Queen’s College rule as Champion of Champions in Zone One

By Tamica Garnett
QUEEN’S College were last Monday crowned ‘Champion of Champions’ of Zone One of the North Georgetown Inter-School Championships, after ruling in the track competition which concluded at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary.Having captured the swimming and field events, Queen’s College assembled 389 points in the track competition to surpass Chase Academy who ended with 349 points for second place. Third place for the track competition went to Kingston Secondary with 306 points.
With 269 points Richard Ishmael Secondary ended fourth in the track competition. However, Richard Ishmael still celebrated a second place win behind QC in the overall event.
It was Richard Ishmael who claimed the win in the cycling competition earlier last week. Their team had finished third in the swimming, and second in the field events.
Overall QC ended with 75 points, just enough to take the title ahead of Richard Ishmael who finished with 65 points. Marian Academy just made it in for third place with 56 points after Guyana Technical Institute (GTI) finished fourth with 54 points.
Despite their second place in the track competition, Chase Academy ended in fifth place overall with 44 points, while Kingston Secondary finished in sixth with 15 points. Kingston suffered heavily after not participating in the swimming, cycling or field events.
Top performing athletes for QC included Damesha McIntosh in the Girls’ Under-12, where she ran away with the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints and in the Boys’ Under-12 Ronneil Lord was at the top of his game, winning the 100 and 200m sprints.
In the Girls’ Under-18, QC were well inspired by national squash player Larissa Wiltshire.
For Chase leading athletes included Claudrice McKoy, Samuel Lynch, Mathew McKenzie, Elson Bradford, Jeremy Garrett and Sese Norville.
In the relays, Chase won the Boys’ 4x100m relay, where QC brought second place. However in the Girls 4x100m relay, it was QC who ruled while Chase were even further behind in third after Richard Ishmael took second.
In the 4x400m relays QC and Chase were head-to-head again, with Chase winning for the boys and QC triumphing for the girls.
The teams have been competing for the past week in swimming, cycling, and track and field, to determine who would be the Champion of Champions of the zone.
QC are the second team to claim a Champion of Champions title in the North Georgetown District. They follow Winfer Gardens Primary, who ruled supreme in zone four, when that zone completed competition last Friday.
In North Georgetown there are two other zones where champions are still to be declared. Zone Two Champion of Champions were expected to be determined yesterday, after that zone’s rivalry climaxed with the track competition which was also held at the Police Sports Club ground.
Bishops’ High stood poised for the win in zone two. Having already won the swimming, cycling and field events, a win of the track event would have given them the opportunity to boast straight wins in all four categories of the event.
Also looking to win all four categories are the St Stanislaus College (Saints) team over in zone four. With zone four’s track competition getting under way today Saints already stand on a 28-point lead, after gaining 60 points from finishing first place in the swimming, cycling, and field events.
Saints’ nearest contenders are Brickdam Secondary, who have 32 points, from their swimming and field events. Brickdam missed out on points in the cycling after they did not participate in that competition. Closely behind Brickdam are the Business School team with 28 points.
The top two athletes in each race of each zone will move on to the North Georgetown Inter-Zone Championships, set for Friday also at Police Sports Club ground.
At the Inter-Zone athletes will earn the prestigious opportunity to move on to the North Georgetown District 11 team for the GTU/MOE National Schools Championships, where North Georgetown have reigned as the defending champions for a number of years.
Over the years North have been in heated rivalry with Linden, District 10. North Georgetown won the title in 2013 and continued with the title after last year’s competition was called off due to inclement weather.
The date and venue for Nationals, as it is called, are still to be released, but with Guyana now boasting an all-weather synthetic track facility, at the National Track and Field Centre, the possibility of inclement weather curtailing the event would be minimised should the event be held there.