{"id":2508,"date":"2025-03-30T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/uncategorized\/orane-proud-champs-growth-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T22:57:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T22:57:43","slug":"orane-proud-champs-growth-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/trust-news\/orane-proud-champs-growth-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Orane proud of Champs\u2019 growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Daniel Blake | Observer sports writer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 30, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Douglas
Douglas Orane at Champs. Photo: Garfield Robinson \/ Jamaica Observer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Douglas Orane has worn many hats during his lifetime, but his association with Wolmer\u2019s Boys\u2019 and GraceKennedy make him particularly excited when it comes to the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)\/GraceKennedy Boys\u2019 and Girls\u2019 Athletics Championships (Champs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The still very sprightly 77-year-old, in his school colours of maroon and gold, was in attendance for the five-day championships at National Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though he may blend in with the thousands of spectators, Orane\u2019s contribution to the premier high school athletics event is pivotal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2007, as CEO, he pioneered GraceKennedy to become title sponsors of the championships, a partnership that has lasted for 18 years and contributing over close to a billion dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his vision, Orane stays humble, crediting his predecessors for sustaining the growth of Champs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI retired 14 years ago, so all of this is due to the younger generation,\u201d he told the Sunday Observer. \u201cI have a lot of praise for Don [Wehby] for building Champs even more over the last decade. Now he\u2019s retired and Frank James is carrying the baton now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love relays, they\u2019re exciting, but relays are important in business as well. You have seamless changes from one CEO to the next and I was so fortunate to make my baton change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orane says the championships is a testament of Jamaica\u2019s pride and joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I come here, I feel so much better about Jamaica, because when I see our young people so dedicated and disciplined to spend months, nearly a year, to prepare for 10 seconds or whatever their event is, it is so inspiring, so I\u2019m very optimistic about the younger people and they\u2019re an example for other young people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifteen years ago, Orane was overwhelmed when his former school Wolmer\u2019s Boys\u2019 won the Mortimer Geddes Trophy for the first time since 1956.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says it\u2019s a moment he\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember the final 4\u00d7400 which caused us to win, and it was so exciting up to the last race,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t explain to you how joyful it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut what I found most impressive was that Wolmer\u2019s won with a team with 35 athletes, competing against schools with hundreds of athletes. There was this camaraderie that really made the difference, you could see it. There was the famous photograph of [Julian Forte] and [Dwayne Extol] that was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, the \u201cBoys from Heroes Circle\u201d have produced top performances but haven\u2019t come close to topping the likes of Kingston College, Calabar, and Jamaica College for the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Orane remains optimistic that they\u2019ll end their drought in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll things are possible, so, therefore, I believe it\u2019s very doable,\u201d he said. \u201cLike everything else in life, you have to plan for it, prepare, be dedicated and focused and it will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wolmer\u2019s
Wolmer\u2019s Boys\u2019 Gary Card wins gold ahead of Rosean Smith of Lacovia in the Boys\u2019 Class One 100m final at Champs. Photo: Naphtali Junior \/ Jamaica Observer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: Jamaica Observer<\/a>, March 30, 2025. Republished for the Wolmer\u2019s Trust community with attribution.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Blake | Observer sports writer March 30, 2025 Douglas Orane has worn many hats during his lifetime, but his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trust-featured","category-trust-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2666,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions\/2666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}