Edwin Allen High are confident they will repeat as champions for the first time in the history of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ & Girls’ Championships which gets underway today at the National Stadium and runs through to Saturday night.

Michael Dyke, the Edwin Allen head coach, is confident his team will win back-to-back titles after winning in 2012 and again last year. “This is the most balanced team we have had in a long time and we will score points just about everywhere,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Last year, Edwin Allen amassed 337.5 points to hold off St Jago High with 263, surprise package Hydel with 229 and then champions Holmwood Technical, who were a disappointing fourth with 211.5 points, the lowest finish in over a decade.

Ninety-three girls’ teams and 104 boys’ teams, a total of 197 teams, will capture the attention of the track and field world for the next five days as they seek supremacy of Jamaican high school track and field.

The number of girls’ teams taking part are down from the 116 that took part last year and there will be one newcomer, American International School-Kingston, while six others who did not take part last year will return — Ewarton High, Fair Prospect, Greater Portmore, Innswood, Winston Jones and York Castle.

Just 39 schools managed to score at least a point last year.

No final is scheduled for today’s opening day but there will be preliminaries in all four sprint hurdles, three 400m events, high jump Class One, shot put Class Two, long jump Class Two and the discus throw Class One.

Dyke told the Observer that they were aiming at 350 points this year. “This would be the safe number we are looking at based on what we have seen from the girls coming into Champs.”

If anything, Dyke said the girls were “performing better than expected and they are ready to defend their title”.

Among those whom he said he expects to lead the charge are seniors Saqukine Cameron in the Class One sprints, Rochelle Frazier in the throws, Shellece Clarke in Class Two sprints, as well as the Class Four sprinters Kevona Davis and Shanique Rowe.

St Jago’s Keilando Goubourne said his plans are to better their points total from last year. “We are aiming at staying in the top two,” he said. “That means we have to score more points than we did last year,” but he added, “Champs is filled with thrills and spills and we don’t want to make any predictions but we are working hard.”

Goubourne said their strong areas are the sprints, hurdles, relays and the horizontal jumps.

Last year Hydel High led for the first three days before being overhauled, but had their best showing in the short time they had been taking part in the championships.

That performance, head coach Corey Bennett told the Observer yesterday, has put pressure on the team to make a run for the top three, but he said injuries, especially to his Class Four athletes, have caused them to lower their expectations.

“Realistically we are hoping for a top-five finish,” he said. “It will be difficult to repeat what we did last year, we overachieved and this has put some pressure on the girls this year, as people are expecting us to be back where we were.”

Notwithstanding this, Bennett said his young wards will be giving of their best. “I just want them to go out there and compete and enjoy themselves,” he said.

Not so long ago, the day before Champs would find the mighty Holmwood machine revving its engines for another run at the championships. After last year’s ‘failure’, however, the sights are lowered somewhat and head coach Kirk Brown said the aim “is to get back in the top three”. Brown, who took over last year from Maurice Wilson, who built Holmwood Technical girls into a dynasty, winning nine straight titles and 10 in 11 years, said this year “we are in rebuilding mode and the team is young and inexperienced, but they are coming out to prove a point”.

Brown said, “The team is healthy, we have no serious injury worries and the girls are ready to go. Our chances of a high finish will depend on what we are able to do over the next week.”

He expects the main points to come from the middle and long distance areas, and said the sprinters will also make their presence felt.

Brown, however, admitted that if there is an area where they are not expecting to do well it was in the field events, especially the throws.