Finishing in the top three in any event at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) is special and the ceremonies team says it does its best to make the moment memorable.

Like the name suggests, it is responsible for all ceremonies where medals and trophies are presented to the respective athletes and schools. However, Ceremonies Committee head Julette Parkes, who has been involved for over 40 years, says there’s more to the task than just handing out medals.

“The first thing is to decide who the sponsors are for the events,” she said. “Once that is done, I prepare the presentation schedule and I communicate with them to tell them when they are needed. The presentation music that we’re using for the fanfare and march on was done by the late Ibo Cooper, who did it for us last year.”

The medals were designed in South Korea and are handed over to the athletes by a group of high school students with Wolmer’s Girls being selected this year.

Parkes says the medal bearers have to be model students to be selected because of the heavy work rate.

“I usually make an approach to the school and they select girls who are disciplined because it gets rough, especially come Friday and Saturday because we have quite a few presentations,” she said. “They have to be committed and they can’t leave and chat with anybody because by the time they leave, a presentation may happen so we have to get disciplined and committed girls for the cause.”

Unlike at global track and field meets, medal presentations tend to be prioritised differently at Champs.

On several occasions, athletes who finished in the top three of their event are absent for the ceremony with the school either sending a representative or no one, which has caused the ceremonies team to leave with medals after the five days.

Parkes says it has been difficult to consistently have seamless ceremonies.

“Sometimes it’s a challenge,” she said. “This is [especially] when it comes on to Saturday because some of them are doubling up for events so you’ll find instead of the athlete, you’ll get a representative because some of them are running more than one event so they have to go back over.

“Sometimes, you have five minutes to do three presentations. It’s a tight schedule. It’s not a ‘rush and do’ thing because we have limited time and our (spectators) here are focused on the event. They just want to see the next race on the track. And because we have to do more than one in each slot, it would seem like it’s being rushed but we [try to] give it as much energy [as possible].”

Despite the challenges, this year Parkes says it is important to those involved. “The schedule is also sent to the schools,” she said. “I went over to them yesterday, encouraging them to get here on time and how they must be attired for the occasion because it’s all over the world, so you want to ensure it’s a good representation of your school. I spoke with the coaches and the athletes and told them it’s an important time, you don’t want anybody to collect your award for you. You want to be there, you are the winner.”

Champs has been a stepping stone for many of Jamaica’s top athletes, and is one of the main reasons Parkes has pushed on in her role.

“I have a passion for track and field as I’ve been doing this over 40 years,” she said. “Sometimes I’m tired just to get it done but it’s the joy I get… I travel with national teams so you see them at this stage and then you watch them throughout the years like a Veronica Campbell-Brown — I would have seen her at Champs, travelled with her on world junior teams then at the national senior team. That’s the joy. When I saw Jaydon Hibbert and he came and hugged me, that’s the joy to see how they progress and they remain focused to achieve their dreams.”