Led by double winners Shantae Foreman and Aaliyah Francis, 10 female 2021 Boys and Girls Championships Class 1, queens, have secured college scholarships. Foreman, who completed a stellar Champs career in the jumps at St Jago High School after years at Excelsior, will head to Clemson University while 200/400 metres prospect Francis will move from the Rusea’s School to Auburn University. Both Foreman and Francis will move to their new institutions in January.

Led by double winners Shantae Foreman and Aaliyah Francis, 10 female 2021 Boys and Girls Championships Class 1 queens have secured college scholarships. Foreman, who completed a stellar Champs career in the jumps at St Jago High School after years at Excelsior, will head to Clemson University while 200/400 metres prospect Francis will move from the Rusea’s School to Auburn University. Both Foreman and Francis will move to their new institutions in January.

Foreman closed off her high school career with gold medals at Champs in Class 1 high jump and long jump, with marks of 1.84 and 6.43 metres respectively. She was just 3 centimetres short of the bronze medal in the latter event at the World Under 20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya. Francis was there too, winning a medal as part of Jamaica’s runner-up 4×400 metres relay too. At Champs, the Rodrick Myles coached combination sprinter did a dominating class 1 400/200 metres double with notable efforts – 52.51 and 23.85 seconds.

None other than national senior high jump record holder Sheree Francis has picked Foreman, coached at both Excelsior and St. Jago by Gavin James, for greatness. Speaking while Foreman was setting class 3 records, the 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist observed, “I’ve seen her and I also believe she can be the next person.”

The other eight class 1 Champs winners to have won scholarships are 1500 metres winner Sancia Smith and her St. Jago High School teammate Rushell Johnson, the 3000 metres champion, who will attend Western Texas, Hydel High School’s 400-metre hurdles victor Garriel White who is now at LSU, long jump gold medallist Ackelia Smith who has followed her old Edwin Allen teammate Kevona Davis to the University of Texas, Clarendon College discus ace Roxene Simpson who will be coached by Jamaica’s Olympic shot pioneer Dorian Scott at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Leonie Samuels of Rusea’s who is now studying at Umpqua Community College, javelin winner Latavia Galloway, who is headed to Troy State University and heptathlon athlete Amanda True who has left Vere Technical High School for Grand Canyon University.

Francis and White, who went 1-2 in Class 1 400 metres at Boys and Girls Championships, may meet often during their college careers as Auburn and LSU, Louisiana State University, are both in the powerful South Eastern Conference (SEC).