EXCITING FINISH : Calabar Lions nab KC for 6th straight Champs win by 3 Points....XLCR Lady Eagles Attain FULL100 Goal to Finish 6th Place

Defending champions Calabar High School won a nail-biting and heart-stopping 107th ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships by three points over pre-event favourite Kingston College (KC) at the National Stadium last night.

KC went into the last race, the 4x400-metre relays on 309 points, holding a four-point advantage over Calabar and needed to finish at least second to become champions. However, Calabar showed what champions are made of and sped away to victory in a very fast 3:08.76 minutes for 12 invaluable points.

2017 Boys Champ, Calabar High

KC could not reproduce their best form from early in the season and was a distant fifth in 3:13.56 minutes for five points, which were inadequate to hold off the marauding champions. St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) finished second in 3:09.97 minutes ahead of St Jago High in 3:11.00. Jamaica College (JC) were fourth with 3:11.77 minutes..

So after 42 finals, Calabar tallied 317 points to KC’s 314, with JC third on 203. St Jago High were fourth with 157 points, with STETHS completing the top five on 114.5 points. The top 10 was rounded out by Wolmer’s Boys’ School on 77 points ahead of Petersfield High with 71. Munro College finished eighth on 52, with Rusea’s High next with 40. Edwin Allen boys followed on 32 points.

This was a sweet victory for Calabar, who for the first time in many years started as the underdogs, but showed their true championship mettle to secure their sixth-consecutive victory and their 27th lien on the prestigious Mortimer Geddes trophy.

An emotional Omar Hawes, one of Calabar High School’s assistant coaches, reflected on yesterday’s unlikely victory.

“This is sweeter than life itself. But it was a very interesting fight, very interesting contest between our rivals. I can’t say that I have ever had a challenge this great over the years, so it was pretty special.

“Congrats to the KC team for giving us such a fight, and it has now re-energised the team to do better in terms of injury management. We didn’t do well enough this year, but I think we came in at 80 per cent. But, generally speaking, this one is super special.”

The Michael Clarke-coached green and black boys from Red Hills Road are just four titles behind KC’s 31 as the most successful school in the 107-year staging of the event first held in 1910. more