Boys & Girls Pandemic Championships A Resounding Success

May 19, 2021 | Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie |

Dispite no crowds or spectators allowed to the normally crowded national stadium to witness the well anticipated clash of schools for bragging rights and other reasons … the 2021 ISSA boys and girls national championships were a resounding success.

The champs as they are referred to in the streets in Jamaica,  were cancelled last year 2020 due to the unset of the corona pandemic.  This is the fist time in living memory so far that these games were cancelled ever.

The organizers were destined to do them this year as the athletes were anxious to perform and also to get their eyes of scouts as scholarships may be at stake.  Athletes have been training and a number of development meets have been held across the island.

No Spectators

The idea of having the highly anticipated annual championships in an empty stadium without spectators was of considerable concern to many.  A lot of income from gate receipts were lost.

Sponsorship

Were it not for a strong sponsorship base, the games may not have been held as rental of the stadium and associated facilities are not particularly inexpensive.  Upkeep alone is very costly along with utilities like power, water and grounds maintenance.

It was adjudged that 3281/2  points were generated by Jamaica College (JC).  They came from behind on the last day to past Kingston College on the fifth and final day of the five days of competition.

Kingston College was dubbed as the favourite prior to the championships and even up to the close of day four when they led the top five schools by seven points. Amassing a total of 313 points, but were beaten by JC. on the fifth day of Championships who got 3281/2 points.

Controversy