From Waterford to Husbands, the champs are still celebrating.
At least Queen’s College had drums for this victory lap.
The newly crowned Inter-School Sports kings turned the Husbands compound into one big street jam yesterday as the school’s champion athletes celebrated Queen’s College’s second Barbados Secondary Schools’ Athletic Championships boys’ title.
It was a sea of red, blue and white when the students started their own Mardi Gras in front the school hall, following a band of drummers and their victorious athletes down the road adjacent to the main buildings.
A troupe of more than 300-strong then made its way onto the cricket field, eventually settling under a massive bearded fig tree for one big jam before making the rounds again to return to the tree.
“Today, we have a lot to celebrate,” acknowledged principal Dr David Browne. “This celebration is for coming first in the boys and second in the girls at BSSAC and that is a considerable achievement.
“We have been performing consistently well over the last four years but we believe we can do even better. Athletics at Queen’s College is really on the up.”
After winning their first ever boys’ title in 2008, Queen’s College repeated the feat last week at the National Stadium, having to come from behind the likes of rivals Harrison College and early leaders St Leonard’s Boys.
Led by CARIFTA medallists Kemar Jones, Raphael Jordan and Dario Scantlebury, Queen’s College topped the boys’ table with 262 points after coming second to Harrison College in 2009 and 2010.
The girls’ contingent finished second to perennial queens Springer for the second successive year.
“This is something we intend to continue. This isn’t a flash-in-the-pan thing,” said Browne.
“It isn’t a fluke either, as we have a strategic plan for 2009 to 2014 and the focus is to improve on our academic success but central to that is developing the all-round, articulate, positive student and sports are a main part of that.
“We want to see ourselves as a school of excellence in both academics and sports. We’ve done well in cricket, basketball, netball and track and field,” he added.
Earlier in the day, offensive tackle of NFL franchise Baltimore Ravens, Ramon Harewood, returned to his almer mater to address the morning assembly at his alma mater.
