Buff Bay wrestle Eastern Champs title from St Mary

Buff Bay High school emphatically upstaged a confident St Mary High School, who just could not hold on to their title as champions of the east. They were undone by inspiring, heart-rending and all-out brilliant performances from the Portland team, who reigned supreme at the 2015 Eastern Athletics Championships, at the National Stadium yesterday.

Buff Bay amassed a sensational combined team score of 642. 50 points, 51.50 full points ahead of St Mary High, who totalled 591. Oberlin High were third with 469.50 points.

Fourth place went to Morant Bay High with 366.50, and the top five was rounded out by Glengoffe High with a fighting 200 points.

The other schools that finished in the top 10 were Seaforth High (106), Titchfield High (108), Yallahs High (106), St Thomas Technical (92) and Fair Prospect (91).

The action-packed day was highlighted by five meet records being eclipsed across the track and field disciplines, one in the boys' class three shot put and four on the track.

Yesterday's event diverted from the customary two-day meet and saw the teams compete in every event which was a final, hence they had to run fast times to medal.

For Buff Bay, they did everything right, from capitalising on St Mary's weaknesses to picking up crucial points in the hurdles, distance and field events.

"I feel very good about winning today (yesterday), we worked hard for it. We wanted everyone of our performances to be at a high standard, and I am just happy my boys and girls came out and pulled it off," said Kevin Brown, coach of Buff Bay.

special win

Brown was securing his third win with the Portland-based school after being on the job for 13 years.

"This win feels special, not just for me, but for every boy, girl and member of the school who put in the hard work," he added.

Meanwhile, St Mary coach, Dwayne Williams, was left ruing what could have been.

"Our team is very young, we lost some quality athletes to other schools and injuries, but we will regroup and come back strong next year," he outlined.

He noted that his team's weakness was in Class One, with just one female representative, and short in some of the field event disciplines.

"We will be going back to the drawing board and coming bigger and better next year, he said.