Vere Technical's Simone Facey (centre) holding on to clip Holmwood Technical's Aneisha McLaughlin (right) in the Class 2 100m final at the recent Central Championships. Facey clocked 11.5 seconds. Tracy-Ann Rowe (Holmwood, left) was third. - Paul ReidWESTERN BUREAU:
MANCHESTER High and Vere Technical successfully defended their boys and girls titles at the recent Central Athletics Championships held at the Windalco Sports Complex in Manchester.
Twenty-nine boys and 28 girls teams took part in the two-day event that was affected by rain on both days.
Manchester's boys tallied 238 points to beat Vere Technical 136, Tacius Golding - 134, Holmwood - 117 and Christiana - 102. Vere extended their long string of wins in the girls section amassing a staggering 400 points. Holmwood were second with 355 followed by Edwin Allen 258 and Manchester High 208.
Vere Technical's Simone Facey completed an outstanding sprint double in Class 2 beating Holmwood Technical's Aneisha McLaughlin at the line in both events.
Facey clocked 11.5 seconds in 100m final after running 11.2 in the heats as McLaughlin crossed the line in 11.6 seconds.
Both were credited with the same time, 23.3, in the 200m but the Vere athlete leaned across the line first to snatch the gold medal.
Holmwood's World Championships representative Nadine Palmer signalled her return to form by winning the Class One sprint double in good times and also ran creditable legs on both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays teams, both to gold medals.
Palmer's 11.4 seconds was good enough for the gold in the 100m ahead of Manchester High's Sherone Simpson. Simpson was also second in the 200m race that was won by Palmer in 23.5.
Vere Technical's Steven Mullings defended the Class One boys sprint double clocking excellent times of 10.2 for 100m and 20.5 over 200m.
Tacius Golding's Jermaine Gonzales was second to Mullings in the 200m in a good 21.9 seconds, less then 45 minutes after he had outclassed a strong field to win the 400m in 47.5 seconds.
Arguably the best performance of the day came in the girls Class One 400m where Holmwood's Sheryl Morgan clocked 53.1 seconds with Christiana's Camille Robinson in second place in 54.2 and Vere's Patricia Hall third in 54.4.
Morgan had a 53.5 second leg on the girls 4x400m relay as Holmwood won in 3:45.2. The other members were Peta-Gaye Beckford who led off with a 57.1 leg, Palmer had a 56.8 third leg with Nyoka Cole anchoring in 57.5.
Morgan was also a part of the Class One 4x100m team along with Palmer, Shaunette Davidson and Shelly-Ann Stubbs that won in 45.7.
Davidson created some history when she cleared 1.78m to win the high jump, the best-ever leap by a woman at Central Champs. The national junior representative failed three times at 1.81 metres, less than a week after setting a personal best 1.84m at the National Field events and hurdles meet held at the GC Foster College.
Beckford won the Class 2 long jump leaping to 5.72m.
Christiana's Shawn Smith won the 800m/1500m double, taking the two-lap event in 1:53.8 after taking the longer event in 4:16.38 on the first day.
Christiana also had two triple champions in Judith Riley who won the Class 4 70m hurdles and the sprint double while Mikel Downer won the 100m hurdles and the sprint double for Class 3 Boys.
Manchester High's Nesta Carter took the Boys Class 2 sprint double in fine times of 10.83 and 22.5 seconds respectively.
Holmwood won six of the 12 relays including the Boys Class One 4x100m that saw outstanding legs from Sean Sergeant and Yhann Plummer on the third and anchor legs respectively, to go past the Vere team that had taken a good lead after Mulling's strong second leg.
Kevin Staple and Orlando Elliott ran the first two legs for Holmwood.
Boys points standings - Manchester- 238, Vere Technical - 136, Tacius Golding- 134, Holmwood -117, Christiana - 102, Central - 94, Knox College - 87, Edwin Allen - 62, Ewarton- 40, Alston - 39, Dinthill - 33, Bellefield - 27, Porus - 27, Clarendon College - 25, May Day - 25, Ferncourt - 24, Cross Keys - 23, Glenmuir - 23, Lennon - 21, DeCarteret - 19, Kemps Hill - 18, McGrath - 16, Old Harbour - 14, Spalding - 12, Guys Hill - 5, Claude McKay - 4, Bustamante - 0, Denbigh - 0, Mile Gully - 0.
Girls points standings - Vere - 400, Holmwood - 355, Edwin Allen - 258, Manchester High - 208, Christiana- 98, Tacius Golding - 70, Ferncourt - 31, Winston Jones 15, McGrath-14, Claude McKay- 11, DeCarteret- 10, Bustamante - 9, Lennon - 7, Dinthill - 6, Spalding - 5, Alston - 5, Glenmuir-4, Old Harbour - 4, Clarendon College-2, Denbigh - 2, Mile Gully - 2, Kemps Hill - 1.
