Holmwood Technical's Nadine Palmer (right) anchors her team to gold in the Class One 4X100 metre in 45.70 ahead of Jovanee Jarrett of St. Jago at G.C. Foster College yesterday. -Michael SlolelyMelton Williams, sport reporter
VERE TECHNICAL yesterday retained the girls championship title in dramatic fashion at the 2002 VMBS/ISSA Boys and Girls Athletics Championships after a ding-dong battle with St. Jago High at G.C. Foster College.
On a day when Holmwood Technical shattered the Class Two 4x100 metre relay record and their star athlete Aneisha McLaughlin accounted for the Class Two 200m record, the day belonged to Vere Technical who won by eight points with a tally of 273.93 after they entered the day 13 points behind St. Jago.
St. Jago who won the day's final event, the 4x400m, ended with 265.43 for second, Holmwood Technical were third with 261.43, Edwin Allen fourth with 183 and St. Andrew High ended up fifth on 121.5.
Although Vere Technical won by eight points, the battle for supremacy looked to be headed down to the wire but in the penultimate event of the day, the Clarendon-based school opened a 12-point lead after their Class One 4x100m team mined bronze behind Holmwood Technical and St. Jago High.
Vere Technical's coach Patrick Johnson described the five-day championships as "one of the hottest battles in a long while".
Johnson, who got the job last year when he led Vere to their 20th title, said that victory was achieved with a team that was injury hit on the final day.
"There were times when it seemed like we were going to lose. Simone Facey ran in the 200m with a slipped shoulder and came and ran the third leg of the 4x100, so performances like that lifted the spirit of the team," concluded Johnson.
The performance of day came from McLaughlin who shattered the Class Two 200m mark to mine her second individual gold.
McLaughlin, who earlier in the day took the Class Two 400m gold in 53.04, recorded 23.13 in the 200 to erase her mark of 23.43 set in the semi-finals on Thursday. Vere Technical's Facey also went under the mark, taking silver in 23.34 and Nickesha Anderson won bronze in 24.15.
McLaughlin picked up her third gold when she anchored Holmwood Technical to a record 45.45 in the Class Two 4x100m. The previous record of 45.8 had been held by Vere Technical since 1993.
The spotlight was also shared by St. Jago's star athlete, Melaine Walker, who also picked up three gold.
Walker, who mined her first gold with an effortless victory in the Class One 100m low hurdles, got her second after a deadheat with teammate Kerron Stewart in the 200m. Both athletes stopped the clock at 24.34.
The Jamaica World Championship representative returned to anchor St. Jago to a dramatic victory in the 4x400m relay, an event in which she took care of McLaughlin who led going into the turn. St. Jago won in 3:37.48.
