The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FOR the third consecutive year, the Temple Christian Suns emerged as the champions of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture’s annual Frank ‘Pancho’ Rahming National Primary School Track and Field Championships at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium.

The three-day meet, featuring more than 60 schools from around the Bahamas, concluded on Friday with the Suns accumulating a total of 271 points to out-distance their nearest rivals, North Andros High Seminoles, who had 193 for second place. The Queen’s College Comets got third with 163.

“The competition was more competitive this year,” said Temple Christian’s head coach Sherry Francis. “There were more schools participating. It’s a great meet, but I feel we need one more day to be added to the schedule. Friday is finals for all events and the workload is too heavy for the kids, 100m, 200m, 300m, 800m and 4 x 400m finals all back-to-back. Some of the final can be on another day.”

Despite her observation, the competition was still keenly contested with the schools finishing in the following:

Central Abaco Primary with 144; Martin Town Primary with 105; Cleveland Eneas Primary with 97; Freeport Primary School with 87; South Eleuthera with 76; C W Sawyer Primary with 75 and Sunland Baptist Academy with 72; Walter Parker Primary with 68; Uriah McPhee Primary with 66; Hugh Campbell Primary with 62; Carlton E Francis Primary with 56; Central & Northern Eleuthera with 55; Freeport Gospel Primary with 48; St. Anne’s School with 48; C W Saunders with 34; Centerville Primary School with 32; West Grand Bahama with 31; Long Island Primary with 30; Kingsway Academy with 30; Excelsior Elementary with 29; St. John’s College with 26; Acellus Academy with 25; Stephen Dillet Primary with 24; TG Glover Primary School with 24; Bartlette Hill Primary School with 23; Tabernacle Baptist Academy with 19; The Meridian School with 17; Bimini Primary with 17; Inagua Primary Schools with 16; South Andros & Mangrove Cay with 15; Claridge Primary with 35; Jordan Prince Williams with 12 . 50; Bishop Michael Eldon with 12 37; Coopers Town Primary with 11; Eva Hilton with 11; East End District with 9; Agape Christian School with 8; James A Pinder Primary with 6; Crossing Rocks South Abaco with 6; Exuma District with 6; Freeport Bible Academy with 5; Hillcrest Academy with 4; United Estates with 4 and Genesis Academy with 4.

Meet director Mike Sands said they will take the recommendation into consideration, but he said it still turned out to be a great event with the Ministry receiving some very positive feedback from the schools from Bimini to Inagua about how well organized the meet went.

“It was one of the more successful. We are getting grave reviews from the schools and those who came for the first time have indicated that they will be coming back,” Sands disclosed. “The accommodation was fantastic and everything went extremely well. We had some hiccups of this event, but it went very well and BACO did a very good job of helping the athletes with the zones in the relay.”

While the athletes were fed breakfast, Sands said the highlight for the Family Island athletes was the fact that they got pizza on Thursday and KFC on Friday. We joked around that we couldn’t find an empty box around. Everybody had a great time and we were very pleased with the end results.

As for the competition, Sands it was keen and some schools from the Family Islands were tied in the final point standings. But to have 1,500 kids competing in this meet means that the future is good for track and field. We just have to find a way to keep these athletes interested. So I’m really excited about what I saw at the three day meet.”