While insisting that going into the 2025 ISSA/GraceKennedy Athletics Championships he did not think they had a team to challenge for the girls’ title, Hydel High Head Coach Corey Bennett praised the athletes’ resilience and will.

Hydel High won their second title in three years on Saturday after yet another bruising battle with last year’s champions Edwin Allen High. Hydel won by 11 points after five gruelling days at the National Stadium.

Hydel High clinched the title on the final event, winning the 4x400m Open relay to accumulate with 277 points, ahead of Edwin Allen High’s 266. Holmwood Technical claimed a creditable third place with 230.5, while St Jago High were fourth with 149 and Immaculate Conception were fifth with 100.

Still glowing in the aftermath of their brilliantly executed win, Bennett said they only thought they could win ahead of Saturday’s final session, though they had been leading from Thursday night.

“We really thought we could win [Saturday morning] when we had our team meeting,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “We just asked them to take it down to the 4x400m relay. If they took it down to the 4x400m and give us a chance…[that’s when] I thought we could have done it.”

Midway Saturday’s lone session, Edwin Allen cut what was a 40-point gap to three points at one one stage. Bennett said “the push” started and that caused some mistakes.

“We knew we had a lot of shortcomings, you know, we never had a real 2,000m girl. Our medley relay team was put together with [only] four girls, and we [were] hoping, you know, but they believed.”

On Monday on the eve of the championships, Bennett had told the Observer he had not seen a clear path to the title and predicted that there would be many slips and falls over the five days.

“We still made some mistakes, even I think that the third to last race, the Class Four 4x100m relay, they just fell and we were going to finals with the fastest time [when] it happened.”

He said also that Abigail Campbell’s failure to make the final of the Class One 800m event worked against them.

Campbell, the Class One 400m winner, was 10th after the semi-finals of the 800m and Bennett thought she would have improved on her silver medal from last year.

“She just made a mistake, she judged the race wrong, and she just was out. This is the girl who expected to win the race. So, yeah, I mean, these things happen.”

It was the confidence of the athletes Bennett thought that made the difference.

“[I] think they believed, you know, and I think especially the senior girls just pulled the team along. My captain, Taiefa Gowe, she is captain fantastic, she just rose to the occasion when it mattered.”

The tempo rose a few levels after Edwin Allen’s expected surge after the 800m finals on Saturday, but Bennett said he was under no pressure. “There was no reason to panic when you have no expectations”.

He admitted that some of his team’s wins were too close for comfort.

“I don’t know why they thought that, to make it so dramatic, but I think they don’t want to survive without drama and I think that’s what they did,” he quipped, “but they also kept their heads.”

Asked to compare this win with the previous title, Bennett said: “We lost by nine and a half points last year. Sometimes expectations kind of start getting in the way but I just never thought we had the team this year. I just honestly thought we only had a Class One and Class Two teams and after the 100m on Wednesday, everybody started to laugh and I said maybe we will finish fourth.”

He added: “I also knew that we were going to [surge] late…we knew once we got over the 100m races then we could breathe a little bit and start to push.”

Hydel High’s Sashana Johnson (left) passes the baton to teammate Jody-Ann Daley in the Girls’ 4x400m relay race during the ISSA/GraceKennedy Athletics Championships at the National Stadium on Saturday. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

From left: Edwin Allen High’s Sushana Johnson, Holmwood Technical’s Terrica Clarke, and Hydel High’s Taiefa Gowe compete in the 2000m steeplechase during the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium on Friday. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

From left: Hydel High’s Abigail Campbell, Shemonique Hazle and Rochelle Wint celebrate winning the Girls’ Class One 4x100m final during the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium on Saturday. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)