After a two year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Insports Primary Schools Athletics Championships is set to return this year, bigger and better.

Similar to what takes place at the high school level, there will be three regional championships, Eastern, Central, and Western Championships, before a national championship. All these events will take place in May.

The Minister of Sports Olivia Grange says that this change has been in the making for years.

“It is something that we wanted to do for some time, to really go national and go big.

The pandemic delayed that, and it also made us literally stop the championship for two years. So, for us to now resuscitate the championship and expand it, it’s a great feeling and I know the student-athletes, the teachers and coaches do appreciate that,” she said.

Grange says that she wants to reach as many of the over 500 primary schools across Jamaica as possible, to help unearth talent that exists all over the island.

“I have this vision and we are going to get there. We are going to get the participation of most of the schools across the island over time. There are over 500 primary schools, we have an abundance of talent in the nook and cranny of Jamaica,” she said. “We want to find that talent. Just like the Jamaica Culture and Development Commission (JCDC), their mandate is to unearth, train, showcase and develop talent in culture, that’s the mandate also of the Institute of Sports (Insports).”

“We go everywhere, go to communities across the island and find the talent, go into the schools and find the talent,” she continued explaining the importance of building on the legacy Jamaica has created in athletics.

“In our 60th year, we have to build a stronger and better platform so that the next 60 years we would have astounded the world,” she expressed.

The Minister also appealed to sponsors to throw their support behind initiatives that foster the development of the nation’s athletes from the grassroots.

“We are limited in resources, but we are going to find a way. That’s why I have made a special appeal to the private sector and to partners out there, to come on board. We don’t want you to come on board when someone has excelled, we want you to come on board and help us make that person excel and be that much more supportive of what the government is doing and also what the individual is doing to excel,” she said.

“Sports is big business, culture is big business, but you have to develop the talent, you have to package the talent and you have to market the talent. It’s not only when the talent has been packaged that you should come on board, we want you to help us make it happen,” she continued. “Let us make the diamond in the rough a real shining example. We want, when we get to the nationals, that we have student spectators, community persons, parents, everybody, in the national stadium and fill it up because we are talking about the National Junior Boys and Girls Champs.”

“We want to bring out hundreds and thousands of people into the stadium for Nationals and create that same vibe that is created when we have the Boys and Girls champs through ISSA. It’s a vision and it’s something that we will achieve. We have a good team and some committed Insports officers…so we are going to work together to ensure that the first National Junior Boys and Girls Champs in the National Stadium will be a sell-off,” she said.

The three-day National Primary Championships will take place from May 26-28 inside the National Stadium in Kingston.