Dyke ready to defend title

Defending champions Edwin Allen will be going for their eighth and seventh straight Girls’ Champs title when the five-day ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships get under way on March 24.

Dyke, the man who led the north Clarendon-based school to all eight titles, was upbeat about his team chances of defending their title when STAR Sports visited the school last week.

“Everything is going well so far. The girls are in high spirits as they anticipate another victory and from what we have seen during the various development meets, they have done very well and they are extremely confident in retaining their title,” he stated.

Last year they were expected to score a big win but had to dig deep to hold off a strong challenge by Hydel High School. Dyke’s charges managed a narrow victory of seven points.

This time around he has not only Hydel to deal with but also a very strong St Jago High team, the four time champions. “It is always a level playing field at the start of the Championships until things start to heat up. We got off to a slow start this season and we have been watching both St Jago and Hydel dominating the various meets but we are where we want to be at this point.

Had some setbacks

Based on preparation we have had some setbacks, for example a lot of rain losing quite a few sessions, but we have made up for those and at the end we should easily defend our title,” he continued.

Over the past few years, Edwin Allen have been very weak in the 400 metres and with a well-rounded St Jago team to make a big challenge, Dyke was asked about the quality of his quarter-milers going into the Championships.” We have seen tremendous improvement in this area. Last year we didn’t score any points in the 400 metres at Central Championships and the ISSA Boys and Girls’ Championships but at the recent concluded Central Championships we had three finalists across the classes and they are steadily improving and will do well at “Champs” and also in the 4x400m relay and this is a big improvement,” he said.

When asked which area was his strongest this year in his bid to win the Championships, his response was.” We have a strong all-round team but I know we are extremely strong in the sprints, middle distance and the jumps and we can hold our own in the throws. Our only concern is in the sprint hurdles events but we do have a few people who will make the finals and give us enough points to assist in the process of us winning the title”, he declared.

It is believed that the defending champions are weak in both Classes Three and Four, but at the recently concluded Central Championships, Dyke’s Class Four relay team pulled off a big win over both Hydel and favourites St Jago and he was very pleased here.” We always had a talented Class Four group of girls but a few of them came with injuries which we try to fix to get them better. Leaving primary school, they would not have been accustomed to a constant training programme and we allowed them to grow into the programme, not rushing them. They are now understanding the whole thing and have been showing tremendous improvement. By the time Champs comes around, they are going to spring some big surprises,” he said.