My friend Emma asked, on social media, why Television Jamaica (TVJ) was breaking its evening news for Champs events. My simple answer: Because Champs is Champs.

The Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships is the biggest athletics event of its kind in the world. It is a red-letter event for coaches from North America, who fly here to recruit notable talent for their colleges. This is the place where youngsters from humble families can see their way to higher education and visualise themselves moving from the Champs stage to the Olympics stage.

In a letter to the Jamaica Observer editor regarding a controversial Champs issue in 2017, Justice Patrick Robinson described the event as a “wonderful, unique, culturally and globally significant event that has produced stalwarts like Norman Manley, Arthur Wint, Herb McKenley, Lindy Delapenha, Donald Quarrie, Usain Bolt, Merlene Ottey, Veronica Campbell, Shelly-Ann Fraser, and Elaine Thompson”.

Justice Robinson, who is a former president and judge on the International Court of Justice said in his letter, “I will always consider winning the Class 2 discus event at Champs in 1959 for the victorious Jamaica College (JC) team as the greatest achievement in my life.”

In the ‘Champs memories’ series this year, Senator Don Wehby shared his participation in the hurdles events for his alma mater St George’s College, winning gold and silver. Decades later, the GraceKennedy Group for which he is CEO is pouring millions into Champs, helping ISSA to preserve the high standard of this event.

Listening to experts Neville Bell’s, Bruce James’s, and Hubert Lawrence’s superlatives as they described Champs records being broken and personal bests being achieved, we were assured that Jamaica can maintain its status on the world stage.

Kudos to our dedicated parents and coaches.

As Tina Clayton of Edwin Allen stormed through to the finish in the Class One girls 100 metres final, with her twin sister Tia running third, their mother Tishawna Pinnock ran onto the track and held her girls in an emotional embrace. After St Jago High’s Gregory Prince won the Class One boys 400m final he ran straight to his mother Tracey-Ann Cooper-Prince in the stands for her congratulatory embrace. And we enjoyed the exuberance of Mount Alvernia’s Aaliyah Foster, after she jumped to her personal best of 6.03m, running and screaming and getting a warm embrace from her father.

At the time of writing this column, Kingston College is leading the boys and Edwin Allen the girls, but this is not to take away from the heroic efforts of all the other participants.

Despite the two-year lockdown, they rallied to make this one of our most exciting Champs. Many thanks to GraceKennedy for pulling out all the stops in promoting this event, which no doubt motivated participants to live up to the reputation of this world-class event.

MAURICE WILSON SHARES HIS SKILL

Coach Maurice Wilson’s media interviews have always been sober and wise. Now he has created Sprinting the Jamaican Way: Drills for Speed and Technique, a DVD which is rich with practical advice for coaches, and is available on Amazon.

He has served as a Jamaica national track and field team assistant coach (sprints) at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games and in four World Championships; head coach to the 2001 and 2002 Jamaica World Junior teams; and girls track head coach at Holmwood Technical High School in Manchester, where his squads have taken seven-consecutive girls national championships.

In the 2008 Olympic Games, the Jamaicans brought home six gold medals in the sprint events, including world records from Usain Bolt and a clean sweep of the women’s 100m.

According to Amazon, “Wilson demonstrates a wide variety of start drills to improve quickness out of the blocks, including three starting styles…He includes strategies for frequency and duration that leads to maximising your training and your athletes’ performance…The secrets to Wilson’s success are secret no more when you implement these proven drills for speed and technique.” This sounds like a sprint coach’s treasure.

Congratulations to Coach Wilson for creating this exciting guide.

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON CONFIRMED

The celebration of the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first black woman US Supreme Court justice spread beyond the shores of the USA. It was made even sweeter because her confirmation was announced by the first woman US Vice-President Kamala Harris. Judge Jackson will replace Justice Stephen Breyer later this year on his retirement.

A White House release noted that, despite being a high achiever, “when Judge Jackson told her high school guidance counsellor she wanted to attend Harvard, the guidance counsellor warned that Judge Jackson should not ‘set her sights so high’. That did not stop Judge Jackson. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, then attended Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review”.

The behaviour of certain members of the House was disgraceful. Leaders of countries, churches, and every type of organisation need to focus on the re-education of racists so they do not continue endangering others and making fools of themselves.

FAREWELL, DR JOSCELYN RICHARDS

We gathered with the Richards family at the St Andrew Parish Church to say farewell to one of Jamaica’s finest, Dr Joscelyn Richards, who, in his 97 years, served his beloved Jamaica with excellence. He and his wife Hermine, who passed away in 2014, were stalwarts for the Norman Manley-led People’s National Party.

In his tribute to his uncle, attorney-at-law John Richards recalled that the Richards couple built “a life based on their shared faith and service to community — both of which were manifested in and enabled by their deep activist involvement and work, right here at St Andrew Parish Church and its various ministries”.

He continued, “My uncle was a proud Kingston College old boy, and had also studied and defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Edinburgh, exploring the commercial viability of various types of grasses, thereby setting the stage to return somewhat closer to the land, in a move that would define his professional calling. His career spanned 45 years at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Hope and Bodles divisions, during which time he rose to serve as acting permanent secretary.”

Grand-nephew and niece, Duncan and Yolanda Richards, accomplished violinist and soprano, respectively, gave fine performances to honour their family icon.

Led by Rev Canon Sirrano Kiton, Rev Deacon Bertram Gayle, and sister Andrea Taylor-Smith, the service was an elegant farewell. May his great soul rest in peace.

lowriechin@aim.com

www.lowrie-chin.blogspot.com