Champs title loading …

DEFENDING BOYS’ champions, Kingston College (KC), are odds on favourites to defend their title at this year’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships which gets underway next Tuesday inside the National Stadium.

The North Sreet-based team is a cinch to make it three in a row and title number 35 after the five days of competition, which will end on Saturday, March 23.

Despite a slow start to their campaign this season, the team has picked up big time over the past few weeks, showing good all-round strength and it will take something extra special to deny them. Of course, former champions, Jamaica College (JC) and Calabar will be their main rivals.

Showing depth in all classes, the defending champions will top Class 1.

In Class 1 they are projected to tally 101 points, just a mere point over JC on 100.

They are expected to land quinellas in the 400 and 400-metre hurdles for maximum points. Marcinho Rose, 46.36 seconds and Amal Glasgow, 46.93, should lead the way in the flat 400, both being the only sub-47-second athletes in the class.

In the 400-metre hurdles, they have two sub-51-second athletes, in leader, Antonio Forbes, 50.73, and Shamar Jennings, 50.93.

In other events, KC’s Ethan Gioko, with a season’s best 4:00.48, should take home the 1500 metres, while teammate, Jaquan Coke, with a best of 4:04.40, looks set to finish in the top three.

In the field, Javar Thomas, with a season’s best 15.46 metres, leads all comers in the triple jump, while Nathan Wade is second best in the long jump with 7.54 metres, behind St Elizabeth Technical’s, Ricoy Hunter with 7.57.

KC are also favoured to top the Open events with 57 points, another one-point margin over JC. KC’s Brian Kiprop in the 2,000-metre steeplechase will lead the way with a season’s best of 6:00.47. Gioko should also go all the way in the 5,000 metres for the team, as his season’s best of 15:27.43 minutes is well ahead of his peers.

With the likes of Glasgow, Jennings and Forbes in their 4x400m team, they should also score maximum points here.

The champions are expected to play second fiddle to St Jago in Class 3, as the Monk Street-based team is expected to score 81 points.

However, KC with 63 points will outscore JC on 55 points here.

Class 2 is where KC will likely pull away from JC.

With an expected quinella in the 1,500 from Chris Wanjiku and Nahashon Ruto, leading the way, the champions are expected to tally 79 points here behind Calabar’s 85 points. However, JC with 49 points will be found wanting. When the dust settles, KC, with 300 points, should top of the ladder.

JC, on 260 points, will have to settle for second once again, as the improving Calabar, on 232, will be third, while St Jago, the most improved team on the points table, will keep the fourth-place position with 154.