- Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Holmwood Technical's Jermaine Hilton the anchor leg runner left, pulls away from his rivals to win the 4x100m Boys' Class One Championships at yesterday's Gibson Relays at the National Stadium.
Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer
HOLMWOOD TECHNICAL High School underlined its status as the best sprint relays team in the island when it captured the Class One 4x100m girls and boys Championships events at yesterday's 28th renewal of the Gibson Relays at the National Stadium.
The female team of Paula Mullings, Tracey-Ann Rowe, world junior 200m silver medallist Anneisha McLaughlin and anchor leg runner Nyoka Cole produced a record breaking 44.81 in the Citibank event ahead of Vere (46.28), St. Andrew High (47.00) and St. Jago (47.30).
In the boys' event, Holmwood dominated from the second leg to win the Pespi-sponsored event in 41.51 ahead of St. George's (41.56), Wolmer's (41.81) and Vere (42.37).
However, things were not as expected for both teams in the Class Two event, this as the girls had to settle for second in 46.37 behind Vere (46.26) while the boys had problems with their baton change on the final leg which led to them failing to finish the race, which Calabar won in 42.92.
Red Hill upset John Mills to win the Junior High girls 4x100m while John Mills took the boys' title over Osbourne Store.
In the other sprints, Edwin Allen won the Class Three in a record 46.46 ahead of St. Andrew High (47.53) while Manchester, in a record 48.10, topped Vere (48.65) in Class Four. On the boys' side, Wolmer's (45.14) won Class Three ahead of Central High (45.33) while Class Four went to Camperdown in a record 46.66 over KC (46.85).
The biggest upset of the day came in the women's 1,500m Open as Jessica McLeod of Edwin Allen ran an impressive 4:41.51 to beat Columbian national champion Elizabeth Cardona (4:47.06).
Meanwhile, double national record holder Germaine Mason, Kadine Geddes and Toni-Ann D'Oyley were responsible for the three individual records which were broken.
University of Technology's Mason, the Pan American champion, leapt 2.25 metres to erase the old mark of 2.20m he and Dennis Ferron held since last year in the high jump.
Geddes recorded a jump of 6.39m to dismiss the previous 10-year-old mark of 6.04m held by Ronalee Davis while D'Oyley of It Dat Track Club ran 13.4 in the women's Open 100m hurdles.
Vere's Keisha Brown (13.61) and St. Jago's Nadina Marsh (13.78) finished behind D'Oyley.
Up to press time, 10 records were broken, including the UTech 4x100m institution's time of 39.24 which pushed them ahead of G.C. Foster College (40.3) and MVP (40.56).
See full report in tomorrow's Gleaner.
