Twelve-year-old Onanda Lowe knows very little of her father’s exploits on the football field, and by the sounds of things, the precocious teen would prefer to talk about the sport she loves, track and field.

“I know about his football but, I really don’t know all that much, to be honest,” she told the Jamaica Observer yesterday, after being awoken from her nap in the team tent on the Stadium East field.

Onanda is the first daughter for the former Reggae Boyz star Onandi Lowe, who etched his name in the history of Jamaican sports when he was a vital part of the Jamaican team in 1998, qualifying for the FIFA World Cup in France.

She has four older brothers, including Damion, who is part of the present Reggae Boyz set-up, but says she has little contacts with them.

Onanda qualified for today’s Class Four long jump final after jumping 4.89m (0.6m/s) and is part of the school’s Class Four sprint relay team. She says she chose Immaculate Conception, partly because “I know it’s a very good school”.

Prior to Immaculate, Onanda attended Wolmer’s Prep, where her love for track and field was fostered.

“Even though I did not get champion girl or anything, but I did great,” she said of her exploits in prep school.”

Asked if she had tried any other sport, including football, she responded: “No, that is not for me, really… I like track and field (and) I have been doing it as long as I can remember.”

— Paul Reid