Kerala School Athletics Championship 2011 December 8 -11

The 55th edition of Kerala State School Athletic Championship will commence on 8th December 2011 at the Maharajas College stadium, Ernakulam. More than 2600 emerging athlets from across the state would heat up the synthetic track of Maharajas' ground in the event that lasts four days. The championship is conducted as the part of the annual Kerala State School Games.

The championship will be inaugurated by State Ports and Excise Minister K Babu. Embarking the event, a torch relay started from Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. The relay will arrive in the Kochi on Wednesday. It will be preserved at the SRV High School overnight. The torch will be carried to the venue on the inaugural day by the medal winners of the previous year.

The competitions would be held in a total of 94 disciplines in sub-junior, junior andsenior boys and girl levels. The cash awards of Rs. 110,00, Rs. 82,000 and Rs. 55,000 would be presented to the top three schools, which score the maximum points in the event.

An exciting cash prize of Rs. 5000 would be awarded to those who create new national records, while Rs. 2000 would be awarded to those who break the existing meet records.

Apart from this, the cash prizes of Rs. 750, Rs. 625 and Rs. 500 will be awarded to those who win gold, silver and bronze medals respectively in the invividual categories.

Ernakulam district is the champion for last 7 years. They are running on the strength of schools Mar Basil HSS and St George's HSS both from Kothamangalam. There is a intense competition between these schools also. Last year meet in Thiruvananthapuram witnessed Mar Basil wins the champion school title pushing St George's down by half a point. That assures that this year also will see a great competence. Palakkad, Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram are the teams that are the main threat for Ernakulam.

India's frontline coaches and athletes like K T Thomas and P T Ouseph, P T Usha, Mercy Kuttan and all will be there to encourage their disciples in the meet. The state team for the 57th National Athletics championship held at Ranchi will be selected from this meet.