Sisters Ristananna Tracey (left) and Nikita Tracey of Edwin Allen High. – File

Edwin Allen High School is battling bad weather to prepare adequately for next year's Boys' and Girls' Athletics Championships.

The 2010 meet will be historic. It marks the 100th year of Boys' Championships. The female competition is not as old, but Edwin Allen will be seeking to lift their first girls' title.

According to the team's head coach, Michael Dyke, things are not going as smoothly as they could be.

"I would not say very well, because we have been hampered a lot by the type of weather we have. It really has prevented us from doing some of the things we would like to do," explained Dyke.

The school is situated in the interior of the parish of Clarendon where it rains almost every day. The coach and his athletes have been forced to give up outdoor training on many occasions.

forced indoors

Michael Dyke (left) and Mackola Joseph (right)

When The Gleaner visited the school recently, the girls had been forced indoors and on the steps at the school.

Despite the wet weather though, Dyke said: "It is (preparation) going fairly well, not as well as we would have liked. The weather seems to be giving us a little better chance now to prepare and things are looking well."

On his team's chances, Dyke said their main aim is to take top honours, despite the strength of defending seven-time champions, Holmwood.

"Any well-thinking person with a reasonable team would want to win that coveted prize, but it's going to be difficult with a team like Holmwood Technical, which is still strong, and they are the defending champions. But we will not roll over that easily, we are coming all out to defeat them next year," explained Dyke.

"We have been preparing very well and our expectations are very high this year. We were in the top two last year and we want to maintain that. It's one notch up or we maintain second. We don't want to slip below that," he added.

Nikita Tracey returns

Nikita Tracey, who won bronze in the 400-metre hurdles at the Central America and Caribbean (CAC) Championships last summer, will again return to defend her title in that event.

Nikita Tracey also won at Carifta Games, Penn Relays and Pan Am Juniors. Her younger sister, Ristananna Tracey, who was second to her in the 400-metre hurdles at the championships, is also there. Edwin Allen have some big names, maybe even bigger than Holm-wood, but the team is not as well-rounded.

Still at school are Annmarie Duffus, the heptathlon winner last season, Keenan Davis, the Carifta Under-17 100-metre hurdles champion, high jumper Kimberly Williamson, Mackola Joseph, Shashawna Ffrench, Amoy Blake, one of the best schoolgirl 4000-metre runners locally, and thrower Sasha Marston.

Dyke said it is early days, but they are strong all round.

"We are just in the preparation stage, but I think we have a pretty strong Class One and very good supporting classes, but Class One is our strength."