Photos by Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
(1) Holmwood celebrate their sixth straight victory with a lap of honour.
(2) Calabar celebrate their second straight title and 21st overall on Saturday night.
(3) Calabar's Ramone McKenzie signals that he is the best after winning the boys' Class One 400m out of lane eight. He won in 46.62.
(4) Manchester High's Natoya Goule races towards the finish line in the girls' Class Two 800m in 2:08.78.
Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer
THE 2008 ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys' and Girls' Athletics Championships was a thriller from start to finish. There was a lot of top-quality action on the track and the fans, dressed in the colours of the top schools, were there to cheer their heroes from Kingston College (KC), Calabar High, Jamaica College (JC), Wolmer's Boys', Holmwood Technical and St Jago High.
On the track, Munro College's Adam Cummings and Vere's Jura Levy were the top performers, while Salcia Slack of Holmwood and Andrew Riley of Calabar walked away with the champion athletes' awards.
However, it was the performances of Cummings and Levy, along with Holmwood's Bobbie-Gaye Wilkins on the last leg of the 4x400m Open, which caught the eyes of most spectators.
Fourteen-year-old Cummings ran a record 10.91 seconds to beat the previous Class Three mark of 10.99 set by JC's Winston Barnes in 2003.
In the girls' Class Two 100m, Levy blazed to an impressive 11.46, beating the 11.50 by Holmwood's Nadine Palmer in 2000.
Wilkins, on anchor for Holmwood, who have not lost the 4x400m relay since 2002, took her team to an unlikely victory. The 19-year-old final year student, who has a personal best of 51.72, received the baton in third, about 20 metres behind Edwin Allen's Nikita Tracey. At 60 strides she covered Vere's Kayan Thompson, before drawing alongside Tracey at the top of the straight. She then powered away from both in the final 50m.
Huge cheer
The run brought the house down. Fans from Holmwood and her former teammate, Anastasia Le-Roy, rushed to hug her. The entire stadium gave her a huge cheer. Few expected her the win when she got the baton.
The split, which was timed at 50.8, could be considered the best 4x400m anchor leg run at this level.
Meanwhile, Slack's 37 points, which came from her victories in the triple jump and record performances in the heptathlon Open and the Class One discus, along with her second place in the long jump, helped Holmwood to 352 points to beat Vere 210.5.
Slack, 18, threw 45.13m in the discus to break the 10-year-old mark of 44.40m set by Tanya Thomas of Manchester High. She returned on the final day to break the heptathlon record by accumulating 5,411 points to beat the 5,282 held by Nadina Marsh. The mark was also a national junior record, beating the previous best of 5,290 set by Icolyn Kelly in 1993.
Riley, on the boys' side, won the heptathlon and high jump and took third in the 110m hurdles, for 27 of Calabar's 277.5 points.
Other records: Opal James of St Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) leapt 5.52m to break the girls' Class Four long jump record of 5.46m, which was established by Kadian Samuels of St Jago in 2003. In the girls' shot put Open, Micara Vassell, coached by her father, Michael, at St Hugh's, threw 12.80m to break the old mark of 12.57m, which Deborah Rose of Holmwood established last year.
St Jago's 4x100m team of Akeem Smith, Riker Hylton, Nickel Ashmeade and Yohan Blake stormed to 39.78 seconds in the heats, beating their previous record of 39.80 set last year.
In the girls' Class Three high jump, Wolmer's Shanice Hall and Peta-Gaye Reid of STETHS both cleared 1.74m to equal Shelly-Ann Gallimore's 11-year-old mark.
In the respective classes, Slack and Riley topped Class One, while Levy took top honours in Class Two.
Herbert Morrison's Teivaskie Lewin took the boys' Class Two title with victory in the 400m (48.63) and second in the 200m (22.45) while KC's Clive Pullen topped Class Three with wins in the long jump (6.48m) and high jump (1.85m).
Manchester High's Sandrae Farquharson, who won the girls' 200m (24.66) and 400m (54.25), was the top Class Three girl, while Tatiana Wolfe of Alpha secured top honours in Class Four with victory in the high jump (1.55m) and second in 80m hurdles (11.22).
Sidelight
An interesting sidelight of the meet was the number of events in which the same schools gained one-two finishes. Among the boys, St Jago's Blake (10.27) and Ashmeade (10.34) finished first and second in the Class One boys' 100m; JC's Waquar DaCosta (1:57.77) and Earl Grant (1:58.22) were the top two in the Class Two 800m; Rojay Dacres (15.34m) and Richard Wilson (14.75m) of Calabar were one-two in the boys' Class Two shot put; then there was the KC pair of Clive Pullen (6.48m) and Keneil Grant (6.43m) in Class Three long jump; Keiron Stewart (50.29) and Andre Peart (50.44) did likewise in the 400m hurdles Open; Chad Scott (4.20m) and K'Don Samuels (4.10m) earned JC the top two places in the pole vault open.
On the girls' side, the one-two finishes were: Edwin Allen's Shawna Anderson (11.58) and Gayon Evans (11.73) in the Class One girls' 100m; Vere's Petrone Layne (4:39.82) and Teneisha Davis (4:42.01) in the Class One 1500m; Terri-Ann Grant (1.70m) and Misha-Gaye DaCosta (1.70m) of Immaculate in the Class Two high jump; Vere's Marsielle McBean (32.55m) and Tamika Frater (31.67m) in the girls' Class Three discus; Chris-Ann Gordon (12.08) and Kedisha Dallas (12.37) of Holmwood in the girls' Class Four 100m.
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