A huge congratulations to Calabar High and Edwin Allen High for winning Boys and Girls Champs 6 and 4 consecutive times respectively. That’s indeed a great feat. The athletes were the best, they performed well, and their coaches were the best two coaches at the event.

The results on the Boys side was not expected by many, including me BUT I always knew it was a two-horse race between eventual winners Calabar and Kingston College (KC). On the Girls side, I always felt Edwin Allen had too much fire power to be caught but Hydel High, St Jago High, and Holmwood Technical made it quite interesting for most of the championships.

I congratulate ISSA, the TVJ staff, 1SpotMedia, the student athletes, coaches, the great fans, and others for a great championships. As analyst Bruce James said at the end, and I paraphrase, “This is the best track meet in the world… notice I didn’t say high school”.

On behalf of Yowlink, I beseech you to come together Jamaicans… Caribbean people, and see how we can impress the world with things like #Champs2017 and the brave kids 11-18 who performed well and hard. Those things build the great nation of Jamaica and their loving, God-fearing, law-biding, competitive citizens. It’s a good place. Let’s not continue to destroy our image with murders, rape, gangs, scams, fights, and nonsense. Lets stomp out the madness with great events and participation like this. Show the world, we can root for different teams and still be “one people”.

I must thank the Yowlink staff for their contribution during the entire #Champs2017.

Calabar won. Edwin Allen won. Congratulations to both schools, students, athletes, coaches, and fans.

Check this out. I wonder if The College decided to protest the final score of 317 (Calabar) to KC (314) because of what happened in the 800m finals where they originally got 2 points to Calabar 1, if people would be upset and calling out KC on FB and Instagram for being sore losers?

During the race, the man from KC had been pushed earlier and lost a bit of ground so he warded off the runner coming up on his left to sandwich him. It happened to be the man from Calabar who ran up and threw punches at the man from KC. First time I have seen that at champs. After they finished 7th (man from KC) and 8th (Calabar), the man from Calabar went after the man from KC and had to be restrained by ISSA / Champs officials. The 7th place finish gave KC 2 points and 8th place gave calabar 1 point.

You might remember that they took away the 2 points from KC and the 1 point from Calabar, disqualifying both. Think about that.

But later in the final moment, we learnt that they took disqualified only the man from KC but the man from Calabar was not disqualified so KC lost the 2 points but Calabar gained 2 points. That made the final score what it was.

Pushing and shoving while jockeying for position in these long distance races is nothing new.

1. If the man from Calabar and the man from KC were both disqualified, the final score would have been 317 – 2 = 315 Calabar, 314 – 0 = 314 KC, giving Calabar a 1 point Champs win. No difference.

2. If neither the man from Calabar nor the man from KC were disqualified after the race, the final score would have been Calabar 317 – 2 + 1 = 316 to KC 314 + 2 = 316, a tie and they go to which team won the most gold medals. I don’t have those numbers but, of course, if it was KC, they would have to hear endless complaints about Ari Rodgers and that 800m decision but they’d be Champs winners.

3. If the man from Calabar had been disqualified for throwing punches and going after the man from KC after the race and the man from KC kept his 7th position finish, the final score would have been Calabar 317 – 2 = 315 to KC 314 + 2 = 316, then KC wins Champs by 1 point. KC would have to hear endless complaints about Ari Rodgers and that 800m decision but they’d be Champs winners.

I should write for Yowlink.

I man first. To the people, mostly wealthy, whose land he stole or whose relatives he killed because they opposed him, they will celebrate. For others who saw him as a revolutionary, they will feel sadness. I can tell you that most Caribbean people I man talk to over di years nuh have issues with Fidel Castro. No politician, revolutionary or not, is perfect. Castro definitely had many many flaws, did many many bad, but did many many good.

Yes indeed. Congratulations to Edwin Allen who are well on their way to repeat as Champs after 10 years of Holmwood dominance. @csharpe may not want to hear this but, the thread KC is hanging on is getting thinner and thinner. Let’s see what happens there.