Defending champion Corinaldi Avenue Primary of St James raced to a 13-point lead on the penultimate day of the INSPORTs/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools Western Athletics Championships on Friday.

After 11 finals, Corinaldi surged to 86.5 points ahead of Black River Primary of St Elizabeth on 73.5 and Howard Cooke Primary of St James sitting in third spot on 54 points. Brompton Primary of St Elizabeth are fourth with 50 points while Glen Stuart Primary completed the top five on 48 points.

The records continued to tumble but the star of the day was Santana Brown of Brompton who won two events the Girls Cricketball Open with 42.04m and returned later to capture the high jump with a record leap of 1.37m.

Her teammate Keneek Grove won the Boys’ Cricket ball Open with a record 64.67m ahead of Corinaldi’s Al-Jay Levy with 63.50m.

Brompton won three events and took an early while Howard Cooke won three relays all in record fashion. In fact, seven of the eight relay records were broken.  

Howard Cooke won the Girls’ Class Four 4x100 in 1:02.49 and the Girls’ Class Two in 54.75, both in record fashion. They also won Boys’ Class One in 52.85 just outside the record of 52.19 held by Barracks Road since 2023.

Corinaldi Avenue won two relays in record style, the Boys’ Class Four in a record 58.05 and the Boys’ Class Three in 55.35.

Glen Stuart also won two relays in record fashion capturing the Girls’ Class Three 4x100 in 58.29 and the Boys’ Class Two in 55.25. Barracks Road Primary won the Girls Class One in a record 53.55.

There will be 29 finals tomorrow as teams fight to book their spots in the all-island finals dubbed the Nationals on May 20-22. Lyssons of St Thomas won the Eastern Championship and Naggo Head of St Catherine won the Central Championship.

The National champion will walk away with $600,000. Lyssons are the defending champions.

Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange has called for private sector support for the Primary Schools Athletics Championships that return on May 26 after a two-year absence.

The minister made the appeal during Tuesday’s launch of the event at the National Stadium in Kingston, which hosted the 49^th Carifta Games that concluded on Monday.

“Between May 2 and 4 we will have the Eastern Championships at Stadium East to start us off, followed by the Central Championships between May 9 and11 at the GC Foster College, then the Western Championships at STETHS between May 12 and14 culminating with the grand finale, the inaugural staging of the National Athletics Junior Championships for Boys and Girls in the National Stadium from May 26 to May 28,” the minister said in outlining the schedule for the build-up to the championships. 

 “I am making an appeal to the private sector to provide sponsorship for these Championships in the same way support is given to the ISSA Boys and Girls Championships. There will be as many as 500 participating schools and so I am inviting the private sector to come on board now with support for the primary-level event.”

The minister said the government has invested a lot in the development of sports in the country but it is unable to go it alone, hence the need for additional support for the championship that has proven to be the crucible from which so many of Jamaica’s athletic stars have emerged.

“Over time, the Government has invested millions of dollars at the primary school level in track and field and (Institute of Sports) INSPORTS can take credit for laying the foundation on which the careers of many of our outstanding athletes have been built,” she said.

“Athletes the likes of World and Olympic 100m gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Olympic and World 400m hurdles champion Melaine Walker, Olympic bronze medalist, Warren Weir, 2008 Olympic 100m silver and 200m bronze medalist Kerron Stewart, CARIFTA Games Under-17 200m champion and record-holder Jazeel Murphy, and 2007 World Youth 200m champion Ramone McKenzie and many others.

“More recent stand-out athletes to have competed at Primary School Champs have been Christopher Taylor, Tyreke Wilson, Raheem Chambers and Brianna Lyston. In the just-concluded CARIFTA Games, Jamaica won a record 92 medals. It begins at INSPORTS.”