(Standing) JAAA First Vice President the Hon. Ian Forbes, Acting Executive Director on INSPORTS Major Desmond Brown, (seated) Minister of Gender, Culture, Entertainment and Sport, the Hon. Olivia Babsy Grange and Devon Biscuits Brand Manager Sherene Bryan.
The Institute of Sports (INSPORTS) officially launched the 41st staging of the INSPORTS Primary Schools All-Island Athletics Championships in a ceremony held inside the Hospitality Room at the National Stadium in Kingston on Thursday.
The Championships, scheduled for May 4-27, will see competition among 130 schools with 6000 students in three regional championships leading up to the grand finale, the national championships.
“Today marks the start of what we have come to regard as our marquee sports event in Jamaica for juniors,” said Minister of Gender, Culture, Education and Sport, the Hon. Olivia “Babsy” Grange.
The Eastern Championships got underway on Thursday at Stadium East and will last until May 6.
The competition then moves to the GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sport for the Central Championships from May 8-10.
From there, the competition moves to St. Elizabeth Technical High School for the Western Championships between May 11 and May 13.
The National Championships, expected to showcase the best of the best in terms of Primary School athletics in the country, takes place from May 25-27 to decide the All-Island champion.
“It will be thrilling to see the youngsters out there competing. They look forward to it and are excited about it and we know we are looking at future world champions,” said Grange.
Devon Biscuits, who came on board as a major sponsor last year, will serve as title sponsors in 2023 and have committed $9 million to INSPORTS.
“We are happy to be on board,” said Brand Manager for Devon Biscuits, Sherene Bryan.
“We recognize the importance of encouraging, supporting and fostering Jamaica’s talent,” Bryan added before going into how Devon Biscuits came on board in 2022.
“We were made aware of the Championships two days before the meet began. I saw a social media post which was made by my dear friend, Trishana McGowan, and I reached out to her to ask if they had a sponsor. She then advised me that there was no sponsor on board. I then called her and requested the information for the directors of Insports and she provided it that opened the door for further conversations and now we’re here as the title sponsors.”
First Vice President of the Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association, the Hon. Ian Forbes, spoke on behalf of the association.
“41 years means that something right would have been happening. This is where the seeds of greatness are sewn,” Forbes said.
Bradley Jacks is a budding journalist and an avid sports fan. His love of research and sports has led him to SportsMax.tv, a place where those passions work hand in hand to allow him to produce content.
Excelsior leads Jamaican 1-2-3 in Championship of America High School Boys 4x100m at Penn Relays
Excelsior High emerged victorious in the Championship of America High School Boys 4x100m on the third and final day at the 128th Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Their quartet of Ryeem Walker, Damor Miller, Malike Nugent and Lennon Green combined to run 40.45 to secure the school’s first win in the event since 1967.
Kingston College (Daniel Clarke, Yourie Lawrence-Clarke, Nyrone Wade, Marcinho Rose) were second in 40.53 and Herbert Morrison (Ky-Mani Hemmings, Tavaine Stewart, Chance Segree, De Andre Daley) completed a Jamaican 1-2-3 with 40.56 in third.
Smith produces season’s best to win long jump at Texas Invitational
Texas junior Ackelia Smith produced an NCAA leading performance to take top spot on day one of the Texas Invitational at the Mike A. Myers Stadium on Friday.
The 22-year-old reigning NCAA champion produced a season’s best 7.10m, her first jump over 7m this season, to win ahead of Trinidadian Puma athlete Tyra Gittens (6.72m) and UTSA’s Ida Breigan (6.65m).
This is a welcome return to form for Smith who suffered a torn hamstring at the NCAA Indoor Championships in early March.
Smith was Jamaica’s national champion in the long jump in 2022 and was a finalist in both the long and triple jump at that year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Paulino extends 400m winning streak to seven in Shanghai
Dom Rep’s Marileidy Paulino followed up her triumph at the season’s Diamond League opener in Xiamen last week with another victory at the Shanghai Diamond League on Saturday.
The reigning World champion produced 50.89 to win ahead of American Talitha Diggs who ran 51.77 and Bajan two-time World Championship bronze medallist Sada Williams who ran 52.00 in third.
Paulino’s winning streak in the 400m has now stretched to seven races.
It was déjà vu in the women’s 100m hurdles as reigning Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho Quinn just pipped World Indoor 60m hurdles champion and world record holder Devynne Charlton on the line, just as it played out in Xiamen last week.
Camacho-Quinn ran 12.63 compered to Charlton’s 12.64. Two-time World champion Danielle Williams was third in 12.74.
The men’s 110m hurdles saw American Daniel Roberts get his second win in a row to kick off the Diamond League season. His winning time was 13.12, comfortably ahead of Japan’s Shunsuke Izumiya (13.23) and Olympic champion Hansle Parchment’s season’s best 13.26.
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