Defending champions Donald Quarrie High successfully defended its title, emerging overall champions of the MultiCare Track & Field Championships for the second year running, at the 18th annual staging of the meet at the G C Foster College a week ago.

The East Kingston School amassed 174 points and edged out Greater Portmore High, which finished with 173 points. Windward Road Primary took third place with 144 points and Haile Selassie High finished fourth with 98 points.

Greater Portmore High topped the male division with 108 points and picked up another 65 points in the female category. Windward Road Primary led in the female division with 86 points and collected 58 points in the male events. Donald Quarrie High dominated the second place spot in both categories with the male team earning 91 points to the females 83. Windward Road Primary and Greater Portmore High were third in the male and female categories, respectively.

The meet was the culmination of months of training by the over 450 young athletes from among the 31 MultiCare-assisted schools in East, West and Central Kingston and Greater Portmore, who competed in sprint, middle-distance and relay events, in four classes — 10-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18 and an open category.

This annual athletics championships, organised in association with the National Health Fund, is part of the MultiCare Foundation’s sports programme, which seeks to inculcate in the youngsters, positive values, the lifelong adoption of a healthy lifestyle and the building of confidence and self-esteem.

Endowed by Lime Jamaica, ICD Group Limited and Caribbean Cement Company Limited, the MultiCare Foundation adopts a holistic approach to child development and uses Sports and the Arts as catalysts to promote a culture of peaceful coexistence, tolerance and understanding among young people from diverse communities, and the reinforcement of the MultiCare fundamentals of love and respect for self and others.