Springer Memorial hoping to bounce back

Perennial Track and Field queens, Springer Memorial, have their sights set on doing well when the 2020 Barbados Secondary Schools’ Athletics Championships roll around. With their annual Inter-House Meet out of the way, Head Coach Julie Phillips said that they could now look to taking on the challenge.

Speaking during their in-house meet at the National Stadium this past week, Phillips told The Barbados Advocate that she felt good with the effort the athletes put in for their houses. “It’s a very upbeat day. We had good weather, good sunshine. No major injuries for the day and all of the races, barring one or two, have been very, very competitive and the official results will show that,” she said.

On having their dynasty ended in 2016 after over a decade of dominance, Phillips explained that her team had remained consistent and that they would be aiming to remain so. “We are always confident of doing well and having individual performances. We have outstanding athletes across different year groups – everybody excels in their own way and we are pretty confident. Since we lost the title a couple years ago, if you check the results, we have always been consistent. The biggest margin was about 50 points and the smallest was by about 30, so we are confident that our girls will be competitive each and every day and that’s the kind of mentality that we have. We are risers, we don’t give up, so I am very happy with what I am seeing so far,” she said.

Noting that she could not say which of her divisions would be the strongest, Phillips said that she was satisfied with what she had to work with. “At this point in time I really can’t say because everybody moves up a division every year, so there is always that person that will stand out. The Under-13s, we are now getting a feel for them in a competitive situation, but coming out of the Relay Fair where they did reasonably well, we are satisfied with what we have,” she said. (MP)