Yohan Blake (left) races towards the finish line in the boys' 4x100m Championship of America final on yesterday's final day of the 113th Penn Relays at the Franklin Field stadium. At right is Calabar's Ramone McKenzie. St. Jago won in a record 39.96, the first team to run under 40 seconds at Penn Relays. - Photo by Anthony Foster

Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

PHILADELPHIA:

ST. JAGO'S 17-year-old sprinter Yohan Blake continues to prove that he is a class act.

On yesterday's final day of the 113th Penn Relays at the Franklin Field stadium, in front of 46,363 supporters, Blake received the baton in second place but showed class and speed to destroy his rivals in taking his team to victory.

However, yesterday was more special for Blake as most track and field observers believe he would not beat Class Two athlete Ramone McKenzie if he received the baton behind him in the 4x100m, but he proved them wrong.

Despite collecting the baton about two metres behind McKenzie, Blake, within a few strides, was away and in front and, in the end, won by about three metres for which the team collected the Fast Finish of the Day prize.

Blake was excited.

"I saw Ramone in front of me and I said to myself, I have to get past him fast and that is what I did," Blake said.

The World Junior bronze medallist, who ran 10.11 to win at the CARIFTA Games, said the team could have run faster.

More push

"If we had gotten more push, we could have gone faster, but we did not get it, so we had to work with what we got," he said.

St. Jago with Blake, Nickel Ashmead, Rikor Hilton and Andre Walsh stopped the clock at 39.96 and, like they did at Champs, became the first team to run under 40 seconds at Penn Relays.

The Calabar team, which was touted to beat St. Jago and which led at all change-overs, finished second in 40.24 seconds ahead of Kingston College (41.08). Camperdown (41.08), Jamaica College (41.16), Holmwood (41.57) finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively while Wolmer's did not finish.

A delighted St. Jago coach, Danny Hawthorne, said he knew Calabar could not beat his team.

"I told you that we could not lose this one ... to God be the glory," he said.

Asked if he expected them to run so fast, "yah man, mi told you before", he said before running off with the boys to prepare for the 4x400m.

In the 4x800m, Kingston College (KC) were impressive. The quartet of Andre Pickergill, Denzeto Cephas, Donahue Williams and Adrian Banner won in 7:42.45 ahead of Calabar (7:47.56) and JC (7:48.62).

Edwin Allen (7:56.00) and Manchester (7:57.43) were seventh and ninth respectively.

St. Jago were beaten in the boys' 4x400m relay. Despite a brave anchor leg from Blake, they finished in 3:10.42 behind school of the day Long Beach Poly (3:09.89). KC (3:12.89) and Calabar 3:13.22) were third and fourth.

Jamaican schools had two individual winners on the day. KC's Tarik Batchelor leapt 1.61m to win high school boys' long jump, while Wolmer's Robert Peddlar took the boys' triple jump with a leap of 15.18m.

Meanwhile, on Friday, G.C. Foster's females won the small college 4x100m. The quartet of Kadene Mason, Rosemarie Whyte, Sudian Davis and Sonia Sutherland won in 44.84, ahead of Miami (44.93).