AFTER last week’s gruelling five-day battle that saw them edge 2023 champions Hydel High by 9.5 points for yet another title at the 123rd Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships on Saturday, Edwin Allen High Principal Jermaine Harris says they are looking to win the next 10 in a row.

The Clarendon-based school has secured the title 10 times since first winning in 2012.

Harris, who said the latest triumph was a fitting 60th birthday gift for the school that was founded in 1964, now has other ambitions.

“There can be no better birthday gift for the school, and we want to win it for the next 10 years straight,” Harris said.

Edwin Allen High and Hydel High featured in a second-straight run to the finish line after the St Catherine-based institution won its first title in 2023 by two points. That happened after then champions Edwin Allen were disqualified in the 4x400m relays, the final event of the championships.

Principal Harris said the bitter taste of how the 2023 championships had ended was still lingering last week. He insisted that from the very top of the school’s hierarchy, right through the entire team, they were always confident they would prevail.

On Monday, Head Coach Michael Dyke, his staff, and the team were celebrated at a special devotion. Harris told the Jamaica Observer they were taken on a motorcade through Frankfield, Clarendon — where the school is based — and through surrounding communities.

“All of our stakeholders were present this morning; members of the staff, the board, parents and past students all showed up to celebrate with us. We gave God thanks for the journey that saw us reclaim our title,” he said.

Edwin Allen ended with 335.5 points, with Hydel second on 326.

Harris, who said he sat in the bleacher section of the stadium with his team and their fans for four days, starting from Wednesday, said at no time was he worried they would lose — not even when Hydel High whittled the 43-point lead from Friday night to 9.5 with three events to go and the championships on a knife’s edge.

“We know what we have and we know what Hydel had, and I knew we had enough to get us over the line,” he said. “I crunched the figures and we had two girls in the 3000m [the last individual track event] and I knew we they would do the job.”

Harris, who has been at Edwin Allen for three years, admitted the chase got closer than he expected.

He added: “Based on what we saw in the season — the development meets and Central Champs — we had reasons to be confident, and we knew that Hydel High as the champions were not going to roll over and die. We expected them to come at us, we expected the fight, but we have been there before. We have won by big margins and small margins and [our] experience must count for something.”