OVER 1,000 athletes from 22 schools competing in 80 events will be on show at this year’s JPS/JNBS Eastern Secondary School Sports Association Athletics Championships set for February 15-16 at the National Stadium.

The Championships, for schools in the parishes of St Thomas, Portland, St Mary, as well as sections of St Andrew and St Catherine, was launched at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston yesterday.

This year will again feature the Boys and Girls 1500m Classes 1 to 3, all timed finals.

“In keeping with the health aspect of managing an athlete, we thought it best to have the 1500m as timed finals putting the top athletes together in order to ensure that the best are acknowledged at the awards ceremony,” meet director Garth Gayle told the Observer.

The line-up of events also includes the Boys and Girls 400m Classes One to Three; Boys and Girls 800m Classes One to Three; Girls and Boys 1600m Sprint Medley Open; Boys 5000m Open; Girls shot put Open; Boys long jump Classes One to Three, and Girls javelin Throw Open.

The ESSSA Championships saw the emergence of such local talents as former World Junior Champion Nikole Mitchell and Olympic Games silver medallist Juliet Cuthbert.

Only four schools — Morant Bay, St Jago, Oberlin, and Yallahs — have won the main Championships title since its inception in 1985. Oberlin are the defending champions.

— D Bogle