St Catherine defend National Champs title
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St Catherine successfully defended their title after finishing atop the pile at the 2026 staging of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA)/Sagicor National Athletics Championships yesterday, after two days of competition at the National Stadium.
St Catherine, who won in 2025, finished 17.5 points clear of their closest competitors, tallying 292 points on their way to the title.
St Andrew were second with 274.5 points while Portland closed off the podium places with 177.5.
In a further breakdown of the points, St Catherine topped the boys’ points standings as they contributed 158 points, ahead of St Andrew’s boys, who tallied 115.5.
St Andrew had a better performance in the girls’ standings, finishing tops with 159, while St Catherine were close behind with 134.
St Catherine began their title defence in strong fashion as they closed out day-one action atop the standings with 43 points, 14 ahead of St Elizabeth who led the trailing pack with 29 and Westmoreland, third with 23.
Many of their points on day one came from the high jump finals where they finished first and third in both boys and girls.
Dylontae Brown took the meet record in the boys’ final, clearing a height of 1.60 metres while Akeem Richards was third with 1.50.
On the girl’s side Nashauna Daley took the high jump title with a personal best of 1.45, while teammate Comoy Jones was third with 1.40.
Daley was a double gold medallist on the day, as she also claimed the girls’ shot put open title with an effort of 7.93 metres, another personal best.
St Andrew, who closed out day one with 14.5 points, had a lot of work to do on day two and claimed several points in the sprint finals.
St Andrew swept the girls’ 100m finals, claiming gold in the U11, U13, and U15 age-group categories.
Shaquana Pusey started off the sweep when she took the U11 title in 14.24 seconds, before Arianna Lewis won the U13 title in a personal best, 12.85.
Kyra Davis completed the sweep in the U15 category, facing a strong wind of -4.8 metres per second to take gold in 13.84.
St Catherine, however, scored major points in the 4x100m relays where they claimed the boys’ U13, girls’ U13 and girls’ U15 titles.
In the boys’ U13, they shattered the meet record with a winning time 48.24, eclipsing the old record 49.21 by nearly a second, and became the first U13 team to dip below the 49-second barrier.
The girls’ U13 relay final was a ding-dong battle to the death as St Catherine crossed the line first in 51.43, a hundredth of a second ahead of St Andrew, who were second in 51.44.
St Catherine had an easier time claiming the U15 title as they finished first in 53.06, far ahead of their closest rivals.
St Andrew closed down the girls’ schedule of events, taking the sprint medley title in a time of one minute, 57.91 (1:57.91) while Manchester took the boys’ sprint medley title in a gold-medal winning time of 4:24.17.