NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (May 11, 2022) – The Charlestown Primary School (CPS) was officially declared winner of Zone A in the 2022 Gulf Insurance Inter-Primary Schools Championship as the Ministry of Education in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) revealed the audited results from the track meet during a press briefing and medal distribution ceremony on Wednesday, May 11, 2022.
CPS copped its third successive championship having amassed 215 points; St. Thomas Primary took second place with 169 points; and Joycelyn Liburd Primary placed third with 168 points.
Elizabeth Pemberton Primary was declared winners of Zone B with 62 points; Maude Crosse Preparatory, which was unofficially declared winner following the meet, took second place with 53 points; and Violet O. Jeffers-Nicholls Primary placed third with 45 points.
Hon. Troy Liburd, Junior Minister of Education in the NIA, apologized to the schools and students for the inaccurate results that were announced after the April 27 event. He congratulated the winners and all participating schools for the their meritorious efforts during the return of the annual event after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minister said discussions are underway that could see a change to the scoring system for the Championship going forward, in order to prevent controversy with the outcome of the event.
“We have had some discussions pertaining to the competition and the way we want to take it into the future, and a part of that discussion that we have had is probably a change to the system of scoring that we now have. Consideration is being given to shifting the sports to a gold medal-based meet. It is being strongly considered, and over the ensuing months we are going to engage all of the stakeholders and try to get the input of all of them. What we are looking to do is to eliminate the type of situation that we had at the climax of this year’s Inter-Primary.
“We are also going to be looking at putting in an audit system similar to Culturama where we have the primary persons doing the scoring or counting the medals but then have some persons looking over, doing an audit of the placings or the points, whatever is the system that we settle on next year,” he said.
Mr. Garfield Virgo, Meet Manager explained the delay in delivering the official results. He said a meeting was held two days after the event this year where all schools were represented and a comprehensive review was done of every single event.
“The results were projected on a screen and the photo-finish images for each race was also projected on that screen and so each rep had an opportunity to look at the results and compare what they were seeing to what the results were. So we went through all 54 events and while we were doing that we also asked the coaches to take a tally. So they were keeping track of the events and scores and at the end of it we had the official scores which I presented to the Ministry.”
Mr. Kevin Barrett, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, commended the hard work put in by the student athletes, teachers, coaches, parents, track officials, volunteers, and meet organisers that made the 40th staging of the event a huge success.
He expressed gratitude to the school sponsors and the event’s title sponsor Gulf Insurance Ltd. for their invaluable contributions to Nevis’ biggest annual sporting event.
Following the press briefing Education and Ministry of Sports officials, including Ms. Zahnella Claxton, Principal Education Officer, and Mr. Jamir Claxton Director of Sports, distributed individual medals to the students and trophies to the winners of the various event classes, along with the winning trophies.
First cousins Kymani Newton (Grade Six) of the Charlestown Primary and Adira Wallace (Grade One) of the Joycelyn Liburd Primary were named Victor and Victrix Ludorum, respectively, of the 2022 Gulf Insurance Inter-Primary Schools Championship.
The ceremony was held at the Nevis Performing Arts Centre (NEPAC) and was attended by teachers and student athletes from the participating schools, school support staff, and Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sports officials.