IT has been 40 years since Excelsior High School (XLCR) last won the ISSA Girls' Athletics Championships, and by all indications, the Mountain View-based school does not appear set to do so anytime soon.
However, the school will be lifted by the legacy Dr Andrea Bruce and her generation left behind.
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| Dr Bruce remembers Champs experience as fun |
Her singular effort of three gold medals helped to inspire the school to their fourth consecutive title in 1973.
Dr Bruce, now a family physician at the Covington County Hospital in Mississippi, USA, won the Class One high jump with a record 5ft, 6 3/4 inches and the long jump also in a record 18ft, 8 3/4 inches. She then completed her triple gold performance by winning the Class One 100m hurdles in 15.4 seconds.
Those performances propelled XLCR to a record 141 points, well ahead of second-placed St Hilda's High with 62.5 and Mannings third with 56 points.
That same year, she was later named Jamaica's Sports Woman of the Year, as she did again in 1975.
"At the time we didn't really prepare. We just went out on talent. You run around for a couple of weeks and you said, Champs coming up. There was no real preparation in there. Most of the time we performed on talent, sheer talent. We were just talented," Dr Bruce told the Jamaica Observer via telephone from Mississippi.
"We didn't have hurdles. We didn't have high jump pits. We just went out on talent," she reiterated. more
Remember the old Long Jum pit back of the Track at XLCR....Had to be careful to not twist your ankles during practice.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Old High Jump Bag Andrea taught me the Fosbury Flop on was not too soft a landing. But we made do with what we had.
Yes Carl, I sure remember that. I also remember you as a good athlete at XLCR. Bless.
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