Kingston College students along Tom Redcam Avenue on their way to the National Stadium on day three of the 2011 ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Championships last Friday. - Norman Grindley

AFTER failing to claim the boys' crown at last weekend's Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Championships, runners-up Kingston College (KC) are pointing fingers at the organisers.

Head coach Michael Russell is fuming and thinks the result could have been different if it had not been for a leakage of confidential information concerning one of their top athletes.

Russell stated that top Class-Two athlete Clive Pullen, who was victorious in the long jump, did not get a chance to participate in the high jump because of a protest from a particular school about the events he was scheduled to compete in.

"Over the years we have used a strategy in which we do not name some of our top athletes on the entry form, but we put them on our reserve list because we know that the form is being scrutinised, and other schools will know our strategy," he said.

According to Russell, initially Pullen was entered in three events with the intention to pull him out of one.

"We entered Pullen in the 110 metres hurdles, long jump and discus as we were doing a daily declaration in which we have a maximum 48 hours (for a final decision)," he said.

Russell stated that the plan was to replace Marvin Pinnock with Pullen in the high jump, but because they (KC) were doing a day-by-day declaration, it appeared as if he was doing four events.

required amount

"Only ISSA should have known this, and we were surprised when a particular school protested that Pullen was doing more than the required amount of events which was not the case, and our information should not have been leaked to another school."

According to Russell, he was told by an official from ISSA that they were going to throw out Pullen from the fourth event, or they would have to go back to the original entry.

"Because of this he ended up not doing the high jump which we think he could have won, and I am very upset. Champs forms taken to ISSA should be private and confidential," a very upset Russell said.

However, ISSA's director of competitions, George Forbes, has described Russell's allegations as 'rubbish'.

"Nobody from ISSA leaked any information to any school, and this is total rubbish," Forbes said.

"Pullen was entered for three events: the long jump, discus and 110 metres hurdles, and if they had done their change form on the March 29 instead of March 30, they would not have had a problem.

When they tried to enter him for the high jump the system would automatically throw him out as only three individual events are allowed," the ISSA competition director said.

Forbes did admit that a school had protested about Pullen doing too many events.

"Yes, there was a protest, but they did not name the event, and we did not give any school any information. It was KC's error as they were over-strategising. If they had done the right thing their athlete would have been able to compete in the two events they wanted him to do instead of only one," concluded Forbes.

KC finished second at the championships with 280 points, eleven less than champions Jamaica College. Calabar High were third with 236 points.

KC's Clive Pullen.

( l - r ) KC's Michael Russell. ISSA's George Forbes. - file