Back to our bread & butter - KC ready to take back hurdles points

During Kingston College's (KC) six-year title streak at ISSA Boys and Girls' Championship in the 2000s, they used their prowess in the hurdling events to keep their rivals at bay.

In fact, at the 2007 ISSA Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships, KC swept all the hurdling events under the tutelage of Lennox Graham. The coaching staff at the North Street- based school believes that in order to reclaim the Boys Champs title, they need to revert to that method.

As such, they have acquired the services of Rahnsomn Edwards, who coached Jahvel Granville and Vashaun Vascianna to the Class Three and Two sprint hurdles records, respectively, during his stint at St Jago High School, to bring back glory to the hurdles.

"Before I came here, I assessed the overall hurdles programme and I realized that the school scored a single point in the 400m hurdles last year and was not able to win a medal in the sprint hurdles," he said. "I realised that we need to change that so I informed the coaching staff that we needed to use some of our better sprinters and quarter-milers in the events in order for us to do better."

He continued: "To fill the shoes of a Lennox Graham is a huge ask but the aim is to finish in the top three in all the hurdles but the Class Two sprint hurdles."

Edwards' Class Three boys Amontae Wray (13.25) and Rajohn Grey (13.60) are currently ranked first and second in the 100m hurdles and Edwards expects them to score maximum points at Champs.

FRONT-RUNNERS

"They ran their season bests at the Youngster Goldsmith meet when they were under a lot of load, so I expect them to run faster when Champs comes around," Edwards said.

Wayne Pinnock and Akeem Cargill are also the front-runners in the Class One 110m hurdles. Pinnock and Cargill ran their personal bests at the Youngster Goldsmith meet with their 13.46 and 13.48 efforts, respectively.

"When I got here, these athletes were running 13.8 and 13.9, and with the correction of a few flaws we were able to get them down to 13.4," he said. "I expect them to finish third and fourth, and that is only because we have the defending champion in the event."

Calabar High School's DeJour Russell won the event last year in a record time of 13.10 seconds.

Edwards said he is expecting to score over 30 points for the Purples in the hurdling events.