- PHOTO BY ANTHONY FOSTER
Vere Technical's 4x300m quartet (from left) Lanice Hall, Peta-Gay Beckford, Shanique Robinson and Kasieann Morrison pose after their record-breaking victory at the Howard Jackson Relays at Paul Bogle Junior High on Saturday.
Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer
VERE TECHNICAL and Calabar dominated the respective girls' and boys' categories at Saturday's 20th staging of the Sports Plus-sponsored Howard Jackson Relays, at Paul Bogle Junior High in St. Thomas.
On a day when 12 records were broken, Vere Technical scored wins in the Class Two 4x150m, Class One 4x300m and 4x150m; Class Four 4x300m, Class Three 4x300m and distance medley.
They were only prevented from sweeping the 4x300m events by Queens' Melony McKay, who passed the Vere anchor-leg runner on the line in the Class Two relay.
On the boys' side, Calabar won three relays - Class Three 4x300m and 4x150m and Class Four 4x300m.
Meanwhile, Holmwood (Class One 4x150m and 4x300m) and Kingston College (Class Four 4x150m and 4x600m) raced to two victories each.
In the girls' Class One 4x150m Vere, led by Shanna-Kay Wright, Trude-Ann Clarke, Indira Spence and Tashi Lewin, sprinted to a record-breaking 1:14.8 seconds to erase St. Jago's two-year mark of 1:15.6. Queen's, with Latoya Graves, finished second in 1:16.4 and St. Andrew High third in 1:17.6.
RECORD RUN
In the boys' equivalent, a Gleaner/Youth Link-sponsored event, the Holmwood Technical quartet of Ramalo Turner, Mickel Downer, Jermaine Clarke and Omar Brown took top honours with a blistering 1:05:5 seconds to rewrite the record books, eclipsing the old mark of 1:05.8 set by Camperdown in 2003.
Camperdown, with World Junior bronze medallist Remaldo Rose (1:06.1), trailed the Edward Hector-coached Holmwood boys to the finish, while third went to Jamaica College (1:07.4) ahead of St. Jago (1:07.7).
In the Class One 4x600m event (boys), Morant Bay won in 5:39.0 ahead of Holmwood (5:39.5) and St. Jago (5:48.6).
The other records came from Vere's Class Four 4x300m and Class One 4x150 girls; Kingston College's Class Four 4x150m and Class Three 4x600m; Calabar's Class Three 4x150 and Class Two 4x150; Holmwood's Class One 4x300m; St. Andrew's Class Three 4x600m; Seaforth's Class Two 4x600m; Camperdown's 4x150m Class Two; and Glengoffe's distance medley.
Vere took the 4x600m Class One event in 6:60.0 and the 4x300m in 2:47.5 ahead of Queen's (2:49.5) and St. Andrew (2:53.5) respectively. In the Class Two girls' 4x150m Vere with Nicole Wilson, Carla-Kay Mills, Renee Roper and Anna-Kay Dennis in running order, won in 1:15.2 ahead of Queen's (1:16.8) and St. Andrew High (1:17.5).
The Class Three and Class Four events were equally hot and went down to the wire. The Class Three 4x600m saw St. Andrew (6:51.3) coming out on top over Vere (6:56.6) and Wolmer's (7:44.6) respectively, while in the 4x150, Immaculate (1:15.8) topped Lewisville (1:17.6) and St. Andrew (1:18.5). The 4x300m Class Three went to Vere in 2:47.9 ahead of St. Andrew (2:49.7) and Lewisville (2:50.0).
Immaculate also ran away with the girls' Class Four 4x150m, winning in 1:18.6 with Vere (1:21.5) and Wolmer's (1:14.1) taking the minor places. Vere bounced back with a good time of 2:57.6 seconds to win the 4x300m ahead of St. Andrew High (3:00.4) and Immaculate (3:01.7).
In the boys' Class Two events, Camperdown won the 4x150 in 1:07.6 ahead of KC (1:07.7) and St. Jago (1:09.2), while in the 4x600m Seaforth (5:54.6) got home ahead of Morant Bay (5:55.7) and Jamaica College, JC, (5:56.3).
KC won Class Three 4x600m in 6:12.0, beating JC (6:25.9) and Calabar (6:31.6), while Calabar took the 4x150 event in 1:12.4 over Morant Bay (1:13.4) and JC (1:14.1).
In Class Four KC, with Jason Williams, Andre Pickersgill, Tareequ Blackwood and Dean-Paul James, won the 4x150m in 1:15.6, beating home team Paul Bogle (1:16.6) and Calabar (1:16.9).
Vere's girls and Glengoffe won the distance medley. Vere (8:57.6) beat Immaculate (9:46.0) for the girls' prize, while Glengoffe (7:33.3) topped JC (7:37.0).
There were also some good performances from the Junior High schools. Red Hills proved to John Mills that their victory over them at last year's Gibson Relays was no fluke by repeating that feat in the girls' 4x300m with a 3:06.5 clocking over their rivals' 3:06.7.
