Love of sport and commitment to school have combined over the last century and more to make the GraceKennedy-sponsored annual high schools’ athletics championships the most anticipated event for countless Jamaicans.

It’s worth remembering that up to the late 1990s the high school championships were separated by gender, as Boys’ Champs and Girls’ Champs. The Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), organisers of high school sports, then combined both to create the irresistible spectacle we have today.

After cancellation in 2020 because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, last year’s staging without spectators but with strict adherence to expensive safety protocols for athletes, coaches, support staff — required under the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) — was extremely challenging. There must have been great relief for organisers following last month’s withdrawal of the DRMA, which surely made it easier to execute Champs 2022, which ends today, after five days of competition at the National Stadium.

It should be borne in mind that Champs and other athletic meets formed part of a crowded schedule for ISSA these past few weeks. In a relatively short period, the organisation has also had to administer a number of other competitions, including cricket, netball, basketball, and Under-16 football, now ongoing across the country.

This newspaper joins with those supporting the “overdue” decision to reorganise Champs’s schedule, allowing most finals to be spread out rather than being packed into the final two days. Indeed, it’s a move we had advocated a long time.

As coaches have pointed out, the new arrangements are in line with international practice and standards.

We note the comment from St Jago High Girls Head Coach Mr Keilando Goburn that, “In terms of the 100 metres, I think the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Champs was the only championship in the world where you ran the 100 metres and 200 metres and then go back to the 100 metres. Everywhere else the 100 metres would be completed before athletes moved on to the 200 metres.”

Crucially, the new arrangements provide athletes with more time to rest between events.

That’s an aspect that should be at the forefront at all times. For, while Champs has been hailed for its incalculable positive contribution to Jamaica’s track and field success, there is persistent criticism that overwork and burnout have caused considerable loss of teenage talent.

Increasingly, there is scope for track and field athletes to make a good living as professionals, which can only happen if they stay fit and healthy into adulthood.

To be fair to ISSA, it has proactively moved to lighten workload by compulsory reduction of individual events to just two for each track athlete.

Also, we sense a growing tendency by some school coaches to voluntarily ease workload. We note the decision by the Edwin Allen High School coaching staff to restrict the highly talented Clayton twins, Tina and Tia, to the 100 metres as their lone individual event at Champs.

No doubt, those in charge of the national track and field programme are pleased by the school’s action, given that the Carifta Games are upcoming — with the Claytons part of Jamaica’s team.

Such a decision allows not just rest for elite athletes, it means others who would otherwise have to sit and watch, get the chance to compete.

Here is a move well worthy of emulation.