THAT picture on the front pages of the two daily newspapers’ Sunday editions will forever capture the essence of Champs 2010.

Wolmerian teammates Messrs Julian Forte and Dwayne Extol looking and reaching for each other in rapture as they approached the finish line in the final of the Class One 200 metres could be construed by some as evidence of arrogance and disrespect for opponents.

Those who know Champs will recognise it for what it was: a celebration of team effort and success in a sport that is essentially about the purest form of individual competition.

Wolmerians should be forgiven if they start believing in fairy tales. For having won the first ever Boys’ Championships back in 1910 and having not won it since 1956 in an increasingly competitive environment, it surely was an unlikely dream to expect to do so in the championships’ centenary year.

That Wolmer’s Boys triumphed in one of the closest of title races in the history of Champs can’t have been pure coincidence. It reflected hard work, planning, team work and talent, and for that they must be hailed.

The girls’ champions, Holmwood Technical High School, are equally deserving of praise for their eighth title in a row.

They were runaway champions last year, but after losing out to Edwin Allen High in the recent championship for central Jamaica high schools, many thought Holmwood’s reign was over. But true champions don’t fall easily. It was close, with gutsy Edwin Allen pushing hard to the wire, but in the end Holmwood had too much class, too much depth, too much experience and too much determination.

Again, ISSA (Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association), the volunteer group of school principals backed by a small, paid technical staff, must be commended for what seems at this juncture to have been a phenomenally successful event. Their contribution to Jamaican sport, not least track athletics, is now the stuff of legend. The fact of the matter is that ISSA has played its part in no small way in the establishment of the Brand Jamaica.

So too has title sponsor GraceKennedy whose support for Champs demonstrates clearly that company’s deep commitment to the development of track and field in Jamaica.

But even as we applaud we must concur with the observations of Sunday Observer columnist Mr Hartley Anderson that ISSA must now leave its “comfort zone” and, by whatever means necessary, seek to exploit the commercial benefits from global television, etc.

Of course, there has to be balance. For Champs is, after all, a school activity. It can’t only be about winning or about profit. Crucially, it seems to this newspaper, Champs — like all other sporting activities in which schools are involved — must be about inculcating among the young the value of honour and fair play in competition.

And in every case, the health and well-being of the young athletes should be paramount.

The latter point is of grave concern. We note the expressed alarm by sports medicine expert Dr Winston Dawes on the second day of Champs regarding the high number of athletes that had apparently entered competition carrying injuries — most notably related to the hamstring.

Dr Dawes was quoted by this newspaper thus: “The unfortunate thing is that some of them (athletes) came to Champs with injuries, which, knowing the kind of pressure they would be under, it was advisable for them not to run …They have a bright future ahead of them, and trying to force them through with a hamstring injury that is not fully healed is dangerous.”

After Champs last year we had reason in this space to speak out about the obvious overwork of Mr Ramone McKenzie on the final day of competition. Again, at the just concluded championships, there is evidence that some athletes were asked to do more than they should have. The Wolmerian hero, Mr Extol, is among those athletes.

It seems to us that ISSA should take another look at these issues relating to health and overwork. The well-being and health of the athletes must be made to take priority over all other interests.