MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The long-debated and muchanticipated new class for male athletes competing at the annual ISSA National Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships has been shot down by the ISSA executive.

It was expected that ISSA, the organisers of high school sports in the island, would have added a Class Four for boys, bringing them in line with the girls, who presently compete in four age classifications, one more than the boys.

Among the arguments proffered by those in favour of the move was that the younger boys coming into high school were forced to miss a season, unlike their female counterparts, after competing at the primary/prep level.

Keith Wellington, vice-president of ISSA, however, told the Jamaica Observer recently that after doing “background checks” and extensive discussion they came to a decision “taken that at this time we would not be creating an additional class for the boys”.

One of the main reasons for ISSA rejecting the move, Wellington said, was that most schools would not be able to field full teams in Class Four and “traditional Kingston schools would have an advantage”.

Wellington said, “It is felt that based on the number of students that get into high schools, particularly the boys qualifying for what would be the new Class Four, we did not think that the spread would have been enough to have sufficient schools to be able to field a full class four team, some schools would have an advantage.”

Asked directly which region or schools would benefit the most, the ISSA executive said, “It would be the traditional boys’ schools in Kingston, so the Calabar, Wolmer’s Boys, JC, KC and St George’s College would benefit most.”

He said that ISSA also felt that the boys who fell into the Class Four age group were not being told they can’t participate. “The issue of creating an additional class for boys at Champs was discussed at an executive meeting and a decision was taken that at this time we would not be creating an additional class for the boys,” he said.

“Based on background checks on what would be the benefits, the point was taken that as it is now boys aged 12 and 13 are allowed to compete, no one has stopped them from competing and they are allowed to compete with restrictions to protect them.”