Photo by Paul Reid
St. Jago's Natasha Ruddock (right) holds off a fast charging Anastasia LeRoy (left) of Holmwood to win the high school girls Championship of Americas 4x100m event at the Penn Relays yesterday. At center is Kimberly Smith of Edwin Allen, which placed third.
Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
PHILADELPHIA:
Holmwood Technical High won two events yesterday as Jamaican high schoolgirls made a clean sweep of the Championships of Americas events on the second full day of the 111th Penn Relays carnival at Franklin Field.
Running in front of an announced attendance of 39,008, the Maurice Wilson-coached girls won the 4x400m and 4x800m events, while St. Jago took the 4x100m.
This was the first time in four years that the Jamaicans were registering a shut-out over the Americans after Holmwood had won all three events in 2001.
The Holmwood girls saved the best for last as a magnificent anchor leg of 52.7 seconds from national junior representative Sonita Sutherland, the joint 10th fastest ever by a high school girl at Penn, carried them to what coach Wilson described as a "big win" in 3:40.37 seconds.
Sutherland praised
Edwin Allen High, who led over the first two legs, was second in 3:42.01, thanks to a great run by 16-year-old Sherene Pinnock.
Wilson praised Sutherland's performance afterwards, saying: "This was a statement run. I challenged her last night that she needed to step up and perform."
Jerine Bolt led the team off with a 57.7 split, followed by Anastasia Leroy 55.5, and Bobby-Gaye Wilkins 54.5 after running on the winning 4x800m team earlier in the day.
Holmwood won the 4x800m for the first time in three years, running a modest 8:59.03 seconds to beat Boys and Girls High of New York with the team of Celia White - 2:13.2, Vanessa Boyd - 2:16.7, Bobby-Gaye Wilkins who replaced Cadien Beckford - 2:11.7 and Cassandra Powell - 2:17.3.
Yesterday's winning times were the second slowest of Holmwood's five wins, slower only than the 9:08.01 they ran when they won their second title in 1999 as they became the 19th Jamaican team to win this event in the last two decades.
The St Jago girls backed up their coach's (Raymond 'KC' Graham) promise when they won the Championship of Americas 4x100m in 45.35 seconds, beating Holmwood Technical and Edwin Allen Comprehensive in a 1-2-3 finish for Jamaica.
The quartet of Kaydene Mason, Latoya King, Sudian Davis and Natasha Ruddock bettered the time of 46.41 seconds they ran in Thursday's qualifying heats.
Coach Graham, who had told The Gleaner on Wednesday he was confident they could pull off the win, said yesterday:
"I was never worried, I knew what we had was better than anything else we saw there."
Graham said the addition of the Class Two runners King and double-CARIFTA-gold medallist Ruddock was enough to give St. Jago their fourth title and first since 2002.
Wolmer's Girls, thanks to a brilliant finish from anchor runner Shelly-Ann Fraser, won the 'Large Schools' consolation finals in 46.65 seconds. Rene White led off and handed off to Jodi-Ann Muir while Paula Renalls ran the third leg.
Alpha was second in the "Small Schools' consolation finals.
The boys will have their hands full in trying to match the achievements of the girls today but have qualified for two finals with the heats of the 4x400m set to be run this morning.
Jamaica teams in finals
Four Jamaican boys schools led by Champs Class 1 winners Camperdown High will line
up in today's Championships
of Americas 4x100m finals. Camperdown ran a smart 42.28 with the team of Kimur Bruce, Remaldo Rose, Jermaine Dawkins and Sandor Pendicott, but coach Jermaine Shand was not impressed, saying the baton changing was sloppy and he was expecting a faster time.
Holmwood Technical with 41.39, Calabar with 41.73 and St. Jago with 42.39 are the other Jamaica teams in the 'big' finals.
North Street rivals Kingston College and St. George's College will square off in the 'Large Schools' consolation finals, while Munro College, Manchester high And Mona will run in the 'Small Schools' finals.
Bridgeport High, who fumbled the first exchange and ran 43.73, will be the first alternate in the 'Large Schools' finals.
Mannings School, who ran 43.59 in the heats, lodged a protest and could be included in the Large school finals today.
Former champions Holmwood Technical are the only Jamaican qualifier for the High School Boys 4x800m after the quartet of Ramone Hall, Kerone Robinson, Kerith Graham and Davian Parker won their qualifying heat in 7:51.01, fourth fastest time of the day.
Twenty Jamaican boys teams will line up in the 4x400m event led by Champs gold medal winners Wolmer's Boys and Holmwood, both of whom went under 3:11.00 seconds.
In the individual events Kingston College's Carlos Mattis will be seeking to create history today by becoming the first High School boy to win four titles in an individual event when he competes in the triple jump. His best effort at Penn Relays was a 14.92m in 2003 but jumped 15.17m at Champs this year.
Calabar's Ryan Taylor and Robert Peddlar of Wolmer's Boys will also compete.
Kingston College are hoping for a clean sweep in the jumps as Alain Bailey will start as favorite to win the long jump after finishing second to Dennis Boone of Thomas Dale, Virginia. Bailey was leading last year when he took a bathroom break and returned to discover the competition had ended.
Herbert Morrison's Chrisneive McKenzie, Tremaine Buchanan of Wolmer's Boys and Oshane Foote of Mannings will also take part in the long jump event.
Josef Robertson, who has a season best 51.17 seconds, will lead a strong Jamaican contingent in the high schools 400m hurdles event and will clash with CARIFTA Under 20 champion Romel Lewis of Holmwood, Markino Buckley of St. Jago and STETHS dark horse Norbert Miller.
In the College section, the University of Technology (UTech) women's team was sixth in the College 4x100m championships in 44.27 seconds after a first change mix up between Marcia Woolery and Davita Prendergast left Sherika Williams with a lot of work on the third leg while Olympian Sherone Simpson anchored.
Former St Mary Technical runner Janika Martell replaced Woolery on the 4x200m team and they returned a smart 1:33.71 seconds to qualify for today's finals with the second fastest time behind the University of Florida with former Holmwood runner Nadine Palmer.
