After spending 10 years in the wilderness Kingston College (KC), under guidance of Leaford Grant, ruthlessly snatched the Mortimer Geddes Trophy from the grasp of their main rivals Calabar High on Saturday.

In what was a most comprehensive performance, especially on the final day of the five-day ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, KC rattled off win after win to streak away to an 82.5-point victory.

Grant, who was still caught up in the emotion of the moment more than an hour after the final race, said he needed time to process what had really happened over the five days.

“I can’t express how overwhelmed I am at this moment. First, I am going to drink a beer and settle in, have a little time with the family, and probably tomorrow (Sunday) it might resonate that we are really champions. God is good,” he said with a smile.

There were a number of KC wins that would have caught both experts and fans by surprise, and while Grant himself was surprised by some of his athletes, other were not shockers.

“Some of them (performances) were expected, but we didn’t want to beat our chest. In training we would have seen Jaquan (Coke) was doing the work, we knew what he could have done — it was just a matter of planning for the opponent,” he revealed.

But is wasn’t the big points from which the coach got the most delight, it was the small, unexpected ones that helped to ensure that the “Purples” won with a record total of 395.5 points.

“Some which delight me the most was little Darnell Edwards, that little one who came in sixth (in the Class Three Boys’ 1500m final) that gave us two additional points. Normally, at Championships you always look for those one and those two points (when) the boys lift themselves. During the whole season you don’t see them, then at Champs they just lift themselves. Those are the ones, to me, that are the most pleasurable,” he explained.

Some of his senior boys also performed outside of their normal selves at Champs. Nemoy Cockett and Anthony Smith finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the shot put to garner six unexpected points for their school.

“In terms of the throws, the shot put Class One, our two boys made the final. For the entire season they showed no promise but when the (other) boys lift, during championships those performances also lift and I was surprised. We had two boys in the shot put final and those boys told me that they were going to get to the finals and score, and those were some uplifting moments.”

Grant, a KC Old Boy, is not getting carried away after his first win at the helm, and has promised to take it one season at a time in the pursuit of more Champs glory.

“My strategy for now is to look at each year as it goes by and then to strategise for that year. I don’t want to go out on a limb and say what will happen next year. Normally what we do these days is study our opponents, see what they have to offer, and then we strategise around that.”

There were two key areas that he pointed to which resulted in the win that has eluded very good KC teams in recent years.

“The coaches have more autonomy to plan their programme and in terms of championships we try not to burden the youngsters with doing several events. We try to get as big a team as possible and I just guide all the programmes and ensure that everybody is doing well,” he explained.

KC have now won the Mortimer Geddes Trophy 32 times, four more than their main rivals Calabar, who had won the trophy for the last seven years.