By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
Manchester High boys and Vere Technical girls will start the defence of their respective titles at the Central High Schools track and field championships at the Windalco Sports Complex in Manchester this morning starting at 9:00.
Twenty-one schools in both sections will take part in the two-day meet that will end tomorrow.
Eighteen finals are scheduled to be held on today's first day including the 1500m for boys and girls in all classes, the 400m hurdles open for Boys and girls, the 5000m for boys, 3000m for girls, the shot put open for girls, the Boys class two and three high jumps, the long jump for girls classes two, three and four and the boys Classes two and three discus.
The meet is expected to be competitive with a number of national junior and senior representatives on show.
If she is over the injury that has kept her out of the early season meets, Manchester High's Sherone Simpson and Vere Technical's Simone Facey will clash in the Class One sprints.
Both were team-mates on the Jamaican 4x100m team that won the gold medal at the IAAF World Junior Championships (WJC) in July last year.
Carlene and Camille Robinson who are also apart of the team at the WJC have since transferred to Manchester High from Christiana and should make a serious impact on their points tally.
Camille should clash with defending champions Sheryl Morgan in the Class One 400m while Carlene and Morgan will meet in the 400m hurdles where the Holmwood runner is also the defending champion.
Tacius Golding's Jermaine Gonzales should take the Boys Class One 200/400m double. Gonzales won the quarter mile in 47.5 seconds and was second to Steve Mullings in the 200m in a creditable 21.9 seconds. Both races were run less than 45 minutes apart.
This year he could be tested in the longer race by Holmwood Technical's Jermaine Myers who will start favourite to take the longer races over 800m and 1500m.
