Hydel High School’s track and field athletes hope that earning the Chairman’s Award will inspire their schoolmates.

Led by Class One sprint double champion Alliah Baker, four of the school’s top performers at the recent ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) were rewarded for their output.

Baker, Abigail Campbell, Teixiera Johnson and Shania Myers will all share in the $300,000 award that was donated by school board chairman Ryan Foster in recognition of the athletes’ effort.

“This Chairman’s Award recognises the strong ethos of what a student athlete represents, and also the strong character of what champions are made of,” Foster said. “These girls displayed commitment, determination, school spirit, and overall fight within the team to give Hydel a chance to defend our title. They went beyond the call to pull a team along despite some of the rigours and obstacles they encountered,” he said.

Foster had recognised Hydel High School’s team for winning its first-ever ISSA Girls’ Champs title in 2023 with the Chairman’s Award, along with Champs Class One Girls’ 100m record holder Alana Reid.

This year, Hydel placed second with 326 points, behind Edwin Allen High, who won with 335.5 points. The school still sees this as exceptional.

Leading Hydel’s charge was Baker, the 400m, 400m hurdles champion in 2023 who showed her range of sprinting by winning gold in the shorter individual sprints, 11.34s in the 100m and another personal best, 23.89 seconds in the 200m. Baker also led Hydel to victory in the Class One Girls’ 4x100m and 4x400m gold medals.

“I hope my story will motivate younger kids so they’ll be able to help our school and win the Chairman’s Award,” Baker said. “I stepped down from the 400m and 400m hurdles to the 100 and 200m and won two gold medals. Hopefully, someone will be able to say, ‘If she did it, I can do it too’.”

Baker, now in her final year, said that her accomplishments are even more satisfying because she had to overcome challenges.

“Preparing for Champs was not easy because I went back and forth with injuries and just some bad days at training,” she said. “But I just kept my composure, I trained hard when I could train hard, I went, I didn’t question my coach, I just did what he asked,” she admitted of Corey Bennett’s tutelage.

“I’m pretty happy I just listened to him and that I trusted the process and then I did my thing and ended up winning four events. I’m proud of myself, my family is proud of me, my teammates are proud of me, and my school is proud of me.”