STETHS looking to move up the order

After narrowly finishing in the top five in last season’s ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) by half a point, Reynaldo Walcott, head coach of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), said his boy’s team will not be taking anything for granted this year.

STETHS, who for the first time scored over 400 points to capture the Western Championships Boys’ title earlier this season, once again will be carrying the flag for the western region, and the boys from Santa Cruz are confident of holding on to his top-five spot. But Walcott believes his team can go one better this year.

STETHS tallied 95 points last year and was some distance off fourth-placed St Jago with 146, and just ahead of Wolmer’s Boys’ School, who scored 94.5.

“You don’t want to take anything for granted. We came fifth last year and the year before, so we definitely want to maintain that. We also do have our eyes set on moving forward for fourth place and we know it is easier said than done but we know a bit about hard work,” Walcott said.

With improvement in the field events, Walcott remains confident despite having a few areas to improve before the championships the starts in just over a week.

IMPROVING IN THE FIELD

“Most of our strength is on the track, but the throws have improved tremendously, so have the jumps. The majority of the points should still come from the track, but we should definitely get some assistance from the field events this year. I’m confident of that,” Walcott said.

“I wouldn’t want to project my own feelings on to the team, but I would want to say that the challenge areas are where we haven’t scored yet, like pole vault, and have been able to hammer down those high jump points yet. Those are areas we are working on and looking to improve, but otherwise, we are somewhat of an all-around team that tends to score in all the other events.

“Even within the team, there is always a big competition as to which group will score the most points. Sometimes the distance athletes will say they are the points bearers, and the sprinters will say they run things, so they have their own competition that sort of fuel the performance.”