St John’s coach confident ahead of JISA Western Athletics meet

Defending champions St John's Preparatory School and long-time rivals Williams Elite Academy are the big favourites to top this year's Jamaica Independent School Association (JISA) Western Athletics track meet.

The competition, which is set to begin tomorrow at 8 a.m. at the Herbert Morrison Technical High School in Montego Bay, has attracted 25 preparatory and high schools from nine parishes.

Abraham Hughes, coach of the St Ann-based St John's Preparatory, told STAR Sports that he is confident that not only will his athletes provide entertainment to the spectators, but that they will be taking back the trophy to their Shaw Park Road home.

"St John's Preparatory, as always, will be demonstrating our prowess in defence of the trophy. We are quite eager and determined to establish ourselves as true champions in the western region once again," Hughes said. "It may not be an easy task, but we are prepared to fight to the end for what is rightly ours," he noted.

According to Hughes, there is a weakness among the athletes in one of his three classes but he remains optimistic.

"Despite our weakness in a particular class, the guts, determination and efforts that I expect the athletes from the other classes to display will be enough to crown us champions once again. I am 100 per cent confident that St John's athletes will execute well in all disciplines," a confident Hughes said.

Nadine Williams, principal of Williams Elite Academy from St James, welcomes the return of JISA Western Championship, noting that it will help schools operating with limited financial resources to expose the talents they have been developing.

"Our students love track and field, not only to watch the competitions, they are passionate about competing. We are super excited for the return of JISA Western Meet," Williams told STAR Sports, while sharing that her school is among those from western Jamaica who attend the National Prep School Champs every year.

"We must have development meets like this to help our efforts at preparing for National Preparatory Champs," said Williams whose athletes won the preparatory section of the Milo Western Relays 4x100m in February.

The Williams Elite administrator, who has had a long history and love for sports, said her students have been training and are doing well.

"We have been preparing and we have been ready for at least the last two years. And now that we have the competition in our backyard, we are going out there to do our best and, hopefully, to take the championship if the opportunity provides for that," said Williams.

Meanwhile, Bertram Watson, JISA National Sports Coordinator, has promised an exciting and memorable championship.

"You can expect a wonderful display of our talented athletes showcasing what they can do. JISA events are known to be clean and always packed with excitement," Watson said.