The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports

Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FOR the second consecutive year that the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture decided to implement a scoring system in their annual Frank 'Pancho' Rahming National Primary School Track and Field Championships, the Temple Christian Suns have prevailed as champions.

"This one was great. We had an awesome team this year," said Suns' head coach Sherry Murray-Francis. "We had kids in all of the finals, so we knew that we would have come out on top."

At the end of the three-day meet on Friday at the Thomas A. Robinson Track and Field Stadium, Temple Christian had accumulated a total of 341 points to repeat as champions.

Murray-Francis, assisted by Nekeno Demeritte, said she was extremely impressed with competitors like Davanique Dean, a triple threat in the 100, 200 and 400 metres.

And based on their performances, Murray-Francis said there's no reason why they can't three-peat next year.

"We have a strong base at Temple Christian," she said. "A lot of parents have been asking us why their children were not on the team this year, but only two competitors we could bring in each event.

"So with the amount of athletes that didn't make the team this year, we still have a very good base of athletes to work with for next year. Our programme is very strong. We train kids all year from September to now."

Queen's College Comets had to settle for second place with 202 points. Central Abaco Primary rounded out the top three with 182 points.

"The kids performed well. We have some of our kids who are in the clubs and it showed in their performances," said Comet's head coach Everette Frazer.

"We came to compete, but we knew that Temple Christian was deep and they were strong in both the boys and girls divisions. They made finals in just about every event. We came here to win, but we knew when it came to depth, we didn't have as much as Temple Christian."

Jeffery Victor, heads coach of CAP from Abaco said they gave it their all as they improved on their fifth place finish last year.

"I felt we were a little stronger this year. I was hoping for second, but we will be happy with third," said Victor of their 30-member team. "Our under-14 boys performed extremely well.

"We were kind of disappointed in our girls straight across the board. We have to go back and pout in more training and get back on track. Hopefully we can get a track so these kids can get in the proper training."

Rounding out the top five in the competition were Andros Primary with 162 points for fourth and Cleveland Eneas Primary for fifth with 130.83.

The next five in order were Sunland Baptist Academy from Grand Bahama with 104.83 for sixth, Yellow Elder with 103 for seventh, Freeport Primary with 94 for eighth, St Anne's with 77.33 for ninth and Tabernacle Baptist Academy, also from Grand Bahama, with 61 for tenth.

A total of 27 schools from throughout the country participated in the meet, which honored veteran coach and technical director Frank 'Pancho' Rahming, who celebrated his birthday on day two when the official opening ceremonies was held on Thursday.

Michael Pintard, in his first official outing as the new Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, opened the meet and congratulated Rahming on his milestone.