Crowd support may have been less than ideal from the perspective of the organisers, Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), but it seems clear that the 2026 version of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships was a spectacular success.

Organisers, sponsors, coaches, back room staff, parents, guardians, and all others involved in the project deserve the highest praise for getting the job done.

No praise is ever too high for those who achieved on the track and in the field.

Edwin Allen High, from the hills of northern Clarendon, secured their 11th girls’ title. Their victory margin — 338.5 points to second-placed Hydel’s 259.5 — underlined their superiority over all others.

Jamaica College, the historic Old Hope Road-based all boys’ school, pushed 2025 champions and many-time winners Kingston College aside to capture their 23rd Mortimer Geddes Trophy.

Special applause must go to schools from hurricane-ravaged western Jamaica. Some made the effort in these tough times purely for the sake of their talented student athletes who are eyeing a path ahead through sports.

Surely none among those athletes more talented than 18 year-old Miss Shanoya Douglas from unfashionable Holland High School in Trelawny. A bronze medallist at the 2024 World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Lima, Peru, Miss Douglas left us in awe as she won the Champs 100 metre final in 10.98 seconds. She completed the sprint double with a 22.36-second national junior record run in the 200 metres.

Not just in the case of Miss Douglas, there is clear responsibility on the part of all those providing guidance to do their utmost in ensuring athletes have a real chance of progressing beyond this stage.

It’s an uncomfortable truth that down the years far too many of our juniors seemingly fail to advance on their early potential.

It’s pleasing that Miss Douglas appears to enjoy what she does. Said she in relation to her 100m run as reported by the Sunday Gleaner: “[M]y coach saw it before me, and I am happy that I was able to deliver. I also had a lot of fun doing it…”

Such performances as that by Miss Douglas and others at Champs, as well as recent qualification by our Under-17 footballers for the age-group World Cup, suggest the future of Jamaican sport remains bright.

An ongoing concern is that, while individual athletes, cricketers, footballers, et al, have earned well — and service sectors, such as tourism, have benefited — the national economy has not earned anywhere near enough from a global sports sector worth an estimated US$2.3 trillion.

Following the Paris Olympics of mid-2024, frustrated letter writer Mr Henlon Morgan cuttingly questioned the benefits “other than jumping up and down in front our television sets or in Half-Way-Tree shouting…”

From our perspective, short-sightedness at leadership levels, such as was exemplified by refusing hosting rights for the 2024 T20 Cricket World Cup, is a major reason.

The business community must also pull its weight.

Our Sunday Observer story on Champs merchandising reminds us of one of the more straightforward ways to make money from sports. Research suggests the growing licensed sports merchandising global market was worth near US$40 billion last year.

Its surely time for Jamaican entrepreneurs to actively strive for a bigger piece of that action.