Wolmer's look ominous

Elton Tucker, Assistant Editor - Sport

Wolmer's Boys' School sounded an early warning to Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Champs 100 favourites, Kingston College (KC) and Calabar High, by taking maximum 16 points in the only male final on yesterday's opening day of the prestigious meet.

Wolmer's are followed by Campion (six), Calabar (five), St George's College (four), KC (three), Old Harbour High (two) and Morant Bay High (one).

Kamal Fuller, 7.45 metres, won the Class One long jump from his teammate Ramone Bailey, 7.38m. Damon McLean of Campion College clipped Calabar's Marlon Thompson for third, after both had a best leap of 7.09m. McLean had the better sequence of attempts.

St George's College's Kemarki Absolam was fifth with a personal best 7.07m, while Kingston College's Rayon Walcott also had a personal best, 6.96m, for sixth.

Fuller was delighted with his victory.

"It feels good. I have been jumping well all season," he said.

He added that Wolmer's have a grand chance of topping the championships "once we go out there and compete, do what we are supposed to do ... what the coaches tell us".

Earlier, Champs100 had started on a high note. In just the preliminaries of the Class One discus, Calabar's Chadrick Wright, with the very first throw of the meet, in flight one, threw down the gauntlet to his teammate Traves Smikle. Wright hurled the discus 52.16 metres to break the old mark, 51.43m, set by Smikle last year.

Smikle, the national junior record holder at 59.52m, took things easy with a throw of 42.74 in flight two behind KC's Canigga Raynor's 42.85m.

The final is set for today and the national junior record set at the recent Carifta Trials could go as the two Calabar strongmen fight for gold.

Some respectable times were registered in the 200m heats, with Wolmer's looking particularly impressive. Julian Forte streaked to victory in his Class One heat in 21.08 seconds. Brandon Williamson of Manchester High was next best with 21.60. Another Wolmer's boy, Dwayne Extol, clocked 21.68 to be third fastest at the distance.

Wolmer's ruled the roost

In Class Two, Wolmer's again ruled the roost as Odeen Skeen powered to 21.49 to lead Munro's Delano Williams, 21.53, and Nataniel Blake-Mitchell of Jamaica College, 21.90.

St Jago's 14-year-old speedster, KeVaughn Rattray, went down to 22.30 in Class Three as he won heat five. Also dipping below 23 seconds was JC's Rohan Walker, who won heat eight in 22.75.

The Class One 800 metres promises to be very competitive. Corey Williams of Tacius Golding High is the fastest of the qualifiers for today's semi-finals. Williams powered to 1:56.21 to win the second of five heats, beating Vere Technical's Garnet Gordon, 1:57.56. Holmwood's Kevin White looked very composed in taking heat five in 1:57.12 ahead of Calabar's Marlon Dixon, 1:57.81.

Both defending champions KC and Clabar have two men in the semi-finals. In additon to Dixon, Calabar will field Kevin Rowe, 1:59.24 for third in heat three behind Jamaica College's Waquar Dacosta, 1:57.82. Both runners from KC won their heats. Johwayne Hebert took heat one in 1:58.17, while Donahue Williams won heat four in 1:57.57.

The Class Two 800m looks just as competitive as Class One. Stephen Rose won heat six in 2:00.55, but his time was just seven-hundredths of a second better than the 2:00.62 Manchester High's Oryane Espute did to take heat three. Other leading qualifiers were Petersfield's Oshane Turner, 2:00.87, Foga Road's Kevon Robinson, 2:00.90, and Frome High's Elroy Brown, 2:01.26.

Shavanes Robinson of Titchfield High won heat two of the Class Three 800m to lead all qualifiers into today's semi-finals at 5:35 p.m. Robinson clocked 2:07.19 to clip KC's Steven Oakley, 2:07.26. Next best was Calabar's Norman Pittersgill with 2:08.39.

Wolmer's Extol, the hot favourite for the 400m hurdles gold, heads to tomorrow's final with the third-fastest qualifying time. The Wolmerian, who is competing in the rare combination of 200m and 400m hurdles, clocked 53.65 to win the third of three heats. The fastest qualifier was JC's Javarn Gallimore with 53.12 in heat two.

It's becoming clear, even after one day, that defending champions KC and their arch-rivals Calabar, the top two last year, will be challenged strongly by Wolmer's as with several schools doing well, especially in the sprints and middle distances, the points spread will be very wide.