Eden Lodge Primary celebrated their champions in this year’s National Primary Schools’ Athletic Championships (NAPSAC) during a motorcade yesterday.
The girls narrowly missed out on second place as West Terrace edged them by a single point during the last Thursday’s finals when St Giles emerged champions at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex.
The parade was led by Ashlyn Simmons, who won the Under-13 Girls’ 400 and the Open Girls 600 metres. She shattered Jaria Hoyte’s eight-year-old time in the 600 metres during the semi-final.
Simmons, also joined Kimmesha Hinds, Zaniyah Roach and Aliyah Richards in anchoring Eden Lodge to victory, with a record time of 2:00.97 minutes in the Open Girls’ Medley relay.
Armed with their school flag and trophies gained during the athletic meet, students of all ages hit the streets following a truck from the school straight on to Hinkson Land and through White Hall Tenantry Road, Johnson Land and Boundary Road to the Housing Area and the Nursery school before returning to their school.
Principal Grace Wickham told WEEKEND SPORT the motorcade was an incentive for their achievements.
“We are celebrating positive youth. We want to show the children that when they behave in the right manner that there are great rewards for them. We just want to celebrate because we are very happy about the performances.
Breaking records
“We came third in the girls’ division of NAPSAC 2018. We also had outstanding performances with our Open Medley girls’ relay team. They have been breaking records. They finally broke their own record at the finals and we also have the girls’ champion Ashlyn Simmons in the 400 and 600 metres,” she said.
Wickham noted that apart from NAPSAC, they were also celebrating the hockey team, who won the hockey skills competition and student Nicholas King, who was named Most Valuable Player during that exercise.
The cricket team also reached the semi-finals in the Guardian Group Herman Griffith Primary Schools’ Cricket Competition.
She said the school owed much of their our successes to Errol “Scoobie” Holder, his son Stephan, physical education teachers Natasha Wickham and George Sandiford, and janitor at the school, Diana Downes, who coached the hockey team. (RG)
