Marlena Eubanks - Ian Allen

Coach of Edwin Allen High track and field girls team, Michael Dyke, has no regrets over his decision to pull pre-race favourite Marlena Eubanks out of the Class One 800 metres final at the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships on Saturday.

Edwin suffered a major blow to their championship hopes when Eubanks failed to face the starter for the Class Two 800m final. Despite not competing in that race, however, she came back later Saturday night and ran on the 4x400m relay team in the girls open final.

It was widely expected that Eubanks, who complained of dizziness before the final, had a good chance of winning gold. However, on medical advice, Dyke pulled Eubanks because of health concerns.

"I prefer to lose Champs than risk any of my athletes. Their health come first," Dyke, who has been coaching at Edwin for the past 22 years, told Star Sports yesterday, a day after his team surprisingly lost their title to Holmwood Technical.

"I realise some persons did not know what happened to Marlena. On medical advice, she did not run in the 800m final. We had to pull her from the race," Dyke explained.

better chance of winning

Michael Dyke - file

The Manchester-based Holmwood Technical won Girls Champs for the 10th time in the past 11 years with 310.5 points, ahead of Edwin Allen on 305.5. The top five was completed by St Jago (208), Vere Technical (202) and Hydel (157.5).

Dyke believes Marlena could have won that race or at worst finished in second position, which would have given Edwin a better chance of winning.

"That was a major blow. We lost about nine or seven points because she did not run in the final," Dyke said.

Eubanks was hit with a discus in the head during training, prior to Champs.

"We did a scan and everything was pretty much okay. At first, we thought she would not have made it, however, she recovered," Dyke said.

Despite all that, plus injuries to other athletes such as Saqukine Cameron and Christiana Williams, Dyke believed the team could still have retained the title.

"To be honest, I expected them to pull it off, but it just did not happen," he added.

"I must commend coach Maurice Wilson (Holmwood) and his team for winning the title."