Barracks Road Primary take first Western Primary Champs title
BARRACKS Road Primary won their first Western Primary Athletics Championships as they amassed 312 points at the end of the two-day, rain-affected event held at Herbert Morrison Technical on Saturday.
Barracks Road Primary led the points table after Friday, and piled up the points on Saturday despite two stoppages because of rain — which forced the organisers to change some aspects of qualification for the finals.
Wakefield Primary finished second with 286 points, followed by Howard Cooke Primary (243), last year’s champions Esher Primary (212), and Duncans All Age (109) rounding out the top five schools.
Barracks Road Primary Head Coach Fabian Isaacs says while he had expected his team to come out victorious, they surpassed his points prediction.
“It was kind of expected, on paper,” he said. “We did our calculations, we made some sacrifices as it relates to how we enter in different events. Our goal was to come here and win this event in our home parish, so we really put out everything for this event.”
Isaacs told the Jamaica Observer they were strong in their older age groups, as well as the jumps.
“We know we have a superb Class Two,” he said. “Our Class Two girls and our Class Two boys, they are really, really good; and we also have strengths in the long jump. We won six medals out of eight in the long jump — four of those were first and second, first and second [placings] — so I think we created some separation in the long jump.”
Barracks Road’s Almar Sterling won the Class One Boys’ sprint double, running 12.64 seconds to win the 100m ahead of Howard Cooke Primary’s Kurt Foster who clocked 13.38 seconds and Duncans Primary’s Tajae Fairweather (13.52).
He ran 26.72 seconds for the 200m, beating Ryan Foster of Howard Cooke Primary (27.35) and Fairweather of Duncans (27.53).
Howard Cooke’s Chrisan-Thia Erickson won the Girls’ Class One 100m in 13.21 seconds and was second in the 200m with 27.92 seconds, behind her teammate Nasiya Oates who ran 27.45 seconds.