Gibson Relays: Bolt Anchors Record Run; US Teams Beat Local High Schools
The Jamaica-based, Glen Mills-coached Racers Lions Track Club recorded a 2010 world leading sprint relay time in Kingston yesterday, February 27. Competing at the 34th staging of the annual Gibson Relays, the team of Kenroy Anderson, Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson and Usain Bolt, running in that order, clocked 38.08 secs. ahead of another team from the Racers stable. Andrew Hinds (B’dos), Mario Forsythe, Warren Weir and Daniel Bailey (Antigua) finished second in 38.84 secs. A weakened MVP Club team without Asafa Powell, Nesta Carter and Michael Frater – three members of Jamaica’s 2008 Olympic record-breaking 4x1 team – was third in 39.37.
In the high schools division, Team Bickle USA, an all-star group of girls from high schools in the US sponsored by Team Jamaica Bickle of New York, upstaged Jamaican high schools to win the girls’ 4×400m and 4×800m open events. (See full results)
Both quartets ran athletes with Caribbean roots.
Sisters Claudia and Phyllis Francis, whose father is from Montego Bay, Jamaica, are among the top US high school 800m runners. Claudia, the younger sibling and a junior at Benjamin Cardozo High in Brooklyn, has a personal best of 2:05.47, which she registered at the US trials last year. She represented the US at the IAAF World Youth Games last year in Italy, where she clocked 2:09.
Phyllis has a personal best of 2:04 and was the only high schooler who ran against the international women at this year’s Millrose Games in New York, where she placed third. A student at Brooklyn’s Catherine McAuley High School, she has committed to the University of Oregon, where she will begin in the fall.
PHYLLIS: 2010 Millrose Games pro 800m – 3rd; 2010 USA #1 600m & CHSSA indoor Champion (Armory-NY); 2009 National Scholastic Indoor Champion (NSIC) 800m.
CLAUDIA: 2010 USA #1 800m & Colgate Women’s Games Champion; 2009 Team USA 800m World Youth Games semifinalist, Italy; 2009 Nike Outdoor Nationals (NON) Champion in the 800m; 2009 Winner Reebok Grand Prix High School 800m.