Althea Scatliffe wins Inter-Primary School Track & Field Championship

Althea Scatliffe Primary School (ASPS) staved off a spirited effort from defending champion Joyce Samuels Primary School (JSPS) to capture the 2022 Inter Primary School Track and Field Championship.

The ASPS Mighty Striders, as they are fondly known, finished with 237 points — just 26 points ahead of JSPS Stingers who had 211.

Willard Wheatley Primary School rounded out the top three with 119 points.

Alexandria Maduro Primary School finished fourth with 89 points, Bregado Flax Educational Centre finished fifth with 85 points and Francis Lettsome Primary placed sixth with 80 points.

Individual champions

Meanwhile, Joyce Samuels Primary and Althea Scatliffe Primary each holds three of eight individual champions from the event.

Kishawn Potter, M’Kenzi Crabbe and Sheneal Percival from Joyce Samuels walked away with the Boys 13-plus, Girls 13-plus and Boys Under-11 crown, respectively.

Clifton Logan, D’Karai Prescott and D’Niya Thomas of Althea Scatliffe walked away with the Boys Under-9, Girls Under-11 and Girls Under-13 awards, respectively.

Shakyla Collins of Bregado Flax Educational Centre won the Girls Under-9 crown while Tyrique Charles of Pelican Gate walked away with the Boys Under-13 award.

D’Niya Thomas, Sheneal Percival and M’Kenzi Crabbe were joint winners of the Victrix Ludorum trophy for overall girls champions; finishing with 20 points each, while Kishawn Potter, D’Karai Prescott and Tyrique Charles finished with 20 points each to be crowned joint Victor Ludorum winner for ‘overall boys champion’.

Excellent performances

President of the BVI Athletics Association (BVIAA) Steve Augustine said the execution of the championships and the overall competitiveness of the athletes over the two days were excellent and he was happy with the outcome.

However, Augustine said as the President of the BVIAA, he would love to see the championship go back to the way it was before. He said currently, only the two best athletes from each school compete per event.

“But what we would like to see is a situation where we go back to how things were done before where we give other athletes in the school a chance to compete. We had folks that placed fourth, fifth and sixth from the school. They want to run as well so it would be nice if we gave them a chance,” Augustine said.

“So, what they did was each athlete could only compete in two events which means that it is somewhat limited. So, if we could get back to the way things were before because other athletes in the school wanted to run. We heard the cries from the parents in the stands. They got kids and their kids did not get a chance to run. Maybe that is something we can consider when we move forward. All the athletes in the school, they may not be the best, but it would be nice if given a chance to compete,” the BVIAA president said.

He also noted it was difficult to choose an overall champion as athletes could only compete in two events and once they win that event, they garner 10 points.

As a result, three persons shared the ‘overall champion’ accolade in both the boys and girls categories.