Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer
Denesha Morris of Manchester High powers to victory in her 400m heats at the Queen's/Grace Jackson meet at the National Stadium East field on Saturday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Manchester High's coach, Jerry Holness, has expressed satisfaction with the performance of his girls at the seventh edition of The Queen's/Grace Jackson Invitational held at Stadium East Complex.
The Mandeville-based school was in super form, winning almost 70 per cent of the day's events.
"They are stepping up now, we are on target on track, we are looking good," Holness said. "What was more heartening for me was if I could not find a Class One 4x100m for Champs ... Saturday was just a testing period and once we can consistently run that time we should be in the final at Champs.
GOOD DAY OVERALL
Holness noted after the meet on Saturday: "Overall, it was a good day, the athletes themselves are pleased ... I was behind them trying to lift up their performance and they did that on Saturday."
Holness said though some of the top schools were missing in action "it's not about that, but about the times".
In the 200m events, apart from Rene Reid of The Queen's School (25.51) who won Class One, Manchester High's with Leslie Ann Mitchell (25.37) in Class Two, Orenthia Bennett (25.40) who defeated her teammate Shantel Adams (25.87) in the Class Three 200m, and Sandrae Farquarson (26.06) in Class Four, the Central Jamaica school was unstoppable.
They swept the 800m and sprint relays, Shericka Hutchinson (2:24.21) took Class One, Neisha Morgan (2:18.16) won Class Two 800m ahead of her teammate Kimberly Brown (2: 21.17), and Sharlene Brown (2:20.80) won Class Three.
In the sprint relays, they won Class Four in 50.61, Class Three in 47.84, Class Two in 47.56 and Class One in 47.56.
Judith Riley (62.16) won the 400m hurdles ahead of her teammate Shana-Gay Tracey (62.72), while Jerece Maxwell took the 300m hurdles in 45.54 ahead of her teammate Sidoney Brown (45.90) in the 300m hurdles.
BEST PERFORMANCE
Natoya Goule (55.91) won the girls' Class Two event ahead her teammate Deneisha Morris (57.14) while Sandrae Farquarson (26.06) won the Class Four 200m.
However, the day's best perfor-mance came from Holmwood Technical's Anastasia Le-Roy, who broke the girls' Class One 400m record.
Le-Roy, a 200m finalist at last summer's World Junior Champion-ships, won the event in record 54.29 seconds, shaving off almost a second off her previous best 55.28.
On the boys' side, Garfield German of Calabar (48.83) won the boys' Class One 400m, while his teammate Ramone Mckenzie (48.98) took Class Two and Waquae Dacosta of Jamaica College (JC) won Class Three (52.67).
Donahue Williams of Kingston College (KC) won the boys' Class Two 800m in 1:59.91, while his teammate Omari Dookie took the boys' 18+ high jump with a leap of 2.00m.
