Stu­dents from over 19 schools are set to com­pete in the 2024 Mag­ic Mist Group Port-of-Spain Cen­tral Pri­ma­ry School Games.

The Games will get un­der­way on Thurs­day with the jump­ing events set for the Mu­cu­rapo Boys RC School on George Cabral Street, Mu­cu­rapo from 9.30 am to be fol­lowed by the throw­ing dis­ci­plines at Man­dela Park, St Clair on Fri­day at 9.30 am. The com­pe­ti­tion will cul­mi­nate with the host­ing of the run­ning events at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo on March 7 from 9.45 am.

This year’s edi­tion marks the tenth straight year the Games are be­ing spon­sored by the Mag­ic Mist Group.

Chair­man of the Cen­tral Games com­mit­tee Lyle Re­ece is elat­ed with the decade-long re­la­tion­ship with Mag­ic Mist, say­ing: “We are in our tenth year part­ner­ing with Mag­ic Mist. A tenth year is a mile­stone and I know we will grow from strength to strength. The stu­dents will be com­pet­ing very hard to make their schools suc­cess­ful.”

Di­rec­tor and pres­i­dent of AnG Hold­ings Ltd & Mag­ic Mist Group of Com­pa­nies Wayne Her­bert says his or­gan­i­sa­tion is pleased with its in­volve­ment.

“Mag­ic Mist Group has been in­stru­men­tal in the evo­lu­tion and re­sound­ing suc­cess of the games over the past decade and looks for­ward to what is ahead. Since its in­cep­tion, the Cen­tral POS Games have pro­vid­ed a dy­nam­ic plat­form for young ath­letes to ex­hib­it their tal­ent and to com­pete at both the na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al lev­els,” he said, prais­ing all those who have been as­so­ci­at­ed with the three-day meet.

“We see the suc­cess and pro­gres­sion of the games over the years serve as a tes­ta­ment to the un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion and pas­sion ex­hib­it­ed by all in­volved. From the or­gan­is­ing com­mit­tee, the school prin­ci­pals, the ath­letes, the coach­es and the schools that come out on the day to ral­ly sup­port for their teams.”

Speak­ing at the launch of the Games in Mag­ic Mist Aranguez Of­fice on Mon­day, Her­bert added the Cen­tral Games have been spe­cial to his com­pa­ny.

He said: “In 2015 when Mr Re­ece came to Mag­ic Mist he want­ed to bring recog­ni­tion to the Cen­tral Port of Spain Pri­ma­ry area. We saw the ben­e­fit see­ing that our or­gan­i­sa­tion’s catch­ment area is the Port of Spain cen­tral area and we felt it im­por­tant to be part of that ini­tia­tive. Over the years the high­lights for me were see­ing the joy in chil­dren’s faces when they win, when the teams pass the fin­ish line. The joy for Mag­ic Mist is to hear the noise (of chil­dren cheer­ing) in the sta­di­um.”

Present at the launch were Schools Su­per­vi­sor I Al­gia-Bernadette, Cor­po­rate Sec­re­tary of Mag­ic Mist Rober­ta Robert­son and past Cen­tral Games ath­lete Je­lani Ed­wards.

An­oth­er for­mer par­tic­i­pant Re­ece Web­ster who is on an ath­let­ic schol­ar­ship at Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty in the USA al­so shared on her par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Games.

Rosary Boys RC and Sa­cred Heart Girls RC are the de­fend­ing Cen­tral A cham­pi­ons while Mu­cu­rapo Boys RC and New­town Girls RC won the Cen­tral B di­vi­sion last year.

Com­pet­ing Schools

Cen­tral A: Trin­i­ty Ju­nior, Mou­ton Hall Methodist, Sa­cred Heart Boys RC, St Cather­ine Girls An­gli­can, Sa­cred Heart Girls RC, St Ur­su­la Girls An­gli­can, Rich­mond Street Boys An­gli­can, Rosary Boys RC, Madres­sa-al-Mus­limeen, Maria Regi­na Grade School.

Cen­tral B: Wood­brook Pres­by­ter­ian, New­ton Boys Boys RC, Mu­cu­rapo Boys RC, New­town Girls RC, Mu­cu­rapo Girls RC, Tran­quil­i­ty Gov­ern­ment, Princess Eliz­a­beth Spe­cial School, St There­sa Girls RC, St Crispin An­gli­can, Palmera Learn­ing Cen­ter, Gaines Nor­mal AME.