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Since the new Millennium, Holmwood Technical High school has won the most ISSA/GraceKennedy Girls’ Athletics Championships titles. The school from Christiana, Manchester, won its first title in 2003 and kept up a winning streak for the next eight years before losing to Champions Edwin Allen High School in 2012 then returning in 2013 to claim its tenth title.

All of Holmwood wins came under then head coach Maurice Wilson before he left the programme, and since then, the team is yet to find the winning formula. STAR Sports caught up with Dave ‘Dago’ Anderson, the man at the helm of the track and field programme, during a training session recently at the GC Foster College, and he is quietly confident that they can return to winning ways.

“Last year, we were a bit unfortunate not to have won, but this did not materialise as between Central Championships and Gibson-McCook Relays, a few of our top athletes went down with injuries and didn’t recovered in time for Champs, and that was really a big setback for us,” said Anderson.

Despite not being factored among the favourites to win this time around, coach Anderson believes they can pull off an upset. “What I can say is that once the team turn up as the way we expect them to perform, we have a chance. The only persons who are going to be surprised by what we are going to achieve are the spectators and those who are not close to the team and if the numbers that I am looking at do materialise, then it will put a different spin on what everybody is saying out there,” he continued.

The former champions have lost a few top athletes from last year’s Class One One team, including the likes of sprinter Michae Harriot and sprint hurdler Shanette Allison. But Anderson does not see this as a big blow to the team. “If you were to do the mathematics, one would see that their absence will not affect us as Shanette gave us one point last year and Michae gave us two points. Yes, they could have done better because of their talent, but because of injuries, we did not get much from them and looking on it, a girl like Kavia Francis, no way she can finish eight in the 200 metres this time, like Michae did last year as we have people who have stepped up big time, and people are just looking on the names and not the replacements,” he said.