The first set of finals in the 2023 ISSA Boys and Girls Championships will be contested on Wednesday as schools begin to position themselves for title contention.
17 finals are down for contention both on track and field events across all classes in Wednesday’s Day 2 of the championships.
The first set of points will, however, be decided in the field events.
The boys’ class II Long Jump gets things underway in the afternoon, followed by the shot put for class II girls.
The top contending schools for the boys all have finalists in the long jump.
Kingston College (KC), Jamaica College (JC), and Calabar (Cbar) have registered two athletes each in what’s expected to be a thrilling duel for the first set of points of these championships.
It’s also expected to be an interesting start on the girls’ side, with favorites Edwin Allen High and former champs Holmwood Technical outnumbering title contenders and Hydel High in their first medal event.
That event is scheduled to begin at 2:05 pm, with the Long Jump for Boys set to begin five minutes earlier.
The 1500 meters dominate the afternoon with classes 1-3 contesting the middle-distance event.
Just as it was in the opening finals, the battle for championship honours looks set to kick off with a heated start.
Reigning champions KC and former winner JC has the maximum two finalists in all classes of the 1500 with C-bar having qualified finalists throughout the categories.
All eyes will however be fixed on the match-up between the KC pair of Ethan Gioko Ainsley Campbell, versus Kemarrio Bygrave, and Nellie Ambriton of JC.
All four logged the fastest times coming into the finals.
For the girls, champions Edwin Allen enters with the advantage as they have registered two athletes per class in each final, outnumbering Hydel and Holmwood, almost two-to-one in the event.
Those finals are set to run-off beginning at 3:30 pm.
The evening session will see the class 1 girls vie for the discuss gold while class 1 boys settle the final of the long jump.
Day two is however set to close with a bang with the 100 meters finals across all classes bringing the curtains down on what’s expected to be festive finals day.
The first 100m is set to run off at 7:25 pm.
