分类： sports

As Jamaican women’s national football team the senior Reggae Girlz prepares for the make-or-break Concacaf Women’s Championship clash against Costa Rica on November 27, head coach Hubert Busby has voiced strong confidence that all of the squad’s overseas-based players — including star striker and team leader Khadija “Bunny” Shaw — will be available for selection for the high-stakes fixture.

The upcoming match, hosted in Texas, is a winner-takes-all showdown: the victorious side will secure an automatic qualification spot for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, leaving no room for error for either side. Questions have circulated around player availability in recent weeks, as November does not fall within an official FIFA international window, leading to concerns that European and North American clubs may refuse to release their contracted Jamaican players. But Busby says these concerns are unfounded.

Speaking in an interview with the Jamaica Observer, Busby noted that the November qualification matches carry official FIFA status, meaning clubs are required to release eligible players for international duty barring injury. He pointed to the recently concluded Asian Football Confederation Women’s Asian Cup as a clear precedent, where clubs released players despite the tournament falling outside a standard FIFA window, adding that he fully expects every called-up player to join the Reggae Girlz camp ahead of the qualifier.

When asked about the teams’ last meeting in 2022, where Costa Rica claimed a 2-1 win over Jamaica, Busby pushed back on the idea that that result can offer a blueprint for the upcoming clash. “There is very little we can draw from that 2022 fixture beyond the knowledge that Costa Rica is a formidable opponent and one of the top sides in the Concacaf region,” Busby explained. “Our focus right now is not on past results, it is on preparation for November 27. That is the only result that matters.”

With a World Cup spot hanging in the balance, Busby says his guiding message to the squad is simple: focus only on what the team can control. “The squad already knows exactly what our objective is, and we are so close to achieving it. There is no need for extra rhetoric. Right now, the key is to stay present, put in the work, prepare thoroughly, keep our focus, and maintain belief in ourselves,” he said.

Busby also opened up about the longstanding lack of recognition the Reggae Girlz program has received, something he acknowledged has been frustrating for the team and its players. But he noted that public support for the squad has grown steadily in recent qualifying matches. “The turnout and energy we saw from fans at our last two home qualifiers was fantastic, and the entire team felt that support on match day. We hope that this momentum and backing continues as we head into this biggest match of the cycle,” he added.

The head coach emphasized that the squad’s current approach prioritizes incremental improvement over hype and media attention. Even after the Costa Rica matchup was confirmed as the decisive qualifier, the team remained focused on the preceding fixtures rather than looking ahead, Busby said. Further strategic planning will take place once the full squad gathers, but the core focus will remain on identifying and addressing areas for improvement ahead of kickoff.

While Busby fully recognizes the magnitude of the upcoming fixture, he stressed that the team must stay focused on the 90 minutes of play rather than getting wrapped up in the occasion’s pressure. “This is without a doubt one of the biggest matches most of these players will ever play in, and we understand exactly what is at stake. But we can’t let the occasion overwhelm us. We know that six million Jamaicans around the world are behind us, and that support gives us a huge boost,” he said.

Despite the high pressure of a winner-takes-all qualification match, Busby confirmed that belief within the Reggae Girlz camp remains extremely high. “We are a confident, unified, and fully focused group,” he said. “We are ready to compete for our spot in the 207 World Cup.”

The comments come months after the Reggae Girlz’s most recent Group B qualifying fixture against Guyana in April 2026 at Kingston’s National Stadium, where Shaw scored the opening goal for Jamaica in a victory that kept the team on track for the decisive November qualifier.

PHILADELPHIA — One of the most anticipated showdowns of the 130th Penn Relays Carnival at Philadelphia’s historic Franklin Field is set to unfold on the event’s second day, as Jamaica’s elite boys’ high school track and field programs clash for their final team competition of the 2024 season. With powerhouse programs bringing stacked rosters of top-ranked athletes to the iconic U.S. meet, fans and analysts are already predicting record-breaking performances across both relay and field events.

Leading the charge in the relay competitions are three of Jamaica’s most decorated programs: ISSA national champions Jamaica College, 4x100m title holders Calabar High, and perennial 4x400m powerhouse Kingston College. Kingston College will enter the 4x400m relay aiming to extend their unprecedented winning streak to five consecutive Penn Relays titles, a mark that would solidify their status as the most dominant program in the event’s history. Day two will host preliminary rounds for both the 4x100m and 4x800m relays, with the 4x400m preliminaries and final scheduled for the event’s closing day on Saturday.

A total of 29 Jamaican institutions have qualified for the 4x100m relay, with the top nine fastest teams across all competitors advancing to the Championships of Americas final on Saturday. The next nine fastest teams from outside the United States will move on to the International final. Alongside the pre-race favorites Jamaica College, Kingston College, defending champion Calabar High, and Excelsior High, several underdog programs including St George’s College, William Knibb Memorial, and St Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) are projected to compete for spots in the coveted finals.

In the 4x800m relay, Jamaican programs are coming into the 2024 meet with higher expectations than ever after a solid sixth-place finish from Kingston College (KC) in 2023. KC has posted a time of 7:38.95 this season, the third-fastest qualifying time heading into the Penn Relays, trailing only Union Catholic of New Jersey (7:32.78) and Florida’s IMG Academy (7:35.28). Other Jamaican contenders include Edwin Allen High (7:41.06), Jamaica College (7:43.75), along with entries from Bellefield High, STETHS, Alphansus Davis High, and Calabar High.

Beyond the relay track, Jamaican athletes are heavily favored to claim titles and break records across all scheduled boys’ field events on day two. Michael-Andre Edwards of Jamaica College enters the triple jump undefeated this season, holding a personal best of 16.25m that already outpaces the existing Penn Relays meet record of 16.01m set by O’Brien Wasome in 2016. With ideal track conditions matching Thursday’s opening day, Edwards is widely expected to break the record as he defends his 2023 title, where he won with a mark of 15.95m. He will face stiff competition from a deep field of Jamaican challengers, including KC’s Rekelme Hunter, Amani Phillips, and Demario Clarke, Calabar’s Antonio Anderson and Kaleel Samuels, and Wolmer’s Boys pair Roshane Francis and Kabiki Thomas.

In the discus throw, Jamaica College’s Joseph Salmon will look to improve on his second-place finish from 2023, entering the competition with a world-leading 67.55m throw with a 1.75kg discus. Salmon has his sights set on Traves Smikle’s Penn Relays record of 69.55m, set with the American standard 1.60kg implement. Another Jamaican favorite, Edwin Allen High’s Addison James, is projected to defend his 2023 javelin title, coming to Philadelphia with a personal best of 70.30m, the 10th best mark in the event this year. He will compete against a field that includes KC’s Daijon Budhai and Dylan Logan, Munro College’s Rajeem Street, and Calabar’s DeAndre Henry.

A last-minute disruption hit the boys’ shot put competition, as Munro College’s ISSA Class 1 gold medalist Javontae Smith was denied a U.S. entry visa and will not compete. In his absence, Kingston College’s Nksosana Johnson and Calabar High’s Khaleel Henry will lead the Jamaican contingent. In the high jump, STETHS’s ISSA Class 1 winner Santino Distin will compete alongside KC pair Tejahni Jaynes and Michael Neil, while the long jump features Omarion Miller (KC), Jaivar Cato (Jamaica College), Talshawn Edwards (Calabar High) and Svein Lawrence (Petersfield High).

PHILADELPHIA – One of the most anticipated upsets at the historic 130th Penn Relays Carnival unfolded on Friday during the meet’s second day at Franklin Field, where Michael-Andre Edwards of Jamaica College delivered a career-defining performance to shatter a 10-year high school boys’ triple jump record that had stood since 2016.

Going into the competition, the 16.01m record set by former Jamaica College athlete O’Brien Wasome had long been flagged as vulnerable. Edwards proved that prediction correct in the third round of jumps, when he landed a 16.26m leap with a -0.1m/s wind to push past the old benchmark. Refusing to settle, the young jumper topped his own new mark in the very next round, clocking a personal best of 16.29m with a 0.8m/s tailwind that secured his place in the event’s history books.

In post-competition comments, Edwards acknowledged he had targeted the record long before stepping onto Franklin Field’s iconic track, driven in part by the connection of the previous record holder to his own school. His consistent dominance across the entire competition was remarkable: after setting the new record, Edwards delivered two additional jumps that cleared 16.12m, rounding out a standout series of performances that outpaced every other competitor in the field.

Edwards’ win also extended Jamaica’s unbroken streak of dominance in the event to five consecutive years. Even the second-place finisher, American Mile Nesmith of Memphis Central High School (Tennessee) – the holder of the U.S. high school indoor record – turned in an impressive performance that broke Wasome’s old record, landing a 16.18m jump with a 0.4m/s wind, but still fell short of Edwards’ historic mark.

The event saw multiple other Jamaican athletes place in top positions, reflecting the nation’s continued depth in track and field jumping events. Rekelme Hunter of Kingston College took third place with a 15.41m jump, Kabiki Thomas of Wolmers’ Boys School claimed fifth with 14.77m, Antonio Anderson of Calabar High took sixth with 14.75m, and Wolmers’ Boys School’s Roshane Francis followed close behind in seventh with 14.74m.

In other jumping events at the carnival, Santino Distin of St Elizabeth Technical notched a season-best 2.06m to earn third place in the high school boys’ high jump. The event was won by Ryan Buskey of Colonie Central High School in New York, who cleared 2.14m, while Darius Reid of Upper Perkiomen High School in Pennsylvania took second with a 2.09m clearance.

In the high school boys’ long jump, Jamaica also placed multiple athletes in the top ranks. Jaivar Cato of Jamaica College finished fourth with a 7.11m jump, Omarion Miller of Kingston College took fifth with 7.06m, and Talshawn Edwards of Calabar High secured sixth place with a 7.04m leap.

Jamaica’s Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) has emerged from one of the toughest stretches in its modern history, pulling off full seasons of interscholastic sports against the dual threats of post-hurricane infrastructure damage and lingering COVID-19 pandemic disruptions. The crisis began last October, when Hurricane Melissa made landfall along Jamaica’s western coast right in the middle of the annual schoolboy football season, bringing all competition to a near total halt for roughly four weeks. The storm hit hardest at local educational institutions across the affected region, including St Elizabeth Technical High School — the campus where ISSA President Keith Wellington serves as principal. In the months that followed, the organisation faced a fresh test: preparing for the iconic ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, widely known as Champs, scheduled for this past March. Ultimately, just 25 schools from the hurricane-ravaged western parishes were able to field teams and participate in this year’s flagship competition. In the wake of the storm, dozens of institutions across western Jamaica continued operating at severely reduced capacity. Many campuses were converted into emergency shelters for displaced local residents, while others remained without reliable electrical power for weeks after the storm passed. Hundreds of student-athletes were displaced from their home parishes and forced to relocate to temporary accommodation across the island. Some schools suspended entire sports programs indefinitely to focus on recovery efforts, and many even held regular classes outdoors while crews worked to repair storm-damaged campus facilities. Wellington, who is currently serving his third term as ISSA president after first taking office in 2019, says the organisation would not have pulled off its competition calendar without cross-community collaboration. In a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer, he outlined the collective effort that kept school sports alive through the crisis. “It has been challenging, but I think we have a great team at ISSA, both in terms of the staff, as well as the executive. When we’re talking about Champs specifically, that extends to the persons who assisted with organising the event, the schools themselves, and their representatives,” Wellington explained. “I think that because we all work together it makes it a lot easier, and I think, as well, that those of us who are involved know the value of what we do for our children. Therefore we remain committed and we make the sacrifices to ensure that the opportunities are there for them. If we don’t ensure that it is there, even under trying circumstances, the long term effects would be too much for any of us to bear.” The recent stretch of disruptions echoes the unprecedented crisis ISSA faced in March 2020, when Jamaica confirmed its first locally transmitted case of COVID-19 just days before that year’s Champs was set to begin. The event was cancelled outright — the first cancellation of the championships since 1944, when the event was put on hold amid global World War II restrictions. Interscholastic school sports eventually resumed under strict public health protocols, including a period where competitions were held without any spectators in attendance. Even with the cumulative impact of back-to-back crises over the past five years, Wellington frames ongoing challenges not as a barrier to progress, but as a source of motivation for himself and the broader ISSA team. “I thrive on challenges,” he said. “I grew up having challenges in my personal life and it makes me stronger and makes me a better person. So, I don’t necessarily look at challenges as obstacles but as an antidote to make me stronger. So, I don’t really complain or think negatively about challenges. At the end of the day, I believe that once I give it my best shot, I will be happy and I will benefit from it too.” Most recently, the organisation has celebrated key competition milestones, including St Elizabeth Technical High School’s December 2025 victory in the ISSA daCosta Cup final at Kingston’s National Stadium, where the team defeated Glenmuir High School on penalties after a 0-0 regulation draw. In March 2026, Jamaica College’s under-14 team also claimed the title in the ISSA/Burger King Urban Under-14 competition, overcoming Kingston College 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at Stadium East.

At the 130th running of the iconic Penn Relays Carnival held at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field, a bold strategic call by Jamaica’s Hydel High School delivered a historic result: the program claimed its fifth consecutive Championships of the Americas 4x400m title on Friday, clocking the third-fastest time in the event’s 130-year history.

In a high-risk move that defied traditional multi-event competition norms, Hydel High’s coaching staff elected to skip both the 4x100m and 4x800m relays to concentrate the team’s limited energy and roster depth exclusively on the 4x400m. The gamble nearly fell short, as the squad trailed rival Edwin Allen High for nearly the entire race before anchor leg runner Nastassia Fletcher made a decisive pass in the final 60 meters to secure the win.

Hydel crossed the finish line in 3:02.85? No, the official time was 3:32.85 seconds, a mark that cements its place in Penn Relays record books. Edwin Allen, one of Hydel’s longstanding Caribbean rivals, finished second with a time of 3:33.24 seconds — the fastest ever performance by the program at the Penn Relays and the fourth-fastest mark recorded in the history of the championship race. Bullis School from Maryland rounded out the top three with a time of 3:38.46 seconds.

Head coach Corey Bennett adjusted his lineup between Thursday’s preliminary rounds and Friday’s championship final, rearranging the running order to maximize the team’s speed profile. The adjusted final squad opened with first-leg runner Sashashunta Hemmings, followed by Sashanna Johnson on the second leg, Aaliyah Mullings on the third, and anchored by Fletcher. Friday’s win marks Hydel High’s 11th Penn Relays championship wheel (the iconic trophy awarded to relay winners at the event) in the 4x400m discipline.

In additional results from the championship race, Jamaica’s Holmwood Technical finished fourth in 3:39.43 seconds, while Alphansus Davis took eighth place with a time of 3:50.48 seconds.