Former CARIFTA Games relay medallist Ryan Wright gets into stride in his heat of the Boys' Class 1 200m at the COCAA Boys Western Champs eliminations on Thursday. He was second in his heat and has qualified for the 100m and 200m and will be favoured to medal in both.
-Paul A Reid photo
Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
ONE POINT separates the top two teams after 11 finals in the County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) following Thursday's elimination day held at St. Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) in Santa Cruz.
Co-defending champions Herbert Morrison Technical lead with 108 points, one more than Mannings with the other co-defending champions, Munro College, in third place on 96 followed by Corn-wall College (70) and STETHS (16).
Mannings, who have a big lead in the girls' section where they are the defending champions, are seeking a unique double on March 2 when the finals will be held at the Montego Bay Sports Complex at Catherine Hall.
Mannings lead in the girls' section with 134 points, far in front of STETHS on 49, Maldon (46) and Herbert Morrison (45).
It promises to be a fight straight to the last event in the finals as Mannings and Herbert Morrison along with Corn-wall and Munro have placed a number of runners in the finals.
One record was broken and one equalled on Thursday, Lewisville's Ewan Porter won the 3,000m for Class 3 and 4 runners in 10:57.9, erasing the previous best of 11:02.9 set by Grange Hill's Tyrone Guthrie two years ago.
This gives the Milton Brown-coached Lewisville the 'double' after 13 year-old Judith Powell broke the girls 3,000m Open record at Mannings on Tuesday.
Cornwall College's Alex Graham equalled the Class 1 100m record of 10.6 seconds on grass, joining Damion Young, then of Rusea's and STETHS' Dwaine Barnett also of STETHS set in 2001.
The organisers have been keeping two sets of records, one for grass and the other for synthetic surface since the finals of the meet were first held at the Montego Bay Sports Complex last year.
Mannings' Hickel Woolery is the first double winner of the meet, winning the Class 1 discus and shot put. Despite nursing a painful right big toe, Woolery, a medallist at National Championships in the past, dominated the throws and his 42.90m effort in the discus after a best of 46.20 in the preliminaries stood up at the end. He had a best effort of 15.65m in the shot put.
Interestingly, Herbert Morrison, Mannings, Munro and Cornwall College took all the points except one in the three discus and shot put events that were contested. STETHS' Anthony Holness was the only person not from those schools to take a point from the throws when he placed eighth in the Class 1 shot.
Herbert Mor-rison's Richard Smalling's only legal effort of 11.55m coming on his final attempt was good enough for the gold in the Class 2 shot put ahead of Mannings' Alvin James (11.2m) while Munro's Neil Mullings won the Class 3 shot.
Michael Graham of Herbert Morrison, who only got into the finals of the Class 2 discus with his only legal throw coming on his final attempt, took the gold with 35.43m, ahead of Cornwall's Noel McLaughlin (35.34) and Mannings' Errol White (34.93m).
Cornwall's Jermaine Rerrie took the Class 1 high jump with a 1.90 effort, equalling his season's best, finishing ahead of Herbert Morrison's Jermaine Atkinson who managed to clear 1.85m on his last attempt before knocking down the bar all three times at the final height.
POINTS STANDINGS
Herbert Morrison-108, Mannings-107, Munro-96, Cornwall-70, STETHS-16, Maldon-12, Lewisville- 9, Green Island-7, Balaclava-4, Maggoty and Rusea's-3 and William Knibb-1.
