Excitement plentiful as Kingston College celebrate 35th Boys Champs title
KC produced another dominant display throughout the five days of the globe’s biggest high school track & field showcase on their way to 335 points, 57 more than their nearest rivals, Jamaica College. Calabar High (194 points), Excelsior High (122 points) and St. Jago High (111.5 points) rounded out the top five schools.
This year’s crown also secured KC’s first three-peat since they won the title for six years in a row from 2001-2006.
Head Coach Leaford Grant summed up what this year’s triumph means to the school.
“This one is right up there. It was a hard-fought title. In previous interviews I said the 2019 one was always the best one because that year we brought the trophy back to KC after many years absent. This was a hard-fought one and it’s always good to win a trophy,” he told SportsMax.tv.
One thing that made it hard-fought, according to Grant, was the presence of injury concerns for some of their athletes that hampered their preparation for the championships.
“We had some injury concerns throughout the course of the season but we prevailed and managed to overcome them,” he said.
One notable absence from the championships was the 2023 Class Two 200m and 400m champion, Tahj-Marques White.
White, a first year Class One athlete, pulled up with an injury while competing earlier in the season and, while Grant said he’s fully recovered, the decision was made to hold him out of the championships as a precaution.
“He’s practically recovered but we thought that, because it’s his first year in class one, we’d give him some time to properly recover to serve us next year,” he said.
“He’s a talented youngster so we didn’t want to stress him too much. He’ll be fine next year,” he added.
Next year will mark KC’s 100th anniversary and Green says a fourth consecutive title would be fitting for such an occasion.
“There’s no special plan. We just have to plan as usual and work hard as usual. At the end of the day, God’s willing, we will bring back the trophy to Kingston College,” he said.
Perhaps KC’s most productive discipline over the five days was the hurdles where they racked up 56 points in total across five finals.
KC’s hurdles coach Kirk King, who is also the head coach of Convent of Mercy Academy, was ecstatic about the performance of his troops.
“My hurdlers stuck to the task and they stepped up their game for the championships. Nobody was expecting a quinella in the Class Two sprint hurdles, nobody was expecting Daniel Clarke to come second in Class One,” he said.
King mentioned that a number of his hurdlers were disappointed after their performances at the Carifta Trials but they recovered well mentally ahead of the championships.
“We had a talk especially after a lot of them were devastated after Carifta Trials because they didn’t make the team and they were demotivated and some of them even said they’re not coming back,” he said.
“I had to motivate them to come back and they came out and delivered. We only had one mishap in our entire hurdles crew,” he added.
KC’s Co-Captains for the championships, Antwon Walkin and Yourie Lawrence-Clarke, also reacted to the team’s 35th title.
“To win anything 35 times is a lot and so we always talk about the greatness of Kingston College, I think this number specifically signifies just how great our institution is,” said Walkin who, despite nursing a groin injury, finished fifth in the Class One discus.
“It feels great. Finishing off the trifecta feels great. There’s no better feeling in the world than to have done all this hard work for a year and come out with a championship,” Walkin added.
Lawrence-Clarke competed in both the 100m and the 4x100m relay. He produced a spirited effort to claim bronze in the 100m final.
“A lot of people didn’t expect me to even make the final so to go out there and get a bronze medal means a lot to me,” he said.
“I really went out there for the team and the supporters because in the 100m, they always expect somebody from KC to be in the mix. It was a great experience for me,” he added.