Festivity reigned at Hydel High School in Ferry on Monday morning as staff, students and well-wishers extended the celebration of Saturday’s historic first ISSA/GraceKennedy Girls’ Athletics Championship triumph.

Principal, Dr Walton Small, who led the activities in the party-like atmosphere at a special devotion, which included a march to and from the nearby police station, described the victory as remarkable and an achievement which has been long in the making.

Hydel’s girls, who have been consistently knocking at the door over the years and were always expected to be in a ding-dong battle with Edwin Allen, tallied 279 points to deny their rivals a ninth straight title and 10th overall by a mere two points.

“It’s remarkable and just like it was destiny when I won Champs 100 as principal of Wolmer’s Boys, this is destiny,” Small told OBSERVER ONLINE.

For head coach, Corey Bennett, the victory was a testament of growth and dedication having only started competing at ‘Champs’ in 2010 with a mere four athletes.

“I remember when a particular coach came to me and said Bennett you are wasting your time man, yo won’t survive because this is big people Champs. In 2010 we came 11th with four Class four girls and two years later we came fifth scoring over 100 points for the first time.

“And after that we got a few second and third place finishes, we were even told that we worse won’t win this year and we were only good for fourth and even though we don’t run down position, we did it. So God is good,” Bennett said.

The 34-member triumphant Hydel team was lead by performances from Alana Reid, who secured the Class One sprint double, included clocking national Junior record 10.92s in the 100m; captain Oneika McAnnuff, who successful retained her 400m hurdles title and Kaydeen Johnson, who topped both the 2,000m steeplechase and the 3,000m event which placed the championship beyond doubt.