Basic School Champs the Track and Field Cradle – Grange

The Honourable Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, has said that it was fulfilling that in the same breath as the nation on Saturday night saw Usain Bolt run his last professional race in Jamaica, there will be the opportunity to this week to see “some of what is in the cradle and will be coming through to succeed the likes of Usain.”

Minister Grange spoke this morning as she launched the 2017 Renewal of the Institute of Sports (INSPORTS) Basic School Athletics Championships to take place at the National Stadium from June 14 to 16.

Miss Grange said that, “We might well see at this meet a youngster who will come close to or even surpass the great Usain Bolt, to whose professional career, we in Jamaica said farewell on Saturday night.”

The Minister said that Jamaica’s interest in promoting track and field even at the basic school level is one of the reasons why the country has done so well in the sport and will continue to excel.

She said that sport is equally important at the basic school level because it is the right of a child to be provided with facilities to play, “and one day in the not too distant future we will have the proper facilities available at all basic schools throughout the country.

The INSPORTS Basic School Athletics Championships will involve 60 schools with some 1,300 participants.

Spread over the three days, the students will compete in events such as the 50m dash for girls and 60m dash for boys; the 40m Obstacle Race for boys and girls; the 60m Potato Race; the Standing Jump for girls and the Relays.