Excelsior aiming for top five

Head coach David Riley says Excelsior High will be aiming to break into the top five of the points standings at this year’s ISSA-GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) set for March 19-23 at the National Stadium.

Riley said this comes after seeing much improvement in the school’s track and field programme.

“The improvements have been significant,” he said. “I mean, it’s part of the plan that we have, and we’ve been executing the plan. The improvements are what we’ve expected based on what we’ve been doing and the investments that we’ve been making in the infrastructure in the equipment and facilities. We’ve now seen it in the development of the athletes,” Riley said.

Excelsior finished eighth on both the boys’ and girls’ points standings at last year’s championships and will be looking to move up the rankings this time around.

According to Riley, his team is ready to put on a good showing at Champs based on the performances he has seen so far this season.

“We’re aiming for top five, and we’ve been looking at that as our goal for both the male and the female side, and that is what we’re working towards. We want to get into that top five at Champs,” the head coach at the Mountain View Avenue-based high school said.

Riley said he has been trying to instil a championship mentality at Excelsior, and he will be hoping that their recent win on the girls’ side at the Corporate Area Development meet would prove to be a good test for his team but described Champs as “a whole different monster”.

He believes that his team is physically ready, and now, the preparations are on ensuring that the athletes are mentally fit to perform at Champs.

“We’re a team that focuses not only on our physical preparations, but our mental preparations as well. We’re trying to improve on that aspect. I mean, these kids are not necessarily used to having a championship culture. On the girls’ side, winning Corporate Champs repeatedly for the last few years helps, but by and large, Champs is a whole different monster.

“We do need to make sure that we’re on our A-game and be able to deliver the performance that reflects our fitness, and that’s what we’ve been trying to get. We’re ready physically, so now we’re just working on the other aspects as well,” Riley said.

Excelsior can be described as a very balanced team, and Riley is hoping that his senior athletes will lead from the front.

“We’re a Class One and Class Two team, and we will be dominant on the technical side, so we’ll do well in the sprints and hurdles. We have some jumpers, and we have decent, if not very good, relay teams as was evident at the Gibson McCook Relays. That’s where our focus really is, so we hope to execute based on what we’ve been doing in training, so hopefully, we can get to our goal.”