Wolmer's rule at Penn Relays

Philadelphia.

WOLMER'S Boys School ended the final day of competition at the Penn Relays in impressive style with victories in two events.

The David Riley-coached team captured both the 4x100 metres and 4x400 metres events. Their best showing came in the sprint relay. They became the country's fastest high school team ever in the event breaking Calabar High School's one year-old Penn Relays record of 39.91 seconds with a new mark of 39.78 seconds as Camperdown (40.61), St. George's College (40.97) and Calabar 41.01 took the next three spots for a Jamaican top four sweep.

The race was virtually over from the opening leg as Carifta Under-17 double sprint champion Odean Skeen gave his team a flying start. With good exchanges throughout from Skeen, Dwayne Extol, Julian Forte and Ashawni Mitchell there was little surprise when the time flashed on the scoreboard.

It was a great gift for Extol who celebrated his 18th birthday yesterday.

"This is a great day for me and my team as today is my birthday and we came here to prove that we are the best as people have been downplaying our Boys' Championships success and we wanted to prove them wrong," said an elated Extol.

The Heroes Circle-based school had to work hard for their win in the 4x400m as pre-race favourites Vere Technical and California team Rio Mesa engaged them in a keen battle all the way before Forte ran an intelligent anchor leg to move past both his opponents close to the line for a good win in 3:14.89. Rio Mesa were second and Vere finished third.

Wolmer's also had individual success in the long jump as Kamal Fuller won the event with a leap of 7.57 metres.

top three finishes

There were three other top three finishes in high school events for Jamaica. After making the final of the 4x800m as the slowest qualifiers, Kingston College nearly pull off a memorable win as Donahue Williams who got the baton some 40 metres behind on the anchor leg ran brilliantly to close the gap before finishing a close second (7:43.50) to Warwick Valley High's winning time of 7:41.77.

Jonathan Reid of Kingston College finished third in the high jump with a moderate 2.03 metres.

The Stephen Francis-coached University of Technology (UTech) also had a good final day as they had two successes. Kimmari Roach captured the College men's 100 metres in 10.34 seconds while the women's 4x400m quartet of Christine Day, Anneisha McLaughlin, Alecia Cuetner and Stephanie McPherson made it back to back victories clocking 3:31.54. The University of Oregon took second in 3:32.34.

UTech's men's 4x100m team of Winston Barnes, Jacques Harvey, Andre Wellington and Roach were second in the Championship of America event in 39.88 seconds as Texas A&M won in 39.08.