BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Following impressive showings at the TDC Inter-School Championships two weeks ago, attention now turns to the budding primary school athletes who, this weekend, will compete for three days for bragging rights at the Silver Jubilee Stadium.
Defending champions Cayon Primary will be seeking to win consecutive titles while the other 18 schools aim to deny them the opportunity.
In an exclusive interview with SKNVibes, Public Relations Officer of the St. Kitts Amateur Athletic Association (SKNAAA) Evris Huggins highlighted what sports enthusiasts could expect to see at the Championships.
“Well, you can expect the best of the best from the Federation youth; expect the best from grass roots of athletics and expect an opportunity to hallmark future athletes from St. Kitts and Nevis.”
He stated that the competition is too close to call.
“There will be stiff competition between the schools. There seems to be the tradition where since the inception we have only had a total of three schools winning since the championships moved from the Milo Zonal Meet to a scholastic meet.We are now in our eighth year. We had the Beach Allen Primary winning three times and we had the St. Paul’s Primary and the Cayon Primary taking turns since then. So this year we have a number of schools which feel it is an opportunity for them to take the championship. It is going to be a very interesting weekend.
“Out of the 21 Primary Schools, I saw 19 schools registered which is three more than last year.”
Huggins also explained that no athlete in this year’s Championship would be allowed to compete unattached, they have to be associated with a school.
“We are not going to have anyone running as unattached this year. If you are going to be participating you will have to be participating with a school or you have to be associated with a school.We are not depriving any school of competition, we are not depriving any athlete from competition. What we are saying, once you are registered you have to be registered with an institution. It is a scholastic competition and we want to maintain it as a scholastic competition.”
He added that unattached athletes take away from the competitive nature of the Championships and also pull away from the school being the right to become champions.
“We invited all of the schools and we are not going to bar any school for any reason. If any school chooses not to register, that is up to the school.
“Like last year’s Championships, the winning school will walk away with $1 000. The school in second place gets $750, third walks away with $600, fourth gets $450 and fifth gets $300. The initial plan was to introduce hurdles but we had to divert from those plans until next year.
“I would like to thank RAMS for patronising the Championships since the inception, and also Delisle Walwyn.”
He also explained that there would be exciting exhibitions featuring top local athletes and their counterparts from Canada.
