By the time the rain flooded down on Mandeville, fans at Saturday, the 16th, JAAA Puma Kirkvine Development meet had seen some sensational sprinting. The prime mover was Saquinne Cameron of Edwin Allen who was in a hurry in her two trips on the nicely grassed Kirkvine oval.
Cameron set tongues wagging with a nippy run over the Class 3 200m. The official time was 23.4 seconds but an experienced timer caught her at 23.6. It was the fastest girls’ 200m race of the day. She returned later to run 59.7 over 400m.
Last year, Cameron lost two epic Girls Championships battles to Diana Johnson of Holmwood Technical in the Class 3 sprints. In her turn over 400m, Johnson showed she is once again in good form. After a gentle jog for the first half of the race, she turned on the speed to close in 61.5 seconds.
The fastest race of the day came form Yanique McNie of Vere Technical who was official timed in 58.4 seconds.
14 Boys Under 24 secs.
The boys weren’t to be left out. Led by Devaughn Baker of Jamaica College, 14 boys broke 24 seconds for the Class 3 200m, with Baker top of the charts with an official time of 23.1 seconds. Even if you add 0.2 seconds to all those times in keeping with the timing problems mentioned in last week’s coverage of the Jamaica College (JC) meet, Baker still ran 23.3 and ten boys would have made it past the 24 second barrier.
The sprinting was just as encouraging in Class 2, with 41 speedsters at 23 seconds or better. Three of them – Denval Daley of STETHS, Kadeesh Willis of St Jago and Jevaughn Minzie of Bog Walk – were under 22 with official times of 21.6, 21.9 and 21.9 seconds.
Trevane Morrison of Kingston College ran 20.7 to lead the Class 1 boys, with Andrew Fisher of STETHS also under 21 at 20.9 in a separate race. 32 boys were at 22 flat or better.
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Chris-Ann Gordon (right) takes off to lead the way in the 4x4 last year at Champs.
TrackLife/DPalmer photo
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Herbert Thomas of Munro College continued his fine season with the top time in the Class 3 800m. He had looked great at JC and at Kirkvine led all competitors with a time of 2 minutes 05.2 seconds.
Munro past student Darrel Garwood is the current national high jump champion and earned Jamaica colours last year at the CAC Games. At Kirkvine, the UWI student showed a nifty turn of speed with a 21.2 dash over 200m.
The other notable appearance over the two lap distance was of six-time individual Champs gold medal winner Chris-Ann Gordon. Now in her first Class 2 season, the Holmwood student-athlete produced a time of 2:18.8 seconds. That was the second fastest time of the day. Only Taska Johnson, a first year Class 1 athlete from Vere Technical, could manage a better time with her run of 2:18.6 seconds.
Heavy rain brought the meet to an end before the 400m
prog
ram could be completed.