THE first ever ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ Champs 2000-metres steeplechase Open champion will be crowned just around 8:50 pm tonight after the final on the third day of the championships.

Several dozen track fans stayed on Wednesday night, most out of curiosity, to witness the event that started just after 9:30 pm — 11 hours after the start of the four-day championships.

Two St Jago High athletes, Sanje Pantry and Webster Chung, are the leading contenders to create history after having the best times posted on the two occasions the events has been contested at this level since it was introduced this season.

Chung won the event at the UWI Classic on March 5 with what is the de facto National Junior record of 6 minutes 18.24 seconds, with Pantry second in 6:23.61.

Pantry was the fastest in Wednesday evening’s preliminaries with 6:27.89 to establish the new Champs record, while Chung clocked 6:33.24, followed by two Jamaica College athletes in Lee, 6:31.27, and Bejaun Jones, 6:37.58.

Thirty-two of the 40 athletes entered completed the course and the top 12 will be going after the medals tonight.

Four new events were added to the Boys’ and Girls’ Champs schedule this year — two steeplechase events, one for each sex; the boys’ javelin, as well as the decathlon Open for boys.