Kingston College track team out for revenge in this year’s Championship
No other team has won more Championship titles than Kingston College, a record 31 victories. In fact, no other team since the turn of the millennium has won more titles, winning seven from a possible 17, with only three other teams being victorious in the other Championships (Jamaica College (2), Wolmer’s Boys (1) and Calabar (7)). However, with their last victory being in 2009, the North Street powerhouse has laid victim to the prowess of another superior force, Calabar, who have won the last five consecutive Championships.
It’s no secret that KC would love to outshine their rivals this year, in fact they have tried relentlessly to do so since the green and black domination began in 2012. Since then, KC has finished runners up four times (2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016) which perhaps explains KC’s raging desire to get the best of Michael Clarke and his boys.
It was Ackeem Bloomfield who tried fruitlessly to inspire the purple and white in last year’s Champs, and his efforts were exemplified in that now famous 400m race in which the lanky sprinter came second to a determined Christopher Taylor. However, KC has been accused of trying to recruit a new star in a bid to clip Calabar from attaining a sixth successive title in the form of Ugandan Ari Rodgers. The school came under heavy scrutiny in December of last year when young Rodgers started attending the school and was seen winning the Hugo Chambers 5K and was part of a winning team at the Burger King 5K in September of the same year.
What we are sure of however, is that we will see another exhilarating battle between two schools who have dominated the competition since its inception in 1910. Both Kingston College and Calabar have 31 and 26 titles respectively, the first and second most. They have the talent and they have the passion but will we see a repeat of what we have been accustomed to for the past five years? Or will the prestigious trophy finally return to North Street for the first time in eight years?