Latest News
Bennett blasts ‘incompetent’ Champs starters
April 01, 2025
Corey Bennett, head coach of 2025 Girls Champs winners Hydel High School, described the plethora of false starts at the just concluded Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championship as a 'fiasco and embarrassment to Jamaica's track and field'.
For the first time in the event's history, organisers implemented world standard reaction time to determine if athletes false start.
However, this resulted in more than 50 participants being flagged for false starts, and Bennett, who has coached numerous Jamaica teams to the World Youth Championship, said those operating the system are incompetent. He called on ISSA to get professionals who are expertly qualified to operate the system.
"They were incompetent. The officials at Champs for the most part have done a good job. But the starting people in particular are incompetent," Bennett said.
"I have never seen so many false starts in my life, not to mention persons being reinstated who had clearly false started," he pointed.
"So get rid of these persons who don't understand how to start races," he said.
GREAT STARTERS
Continuing, Bennett said "not all of them" should be thrown out "because you have some great starters. But the persons who are using the system they are incompetent," he reiterated.
Bennett, who is also head coach of Calabar High School, the Boys Champs' runners-up, reasoned that the inconsistencies in the adjudication of false starts was "ridiculous".
"When you look at the reaction times, it's ridiculous.
"When you look some persons did not have a reaction time, but you are faulting some who have. It was just something ridiculous.
"If the system was running correctly I don't think we would have any major problems. You can't have it where in one race some have reaction times and some don't have reaction times," Bennett argued.
"You put up green card when a boy or girl false starts. But a girl false start and you put her back in the race by herself," he said.
Lacovia High School's star athlete Sabrina Dockery, who won the Class One 100m gold medal, and Immaculate Conception High's Shevi-Anne Shim had been disqualified from the 200m for a false start. However, both were reinstated.
Bennett continued: "Some when they are finished they call them back and say 'you are disqualified', and my heart goes out to Jamal Stephenson, because he was robbed by the officials at Champs. There has to be some consistency at the Champs. It better you do it right or do it none at all," he stated.
Stephenson, a Calabar athlete, was conspicuously disqualified for false starting in the Class One boys' 100m semi-finals. Meet organisers ISSA later apologised for his disqualification, admitting that the starters had erred.
However, with a pending appeal, the organisers went ahead and ran the final. Afterwards, they admitted the error.
There were countless other cases that were questionable over the course of the championships, and meet director Anthony Davis, after the first day of the meet, stated that the issue was not due to faulty equipment, rather nervousness among athletes.
Nevertheless, Bennett said not much thought seemed to have gone into the sacrifice the youngsters made and how damaging it was to their aspirations, when introducing this new system.
"These are the youngsters' future, boys and girls trying to get into colleges and you cannot disqualify some and give some a chance.
"This Champs was a fiasco. It was an embarrassment to Jamaica's track and field. So you have to go a different level with it.
"My suggestion is that you go international and get some persons who know how to do this. Bruce James has a world-class system. He is the way to go. He has the best system in Jamaica. Bar none," Bennett stated.
"When you have 30, 40 persons false-starting in one meet that is almost a joke. I am hoping for the youths' sake, because this thing has devastated Jamal Stephenson, and up until now they haven't given him any proper justice. So unless the JAAA (Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association) steps up and steps in, it is going to be a fiasco," he said.
CELEBRATION
Meanwhile, the Ferry-based school celebrated their second hold on the ISSA Girls Championship trophy at the school's grounds on Monday.
Master of Ceremonies 'Pretty Boy Floyd' entertained with music, while there were speeches from team members, managers and coaches.
There were also performances from the Hydel dance group and a dance tribute from Hydel Prep School, along with a mini parade along Nelson Mandela Highway.
