Vere's Kimberley Williams is the favourite for tomorrow's first girls' final, the triple jump open.

by Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor

Kingston College and Holm-wood Technical High will be hot favourites to retain their respective male and female titles when the 2007 Grace-Kennedy/ISSA Boys' and Girls' Athletic Championships begins tomorrow morning at the National Stadium.

Action starts at 8:15 a.m. with the boys heptathlon open 110 metres hurdles. Two field finals, both for girls, are scheduled on the opening day. The triple jump open final starts at 12:35 p.m. to be followed later in the afternoon by the discus throw for Class Three at 1:10.

Vere Technical's Kimberley Williams, the defending champion, is favoured to repeat in the triple jump. She will, however, be strongly challenged by Holm-wood's Salcia Slack. Both finished one-two at this year's Central Champion-ships. Melissa Ogbourne of St. Jago High should also do well in this event.

Flying start

Last year's third place school, Edwin Allen High, will be looking to get more points in the field events this year and should get off to a flying start with Sasha-Gaye Marston in the Class Three discus. Marston is the leading Class Three thrower this season with 35.73m at the G.C. Foster Classic. Monique Wint (34.23m) of St. Andrew High was the runner-up at that meet.

Other events on the opening day include the 800m for boys and girls in all classes, 200m in all classes, the 400m hurdles open heats for boys and girls and the sprint relay heats in all classes for both boys and girls.

In the battle for the overall title, KC, and head coach Lennox Graham, will be strongly pressed by arch-rivals Calabar High, a team they beat by only two points last year. Calabar are coached by old boy Michael Clarke. Jamaica College, St. Jago High and Wolmer's Boys should complete the top five.

Graham who has led KC to championships honours for the past six years said his team is ready to do well.

"We have lost some very good athletes like Leford Green, Andre Wellington and Alain Bailey but the other guys have stepped up," a confident Graham said last Saturday.

Holmwood, under the astute coach Maurice Wilson, have produced several quality performances over the past six years and this should be good enough to rebuff the challenges of last year's runner-up Vere, Edwin Allen, the fast rising Manchester High and St. Jago High.

"What I know for sure is that this year's team is better all-round than last year but we do not have the sure points like we had last year. We have to go out there and perform, it's not a foregone conclusion that we will win the championship," Wilson said last week. The individual stars of the meet should be Holmwood's Schillonie Calvert in Class One and on the boys' side, St. Jago's Yohan Blake. Both World Junior Championships representatives are expected to take the sprint double in their respective classes. Blake's sprint rival, Remaldo Rose of Camperdown, has been battling injuries all season and could miss the meet. Rose won the Class One sprint double last year and his clash with Blake was billed to be one of the highlights of the meet.

Top performances should also come from Natoya Goule of Manchester High who will be seeking the middle distance double in Class Two along with the 3000 metres open; Misha-gaye DaCosta of Immaculate High who could challenge the Class Two high jump record of 1.83m, Latoya McDermott of St. Andrew High the leading Class Two 400m runner, Bobby-gaye Wilkins of Holmwood in the Class One 400m and Tanesha Blair, also of Holmwood, who should break the record in the javelin.

Hat-trick of titles

Left: Maurice Wilson, coach of Holmwood's girls.   Right: Kingston College's coach Lennox Graham.

Among the boys, Calabar's Travis Drummond will be seeking a hat-trick of titles in Class Three. Drummond could be seen in the 100m, 200m and 100m hurdles. Also in Class Three, Jamaica College's Waquar DaCosta is set to go under the 800m record. He has already clocked under 1:56 for the distance. The record is 1:58.24 set in 2003 by Campion's Theon O'Connor. O'Connor will also be seeking a record, this time in the Class One 800m. The record, 1:48.84 was set 20 years ago by Vere Technical's Sherwin Burgess. Donahue Williams of Kingston College will be the one to beat in the Class Two middle distances. Williams is the defending 1500m champion.

A significant change in the schedule for this year is the shifting of the opening ceremony to Friday afternoon at 5:15. Rising Stars Nickesha Barnes and One Third will provide live entertainment.