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Joyful celebrations for KC’s 34th Champs’ title
April 04, 2023
It was an outpouring of emotions as the throng of jubilant Kingston College (KC) supporters converged on the North Street campus yesterday to celebrate their 34th hold on the prestigious Mortimer Geddes Trophy, earned by being crowned boys' champion of the annual ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships (Champs).
The title, according to several, was inevitable as they had sized-up Jamaica College (JC), their main opponents' capabilities, before the start of Champs and had found them short of the points they had predicted KC to score, which meant that Saturday's final day success was not surprising to them.
Principal Dave Myrie argued that they had dismissed analysts' predictions that Champs would have been close, which he believes added to their determination to retain the title.
"It wasn't anything personal going into the championships, but we were looking at all of what the analysts were saying about how KC were going to lose, or we were just going to win by two points and all of that, and we were here, in KC, just shaking our heads and laughing.
"Never bet against KC because, when it comes to championships, we are going to dig deep, we are going to fight as our motto states 'the brave may fall but never yield'. When we get on the field of play, we go out there to win," Myrie stated.
Myrie and the other KC predictors were right, as KC ended on Saturday with 366 points, well ahead of JC's 299. Calabar with 207, St Jago with 118.5 and St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) with 116 completed the top five.
Coach Leaford Grant claims that despite the challenges, he was pleased with the efforts of his boys.
"We couldn't have asked for anything more. It was a challenging year for us, but we managed to persevere. What we try to do every year is, we put together a team that we know can score more than 300 points. We are happy that this year we made fewer mistakes, and some of the youngsters who we didn't expect to, stepped up and really made us proud," Grant said.
Class One boys' 1500 metres and 2000 metres steeplechase gold medallist Ainsley Campbell, who also captains the distance team was also elated.
"It's a great feeling to be part of this team, as words can't explain what I'm going through right now because I know where I'm coming from and all I had to do to reach where I'm right now. At Champs by Wednesday, heading into Thursday, we knew we already had the championship in the bag," Campbell said.
