By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
NATIONAL junior representatives Usain Bolt of William Knibb Memorial High and Jason Morgan of Calabar High were double winners at Saturday's STETHS Invitational Track and Field meet held in Santa Cruz.
Forty-seven schools showed up for the 18th staging of the meet which despite starting nearly a hour late.
Despite the absence of several leading juniors, there were a number of other outstanding performances especially in the field events by St. Jago High and Holmwood Technical girls while the Robinson twins, Carlene and Camille, from Christiana High also showed good early season form.
World Games representative Nadine Palmer who has just returned to training following an injury, took part in the Class One 400m, running a creditable 58.1 seconds in track shoes, finishing fifth.
Bolt, a semi-finalist at the World Youth Championships held in Hungary last year, won the Class Two Boys 200m and 400m while Morgan won both the Class One discus and shot put events.
The 6ft 4" 15-year-old Bolt who is in his second year in Class Two clocked 50.4 seconds for the 400m and 22.2 over 200m.
Morgan was dominant in his events, first winning the shot with a heave of 16.92 metres, well ahead of team-mate Jermaine Sheriffe who had a best throw of 15.17 while Nicardo Walters completed the Calabar clean sweep of the top three places with a 14.50m effort.
Morgan returned later to win the discus with a best throw of 51.72m, nearly five metres better than second place Ricardo Page of St. Jago who had 47.19m while Sheriffe had his second top three finish, taking third place with 42.63m.
St. Jago's girls continued their good build up for Champs as they had some good results in the field events. Lishann Scott led a clean sweep of the Class 3 long jump, winning with a jump of 5.26m from Tamara Francis- 5.25m and Keisha Parris - 5.24m.
Natasha Ruddock also won the Class Four event with a good-looking 5.41m.
Holmwood Technical was not to be denied however as Peta-Gaye Beckford recorded her personal best measurement of 5.93 metres to win the Class 2 long jump.
Carlene Robinson took the Class One 400m in 55.6 seconds, ahead of her twin sister Camille who won her heat in 56.1 with Vere Technical's Patricia Hall who returned 57.5.
Hall later separated both twins in the 200m events which was won by Camille in 25.0 seconds with Carlene third in 25.5 seconds.
Holmwood Technical's Sheryl Morgan won the 400m hurdles open with a time of 1:00.9 while Herbert Morrison Technical's Randy Gooden won the Boys' event in 55.9, ahead of a pair of Calabar runners Claude Senior and Sheldon Leith.
Cornwall College's Jacques Smith was a surprise winner in the Class One Boys 400m in 49.2 seconds while Lewisville's Orette Remekie won his first major race when he took the Class Two 1500m in 4:21.9 seconds ahead of Holmwood's Gregory Hewitt and Bellefield's Frederick Powell.
Vere Technical's Steve Mullings won the Class One 200m in 21.3 seconds while Green Island's Damion Young won the Class One long jump with a 7.01me effort. Young who was nursing an injury jumped once in the competition to beat Calabar's Andre Marsh and Manchester High's Jason Daley.
STETHS' Andrea's Smythe upstaged a strong field to win the Class One Girls' long jump, taking the events with a measurement of 5.52m, just ahead of Vere Technical's 5.50m and St. Jago's Jovanne Jarrett - 5.47m. Penn Relays winner Kedine Geddes of Tacius Golding was a disappointing fifth in her first year in Class One.
The STETHS team of Tashroy Brown, Oral Neufville, Odean Alexander and Keneek Williams took the Boys 4x400m relay in 3:27.8, holding off Ardenne 3:28.7 and Cedric Titus.
In the absence of the more experienced Holmwood and St Jago, Tacius Golding won the girls' event in 4:05.5 while Christiana, thanks to a brilliant third leg from Shawn Smith, won the 4x800m.
