Holmwood, Calabar and St Jago teams earned first, second and third places, respectively, in the Scotiabank International High School 4×100 Relay Championship at the Toronto International Track and Field Games last Monday.

Holmwood girls finished first in the girls’ race with a time of 46.36 seconds. Calabar and St Jago came second and third in the boys’ race with times of 40.48 and 48 seconds. School officials had praise for their students’ performance.

“They felt very good about their performance. We must commend Scotiabank on the arrangements that were made for the team as well. We are very proud of their performance and hope that this will be the first of many other opportunities to compete at the Toronto Games,” said Paul Bailey, principal of Holmwood.

“The experience was wonderful. They are extremely grateful that Scotiabank took this initiative to afford them such a rich technical and cultural experience. In addition to competing for the first time at the Toronto Games, they also recorded their season’s best time. We are very pleased as well that incorporated within the short stay was a visit to a museum where some of the boys saw dinosaur models for the first time,” said Michael Clarke, coach of the Calabar High School team.

“They did reasonably well considering they didn’t have enough time to go in and acclimatise. We are very grateful for the exposure and that they were fully sponsored for this event. They did themselves, country and school proud at such short notice,” said Sandra Watson, principal of St Jago High School.

Through Scotiabank Bright Future, the bank sponsored 11 track and field teams from high schools in Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago, who made their way to Toronto to compete against other high performing athletes from high schools in Ontario, Canada and Michigan, USA.

“This is a good example of how excellent performance can open doors for young Jamaicans. Our parent company is a sponsor of the Toronto International Track and Field Games and the Scotiabank International High School 4×100 Relay Championship and supported this linkage, which is a great opportunity for our young athletes to gain international exposure. At Scotiabank our focus is on youth development through sports as we believe the same skills set needed on the track are also important in life,” said Monique Todd, Scotiabank’s vice-president of Marketing and Corporate Affairs.

Scotiabank Bright Future is the bank’s global philanthropic programme which brings together all of the bank’s charitable, social and community efforts and employee volunteer activities under one banner. Through the Bright Future programme, the bank’s charitable efforts are aimed at being relevant and responsive to the needs of each community at a grassroots level and provide support across the fields of health, arts, education, social services, sports and the environment.