The victorious Holmwood team - Ian Allen

Holmwood Technical coach Maurice Wilson is once again delighted to have proven the pundits wrong after slipping by favourites Edwin Allen on Saturday, with what many had branded and inferior team.

In the end, Holmwood prevailed by six points (306-300) for their ninth successive hold on the title.

"This win is our sweetest ever as once again we have proven the pundits wrong. We were not given any chance to win but I was always very confident after seeing the improvement after Central Championships, they improved week by week," said Wilson, who has been at the helm in all nine victories.

great character

"Our turning point in winning the Championships came in the Class Four 4x100 metres relay, as we have not done well all season and the team displayed great character, with a brilliant anchor leg from Natalie Walters bringing the team from fourth to a close second," he continued.

Holmwood had not been a factor all season in that relay but nearly pulled off a major upset as they only lost by one-hundredth of a second to favourites Edwin Allen.

"We knew the Championships would have come down to the relays and myself and coach Kirk Brown spent some extra time with the relay groups, especially in Class Four I told him that they were going to do well as they have always looked good in training. The coach also gave credit to his coaching staff and several past students.

"On Saturday, former athletes Anastasia Leroy, Aneisha McLaughlin and Salsia Slack gave the athletes a motivational talk in the warm-up area and that really helped spur on the athletes. I have a great coaching staff who have worked extremely hard all year round," said Wilson.

Despite the team not doing well all season, the coach says it only serves as added motivation.

"I get motivated when it comes down to Champion-ships, it helps to spur me on when it's crunch time. I do not worry about what happens before that. I get pumped up at Champs, our athletes relish the moment and they always seem to have a pep in their step this time of the year. I said before if they are on par with any other athlete on the day they will not lose. They are Champs 'monsters'," especially on Saturday, said Wilson.

Asked about the future with it being a young team, he replied: "I do not like to predict because these are young girls and anything can happen, some can lose focus while others can get injuries. I do not want to make any prediction about the future but it is frightening indeed that this is a young team."

Wilson