Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
Kimberley Williams leaps to victory in the girls' triple jump at the Penn Relays yesterday. Williams leapt 12.47 metres to win the event. - PHOTO BY PAUL A. REID
PHILADELPHIA:
JAMAICA'S HIGH school girls' teams fought through personal disappointments and fickle weather to dominate the relays on yesterday's opening day of the 111th Penn Relays carnival at Franklin Field, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Led by VMBS girls' champions Holmwood Technical, who qualified in all three events - the 4x100m, 4x400m and 4x800m, the Jamaicans look set to re-establish their dominance, with a strong presence in all relay finals.
In addition to battling each other and the strong American presence, the Jamaicans also had to deal with the weather which was hot and sunny up to mid afternoon until about 3:30 p.m. when the sun went behind a bank of clouds, the wind kicked up and a sudden downpour of rain sent most of the Thursday record 25,189 in attendance scrambling for shelter and warmth.
Through all this however the girls showed their mettle with a string of good results.
The boys' high school teams will start their quest for honours today and will compete in two relays, the preliminaries of the 4x800m and the 4x100m along with the shot put. The High School girls will also compete in the discus where Jerine Foster of Alpha will be the lone Jamaican entrant.
LOCK HORNS
The boys' 4x100m event appears to be a straight fight between the Jamaicans and the Californians as Camperdown - 40.39 seconds at Champs and Holmwood Tech - 40.46 seconds also at Champs, will lock horns with Long Beach Poly who last won here in 2003.
Wolmer's, the last Jamaican team to win here - five years ago, are among the 17 Jamaican schools entered in the event. The Gleaner understands however that coach Bertland Cameron will put 'all his eggs in one basket' opting only to run the 4x400m tomorrow.
In the 4x800m, the Holmwood boys, who are unbeaten all year and have a season best 7:50.06 done at Gibson Relays, will come up against a cadre of strong New York schools led by Syosset High that ran an American national high school indoor record 7:42.22 earlier this season.
Yesterday, the St Jago girls team of Kaydene Mason, Latoya King, Sudian Davis and Natasha Ruddock ran the fastest qualifying time of 46.41 seconds in the 4x100m and led another five Jamaican schools in the Championship of Americas finals - Holmwood - 46.58 seconds, Edwin Allen - 46.65, Queen's - 46.79, Manchester - 46.92 and St Andrew High - 47.76.
Wolmer's Girls will run in the 'Large Schools' finals and coach Michael Carr will bring in Rene White to replace Janelle Gordon who led off yesterday. Jodi-Ann Muir will run the second leg, Paula Renalls third with Shelly-Ann Fraser anchoring. Alpha will run in the 'Small Schools' final.
Holmwood led all qualifiers in the Mile Relay with a smart 3:45.79 in drizzle and strong wind, beating Long Beach into second place and St Jago (3:55.07) into third. Queen's ran a surprising 3:46.75 to win their heat while Edwin Allen also won their heat in 3:47.62 ahead of Manchester High (3:53.11) with St Andrew High well back in seventh place (4:04.58). Holmwood Technical, who had three of the fastest splits of the day, had the second fastest qualifying time for today's 4x800m finals after clocking and easy 9:10.54, the last two runners, running all by themselves. Cadien Beckford led off with a 2:16.7 second leg, handing over second to Vanessa Boyd who immediately went after the runner from Bishop Laughlin High, catching her after about 500m before giving Celia White a big lead. Boyd's split of 2:15.4 seconds was the fifth fastest of the day as Cassandra Powell cruised on the anchor leg.
Today coach Maurice Wilson will bring in Bobby-Gaye Wilkins but says he is not sure what order he will run. Gwynedd Mercy of Pennsylvania had the fastest time of 9:08.76 seconds but Holmwood have run 9:01.26 this season already.
Vere Technical came up short in their only relay event of the meet finishing a distant sixth in the High School Girls Distance Medley Relay in 12:12.92 after leading with two laps to go in a race run in biting cold conditions. The day got off to a devastating start after Edwin Allen's CARIFTA Games 400m hurdles gold medallist Shereen Pinnock was disqualified after a false start.
Pinnock appeared to stumble from the blocks after being drawn in lane five just in front of pre-race favourite and defending champion Nicole Leach of West Catholic, who she had beaten last July for the bronze at the World Juniors in Italy. The Edwin Allen athlete returned to her blocks and was preparing for the second start when she was approached by two officials who informed her she was out. Pinnock was inconsolable for the next 30 minutes or so despite a number of persons including Leach and Leach's father trying to give her support. Champs winner Nickiesha Wilson was second in 58.44 seconds, exactly one second behind Leach, who broke her own one-year-old Carnival record of 57.84 seconds. Vere Technical's Kimberly Williams won the triple jump with a best measurement of 12.47m, the second Jamaican in a row to win it after former St Jago athlete Andrea Linton last year and had the tenth best winning jump ever. In the College section, the UTech team of Marcia Woolery, Sherika Williams, Davita Prendergast and Olympian Sherone Simpson was second in their 4x100m heat in 44.85 seconds and also advanced to today's finals.
