Excelsior’s Love targets Champs record
Published:Sunday | February 7, 2016 | 12:00 AMShayne Fairman
Excelsior High School's girls' team captain, Shanice Love, showed off her good form at the Digicel/PUMA Youngster Goldsmith Classic held last Saturday inside the National Stadium.
Competing in her backyard, the 18-year-old threw a meet record 51.92 metres to win the girls Class One discus.
She came into the showpiece in good form and improved on the 49.49 metres - which had also been good for gold - at the Queens/Grace Jackson meet a week earlier inside the National Stadium.
Love, no doubt, will give some inspiration to her Excelsior charges ahead of next month's ISSA-GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships at the same venue, just a stone's throw from their Mountain-View-based school.
"I feel good to get the meet record, it's the start of the season so this is a good start. I have to lead from the front as captain and set the example and be a role model to my younger teammates," the Excelsior 'Lady Eagles' captain shared with The Gleaner, following her win on Saturday.
This year, the discus Class One girls Championships record of 51.32 metres will no doubt be under threat from Love, who will be hoping to finish her Girls' Champs career in fine style.
"My coach has been working closely with me throughout the season and it has been great so far. I will go for Champs gold and the record and also to push my personal best to its furthest," she outlined.
"I want to set the record so that it can stand for years and years to come," she continued, adding that she will then move on to tertiary studies.
Love is also a big academic winner, having copped the Scotiabank-sponsored Howard Aris Scholarship, awarded to the Jamaican student-athlete with the top grade point average at the JAAA's annual Golden Cleats Awards, recently. The value is $250,000.
She finished second at Champs last year behind Hydel High's Shadae Lawrence, who took gold in 48.66m. Love's 48.01m seems now a distant stepping stone, as she seeks to round off her final year in style, with the World Juniors also on the agenda.