Student-athletes participating in the MVP Track Club training camps,
MVP Track Club
Student-athletes across Jamaica are set to benefit again from the World Class Athletics training camps provided by the MVP Track & Field Club.
The training camps will be held in the three Jamaican counties – Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey - over the next three weekends to ensure accessibility and comprehensive coverage of schools in Jamaica.
The first of the camps will be held at GC Foster College in St Catherine on Saturday, October 15, 2022, which will be followed by another at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in St James on Saturday, October 22. The last of the camps is set to be staged at the National Stadium in Kingston on Saturday, October 29.
The MVP Track & Field Club Grassroots Training Programme targets secondary school student-athletes and coaches from all 14 parishes.
The camps provide access to best-in-class training methods in sprinting, relays, jumps, throws, distance running and hurdling.
The coaches, led by the head coach of MVP Track & Field Club Paul Francis, will guide the over 100 student-athletes per camp through the intricacies of each of the aforementioned athletic skill sets.
President of the MVP Track & Field Club, Bruce James said he was pleased to see the return of the island-wide training camps after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These MVP training camps took place uninterrupted on an annual basis for seven years starting in 2013. Of course, we did not continue the programme during the height of the pandemic. The health and welfare of the student-athletes will always be our priority,” he said.
International sports apparel company Puma is providing each student-athlete who participates in the MVP training camps with gear that includes shirts, caps and bags. Puma has also supplied over 100 pairs of Puma running shoes to be allocated to the student-athletes.
Wisynco is the official hydration sponsor through its brands WATA, Powerade, Tru-Juice and Tru-Shake.
Also providing support is National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited as the official financial partner of the programme and among other things will share financial literacy strategies with all participants.
The Sports Development Foundation is also on board as it affirms that the programme aligns with its mandate to develop Jamaica through sports.
The MVP Track Club was founded in 1999 and over the next two decades produced some of Jamaica’s most successful track and field athletes.
Former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell, two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, world champion hurdlers Melaine Walker and Brigitte Foster-Hylton and five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah all came through MVP Track Club.
Maloney sets new national record to win 400m at Arkansas Twilight; Nugent, Lemonious also secure wins
St. Vincent’s Shafiqua Maloney and Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent and Phillip Lemonious all secured wins at Friday’s Arkansas Twilight in Fayetteville.
Maloney, unbeaten so far this season in the 800m both indoors and outdoors, showed her class on Friday in the one lap event, speeding to a new personal best and national record 50.75 to take top spot.
Her time was also an Arkansas Twilight record, bettering Britton Wilson’s 50.97 set in 2022.
American Kendall Baisden was way behind in second in 52.91 while Sudan’s Hiba Saeed was third in 53.45.
2023 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor champion and world championship finalist in the sprint hurdles, Ackera Nugent, tried her hand successfully at the 200m on Friday. She ran a season’s best 23.12 to win ahead of 400m podium finishers Hiba Saeed (23.49) and Kendall Baisden (23.58).
Phillip Lemonious, who also took sprint hurdles gold at the NCAA Championships last year, ran a season’s best 13.52 to win the event on Friday ahead of Arkansas’s Elijah Morris (13.70) and Brevin Sims (13.73).
Craig Simpson & Wendy McMaster ready to defend Rangers Sporting Clays titles
Defending champions Craig Simpson and Wendy McMaster will be gunning for top honors again at the Rangers Gun Club shoot which is set for Sunday May 6th with a 10 am shotgun start at the True Juice Complex in Bog Walk, St. Catherine.
The venue is considered to be happy hunting ground for the two defending champions. It is the venue where Simpson posted his highest score in the sport (97 out of a possible 100) and where McMaster dethroned her daughter and two-time winner Aliana, to take the top spot.
Competition for top honors will be stiff as some of the Jamaica Skeet Club's best shooters will be on the course. They include nine-time national shotgun champion Ian Banks, six-time national shotgun champion Shaun Barnes, four-time national shotgun champion Christian Sasso, other national shotgun champions like Chad Ziadie, his father Geoffrey Ziadie, Ray McMaster, Andrew Hopwood, Nicholas Benjamin and young David Wong as well as former winner Nicholas Chen.
On the female side the top contenders include two-time winner Aliana McMaster and sister Leanne, Renee Rickhi who is part of the Jamaica Rifle Association's Alpha Angels lady shooters, Marguerite Harris and granddaughter Lori-Ann Harris among others.
Shooters in various classes from A - E, Hunters or Beginners, Juniors, Sub-Juniors and Ladies will be competing hard in order to win their classes and in some cases move up to higher and more challenging classes. The event features an eighteen-station driving course.
The shooters will face targets of varying types including true pairs (birds launched at the same time), rabbits (birds released on the ground), birds in the air released at different speeds and directions as well as some targets released over gentle flowing streams on the lush green course.
The Rangers Gun Club is expecting another big field of approximately one hundred and fifty shooters to conquer the expansive driving course for a day of individual and team competition which will feature the local gun clubs. For the third year in a row four clubs will compete for that trophy. The competing clubs are Driftwood Gun Club, Rangers Gun Club, Trelawny Gun Club and defending champion - the Jamaica Gun Club.
Part proceeds from the event will be donated to the Food for the Poor organization.
The lead sponsor for the Rangers Gun Club Sporting Clays shoot is Sterling Asset Management while Worthy Park Select, National and STLSOLAR are the next level sponsors.
The club has a rich history of young business men and some of their fathers who loved shooting getting together in the mid-1980s to start the Rangers Gun Club at their Salt Gully base in St. Catherine. They initially focused on bird shooting then took on sporting clays which is currently the most popular form of the sport.
Lyssons top INSPORTS/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools Eastern Champs
Lyssons Primary Schools of St Thomas continued their dominance of the INSPORTS/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools Eastern Championships winning their third consecutive title in impressive fashion winning by a massive 128 points at the Stadium East, on Friday.
Lyssons amassed 274 points and were well clear of Harbour View who are second for the second year with 146 points. Lawrence Tavern with their best showing were third on 139.5 points ahead of Hal-Way-Tree with 132 and St Richard’s rounding out the top five on 128.5 points.
Lyssons who are also the All-island champions, walked away with a whopping $350,000 with second-placed Harbour View of St Andrew collecting $250,000. Lawrence Tavern also of St Andrew received $200,000. The fourth to 10th-placed teams each got $100,000.
On a day when a plethora of records were broken, four boys shared the Overall Champions Boys title with 18 points each. Davere Walker and Mickoloy Saunders of Lyssons were joined by Samir McLarty of George Headley Primary and Joshua McWilliams of Lawrence Tavern all walked away with $30,000 each.
Arianna Lewis of Half-Way-Tree Primary was the Overall Girls Champion with 18 points. She broke the Class Three 150m record for the second time at the meet. Yesterday she ran 21.25 in the heats and went better in the final clocking 21.13.
Up next will be the Central Championship starting on Monday at the GC Foster College for the parishes of St Catherine, Clarendon, St Ann and Manchester. Spanish Town Primary are the defending champion.
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