The Jamaica Star :: Sport :: Mile Gully claim their Champs spotlight

Richard Bryan, Freelance Writer

Jermaine Blake (left) of Mile Gully High competes in the 5000m during last week's Boys and Girls Athletics Championships at the National Stadium. Blake was second behind Bellefield's Kemoy Campbell (right). - Ian Allen

While the accolades deservedly went to the champions Calabar and Holmwood, the annual boys and girls athletics championships is replete with sub-plots of schools and athletes, who in their own right, overcame great odds to score important and historic points.

One such school is Mile Gully High and its main athlete, Jermaine Blake.

In the words of coach Orin Gordon, the ambitions of Mile Gully approaching the championship would not have garnered any particular spotlight.

"Basically we went to the championship to score in double digits (boys), help some people achieve personal best, score about five points in the girls section and have two boys in a final," said Gordon.

Slim odds but high hopes

With an aggregation of just six athletes, the odds were stacked against Gordon, with his main hopes hinged on Blake, who had placed fifth in the 5,000m the previous year and Shanese Young, who had managed seventh place to provide two points in the Class Three 1,500m final.

In the case of Blake, the potential was strong, having originally been selected to represent Jamaica in the NACAC cross-country championship following good runs, including a second-place finish in one of three such meets held at Kirkvine between December and January this year.

The expected challenge for the minor places behind the overwhelming favourite Kemoy Campbell of Bellefield did not materialise at Central Champs, as Blake surrendered early, after completing five laps. He failed to reach the 1,500m final at that same championship and had to forgo other meets after an extended bout of flu.

With Young dropping out of the Class Two 800m after aggravating an earlier injury picked up at Central Champs, the attention was squarely turned on the efforts of Blake, whose uncle Jerome Smith had gotten a third place finish in the 5,000m in 2001.

With no major meet experience under his belt, Gordon, who recently completed the Level One IAAF coaching certificate, still believed his main athlete would deliver the goods. His instructions were also simple for Blake to execute.

Looking for greatness

"Based on his performances in training, I was looking for great things," he said. "The strategy was just for him to run hard enough to qualify and then run sensibly for a placing in the final. By sensibly, I meant not to try and run with Kemoy (Campbell) too early as this would harm him in the end."

Blake would eventually place eighth in the 1,500m final to earn a precious point and more importantly finish second behind Campbell in the 5,000m in a creditable personal best of 15:45:88.

As for his little known school, it became one of 35 schools from a competing pool in excess of 80 in the boys' section to earn at least a point at Champs, breaking a seven-year drought. In fact, Mile Gully mined eight points, to finish 21st overall. That placing, in the boys' section, bettered the points achieved this year by such traditionally favoured and funded schools as Ardenne, Vere, parish-mates Manchester High and Cornwall College.