The 4th staging of MILO Central Champs was launched today (Thursday, March 4) at the Tropics View Hotel in Mandeville. Meet organizer Jerry Holness announced that the meet will be held at GC Foster College next Thursday and Friday (March 11 and 12) beginning at 9:30 am each day. He spoke about the importance of staging MILO Central Champs to the region and that it represents a good indication of how the girls’ teams will perform at Champs.

He also spoke about the continuing domination of the central region in the girl’s category at Champs and that it will be no different at ‘Champs 100’ later this month. To support his point, Holness pointed to the fact that schools in the central region won Girls Champs a total of 37 times – more than any other region, with Vere Technical – 23 times and 15 straight wins, Holmwood – seven times (straight wins), St. Jago High – four times and Manchester High – 3 times.

He also said that the region had produced more national representatives the any other region. This year the entire team to the NACAC Cross Country Championship in Trinidad that left the island today come out of the central region. Additionally the technical leader (Jerry Holness) and about half of the team to the IAAF Indoor Championship in Doha next week is made up of central region athletes.

Looking to this year’s championship Holness mentioned some of the young athletes to look out for this year including Jenieve Russell and Chris-Ann Gordon from Holmwood; Shericka Jackson from Vere; sisters Nikita and Ristananna Tracey and from Edwin Allen; Natoya Goule and Sandrae Farquharson from Manchester High; Kemoy Campbell from Bellfield High and Kemar Bailey-Cole from Old Harbour High.

Holmwood and St. Jago are the defending champions in the girl’s and boy’s sections respectively. The championship is expected to be highly contested once more with the top five girls schools nationally who all hail from the region, namely Holmwood, Vere, Edwin Allen, Manchester High and St. Jago. In the boys section, St. Jago is expected to be the runaway winner based on their current form and the fact the last year they won by a big margin over second place Holmwood last year.

The top five schools last year were: Girls – Holmwood, Vere Technical, Edwin Allen, Manchester High and Bellfield while the top five boys schools were: St. Jago, Holmwood, Claude McKay, Edwin Allen and Vere Technical.

Forty schools will contest the championship this year with Ascott and Hydel being the new schools.

The first event on the track on day one will be the 400M Hurdles Open for boys and girls while the meet will end with the 4x400M Relays for boys and girls.

Suzanne Wilson-Wong, Consumer Marketing Manager at Nestle with responsibility for MILO announced that MILO will again sponsor MILO Central Champs this year. She said that the sponsorship covers a direct cash payment to the organizers plus purchase of all the medals, the launch as well as the cost to promote the championship among other costs such as gift baskets to all winners. Additionally, she confirmed that MILO will continue to sponsor the event as it represents the company’s commitment to the region dubbed the ‘powerhouse region of athletics in Jamaica’.

Immediately following the launch, MILO hosted a MILO Sports Nutrition & Lifestyle Clinic which focused on the importance of good nutrition to the desired performance by athletes on the track.

Related posts:

1. 4th MILO Central Champs runs off tomorrow by: Trudy Williams The 4th MILO Central Champs runs off tomorrow at the GC Foster College in St. Catherine with a record forty (40) schools including two new ones (Ascott High and Hydel High). The two day meet – Thursday and Friday, March 11 and 12 – will begin at 9:30 am each day and [...]...
2. 4th MILO Western Champs launched The fourth staging of MILO Western Champs was launched yesterday (Wednesday, February 10) at the Manning’s School in Westmoreland. Meet Director Rudy Robinson announced that this year the finals will be held at Herbert Morrison technical in Montego Bay as the Catherine Sports Complex has not been made available for staging the championship and that [...]...
3. Munro ahead in boys elimination of MILO Western Champs After twelve (12) completed finals yesterday (Thursday, February 18) at Herbert Morrison High School, defending champion Munro College with 97 1/2 points is leading in the MILO Western Champs boys’ elimination. Peter’s Field and Herbert Morrison with 66 points each are in joint second. St. Elizabeth Technical – 62 and Godfrey Stewart – 25 round [...]...
4. 3rd Central Hurdles and Relays launched – Appeal for sponsorship & new events The 3rd Central Hurdles and Relays was launched today at the Tropics View Hotel in Mandeville. The meet will begin on Saturday, January 23, at the GC Foster College in St. Catherine, Jamaica beginning at 9:00 am. Meet Coordinator Jerry Holness announced that two new events will be added to this year’s schedule of events, [...]...
5. STETHS ahead in girls elimination of MILO Western Champs After thirteen(13) completed finals yesterday (Tuesday, February 16) at William Knibb High School, defending champion St. Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) on 146 points is leading in the MILO Western Champs girls elimination. Herbert Morrison with 73 points is a distant second. Frome 61, Hampton 32 and St. James High 30 round out the top five. Host [...]...