Grammar School once again champs of secondary schools’ athletics

The St Vincent Grammar School, for the umpteenth time, were champs of the male segment of the showpiece of the schools’ sports programme – the National Lotteries Authority Inter-secondary Schools Athletics Championships.

Tallying 302 points, the all-male institution outdid all competitors last Thursday at {{more}}the Arnos Vale Playing Field, to retain the title, making it five straight, since bowing to the Thomas Saunders Secondary School in 2011.

Rawlson Morgan, who has been the Grammar School’s athletics head coach for the last 15 championships also savoured his 13th title.

Morgan, who prior to last Thursday’s finale had expressed optimism to SEARCHLIGHT about retaining the title, reasserted, “The Grammar School knows how to win, but this puts a lot of pressure on us.”

He noted that it was a case of the technical team going to work and analyzing the results from the heats and putting the necessary systems in place to ensure victory on the day.

“After looking at the heats, if they were to have gone the same way, we would have won by six points, but that did not factor in the high jump, in which we placed first and second – Intermediate and first for the Seniors, the margin widened … We told the athletes that if they go in position number, make sure that they finished in anything above seven,” Morgan said.

He also agreed that the field events were what tipped the scale over their main rivals this year – the St Martin’s Secondary School.

“Added, this year was one of the years that we had more athletes in the track events and that contributed to the overall performance of the team,” Morgan concluded.

The Grammar School, on the day, muted pre-event favourites, the St Martin’s Secondary, who finished second with 261 points and the Bethel High School, another third on 186 points.

Completing the top five were the Central Leeward Secondary in fourth place on 134 points and the Thomas Saunders Secondary in fifth place on 129.

Twenty-one schools contested for honours in the Male Division of the championships.(RT)