St Jago coach Keilando Goburn and his charges are aiming to take down defending girls champions Edwin Allen or many time winners Holmwood Technical at this year's 103rd staging of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Championships.

The Monk Street, Spanish Town-based institution which have four girls' titles to its credit; all coming in consecutive years between 1996 and 1999, finished third last year with 180 points.

"Our objective at the beginning of the season was to first and foremost score more points than we did last year and in addition to that, improve our position, so whichever of the schools (Edwin Allen or Holmwood) are closest to us, that is the one we are going to take," Goburn disclosed.

"Preparations have been going good so far. We have had our challenges just like anybody else and a couple injuries, nothing significant. We are hoping that we are going to get a couple personal best times and a couple finalists."

St Jago lost a few of their athletes to scholarships and migration, but have retained 90 per cent of last year's group.

"We are expecting the bulk of our points in Class One and Class Four," Goburn revealed. "We are average in class Two and a little below average in Class Three. We are also expecting to do well in the open events."

"Our jumps programme has been better than previous years, as that has been our weak area over the last couple of years," Goburn shared. "This year, we foresee at least one finalist in each vertical jump and one finalist in each horizontal jump. In terms of the throws we are pretty much here and there with the exception of class two, so we expect to have persons in the throws final as well."

St Jago's quest to move up to at least second in the girls' standings will be led by team captain, Chrisdale McCarthy, who will be seeking to defend her Class One 100m hurdles title. Natalia White is expected to do well in the Class Two sprints while Sashel Frater and Kimone Shaw should give good showings in the Class Four sprints with Monique McPherson set to feature prominently in the Class One middle distance event.

-R.J.