The organisers of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association’s (ISSA) Boys’ and Girls’ Championships have opted to retain the ranking system that was used last year for athletes to qualify for the five-day championships set for early April 2022.

More athletes will get the opportunity to compete at the showpiece event, however, as the organisers have doubled the number of athletes who will be able to qualify over last year.

Champs 2022 is set for April 5-9, earlier than the late April date this year, but still later than the traditional early to mid-March dates prior to the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic that has upset the calendar.

The announcements were made at a recent virtual meeting of the high school track and field coaches as the planning for the track and field season continued.

Last year when the event was held after a one-year break due to the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, a ranking system was introduced where a set number of athletes would be able to qualify from the various qualifying meets that were organised by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA).

Additionally, athletes would also be able to qualify for Champs by winning their events at the four regional championships — Western, Central, Eastern and Corporate Area Championships.

Given the pandemic had still posed a serious threat then as now, there was a proposal that all track meets had to follow certain proposals and all fell under the auspices of the JAAA.

At the meeting held in early December, Anthony Davis, meet director, explained the reason for expanding the ranking system. “Based on what happened last year we were given the opportunity to fine-tune our operations, we got an opportunity to make some adjustments and the situation of the ranking system will again be retained.”

He added, “We examined the advantages and disadvantages of it and we came up with the numbers which will ensure that no school is placed at any significant disadvantage.”

Previously, all schools were able to enter a maximum of two athletes in each event, providing they made the qualifying marks, but the ISSA officials argued that the ranking system, that has a cut off point, allowed for a more streamlined organisation of the championships and its live broadcast.

Davis said the actual schedule of the events would not be confirmed until closer to the event and would also depend on the Government curfews at the time, if there were any.

At the next Champs, 64 athletes would qualify for the sprint events, 100m to 400m and Davis said, “we have doubled the numbers from 32 last year”.

Forty-eight boys would qualify in each of the three 800m events, Classes one to three; 30 would qualify in the 1,500m/5,000m and the 2,000m/3,000m steeple chase, while 30 would also advance in the throwing events — shot put, discus and javelin.