195 and Kingston with 173.

Sports coordinator for St Elizabeth, Andre James, said that assessing the team’s weak points and creating a plan to improve worked in their favour and brought them the win.

“Before the start of the meet, we had high expectations because we devised a plan to improve our weak areas, and so we were confident we would have came out victorious. Our weak areas were the field events and we dominated those on day one, which gave us a big lead. It’s a wonderful feeling to walk away as champions,” he shared.

Outstanding performances

The meet saw numerous outstanding performances which resulted in three champion girls and three champion boys, who all ended their campaign with 18 points. The female standouts were Kingston’s Sunjai Kirkpatrick, St Elizabeth’s Reneka Reid and Westmoreland’s Natovia Asha Robinson. The top boys were St. Elizabeth’s Shaquawn Reid and Obrian Clarke as well as Jevaughney Findlay of St Catherine.

Rejeanne Campbell, manager – group corporate communications, Sagicor Group Jamaica, conveyed Sagicor’s continued commitment of supporting the championship.

“The Sagicor Foundation’s support of this championship over the years is one that we are proud of. As we always say – it all starts here. The next generation of athletes have given us two days of amazing track and field performances, and we look forward to seeing many of them dominate the sport at the international level years from now,” she expressed.

The much-anticipated sprint relay finals saw St Andrew dominating with a win in the boys’ under-11 and a sweep in the under-13 category. St Thomas won the boys’ sprint medley open, while St Elizabeth won Final A of the girls’ equivalent, with Final B going to St Andrew.

This year’s staging of the meet was also sponsored by the JTA Co-operative Credit Union, Seprod, Catherine’s Peak, National Baking Company and TIP Friendly Societies.