Toco Sec claim National Track and Field hat-trick

TOCO Secondary claimed a hat-trick of National Secondary Schools Track and Field titles by the narrowest of margins with victory by one and a half points over Bishop’s High School of Tobago, when the two-day meet came to an exciting close at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, on Friday.

Toco Secondary, coached by Keshorn Walcott’s aunt Anna Lee Walcott, ended with 296 points to claim the overall title, with Bishop’s High School finishing right on its heels with 294.5 points. It was a two-horse race as third placed Scarborough Secondary was third with 179, Signal Hill Secondary ended fourth with 167 and Point Fortin East Secondary amassed 145.5 for fifth place. In the boys category, Bishop’s High copped the crown (163.5), ahead of Queen’s Royal College (134) and Toco Secondary (128).

Toco Secondary earned the girls title with 168 points, Bishop Anstey High School (Port of Spain) finished second after gathering 141 points and Bishop’s High rounded off the top three with 131 points.

After the victory, Toco principal Verona Davis-Modeste was not pleased with her team’s final total. “Actually we are going to call for a recount of the points because it could not be accurate. We have to make some queries because our Under-13 male athlete won his age group category Victor Ludorum (with) 20 points, but he won three individual events.”

Each gold medal in an individual event earns an athlete ten points. Davis-Modeste also said, “They also have athletes winning Victor and Victrix (awards) with 30-something (points) which can’t be if you in three individual events.”

However, Davis-Modeste was glad to come out on top. “It has been an intense two days. We have never lost before, so being threatened so close it was tense, but is a good feeling to know that we retained the crown.” The 4x400m relay events brought a noisy end to the meet with students supporting their peers in hope of valuable points in a last push for the title. Bishop’s High were especially an animated group, creating their own rhythm section with chair and chanting, “Let’s Go Bishop’s, let’s go.”

Toco and Bishop’s High both earned precious points in the 4x400m relay events. Bishop’s High School earned silver in the girls Over-17 and fourth place in the boys Over-17, but a silver medal run by Toco in the girls Under-17 and another second place finish in the girls Under-15 was enough to clinch the title.