A total of $900,000 will be shared among the top four teams in the Institute of Sports (INSPORTS) primary schools’ football and netball competitions this season.

The final rounds of the competitions were drawn on Thursday at the National Stadium and it was announced by Sport Minister Olivia Grange that the winning schools in both competitions will receive $200,000 while runners-up will take $125,000. Third- and fourth-place teams will get $75,000 and $50,000, respectively.

Winning coaches will also receive $10,000 gift vouchers.

The teams will be placed into zones of four based on location, for both tournaments.

The football tournament will take a nine-a-side format, with each team mandated to field at least one female at all times. Matches will last 60 minutes, with unlimited substitutions. The top two teams from each group will advance from the zone.

Netball matches will be 30 minutes in length and will feature the regular seven players on each team. There will be unlimited substitutions and the top two teams from each zone advance here as well.

Grange says the competitions are arguably the best of their kind anywhere in the English-speaking Caribbean.

“INSPORTS, in satisfying its mandate, enables us to bring to the fore in a competitive environment the best young talent from across Jamaica,” she said at the event.

“I had made a proposal some time ago that the best-emerging talents from the INSPORTS national primary school football and netball competitions be assembled for a one-day clinic and maybe an exhibition game, after which the technical persons from both the Jamaica Football Federation and Netball Jamaica would assess them.

“INSPORTS ambassadors Ian Goodison and Oberon Pitterson-Nattie should lead this charge. This would be similar to an initiative that I had started with the Jamaica Cricket Association and out of which I am happy and excited to say that we identified four women cricketers from the INSPORTS islandwide cricket search who made the national Under-19 team,” she said

“I know that we are all very happy to welcome back the competitions after a two-year absence owing to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Grange added.

The minister also made a presentation of hurdles to the 2019 winners of the track and field competitions in the three regions, Eastern, Central, and Western. They are St Richards Primary, Spanish Town Primary, and Black River Primary.