With Ristananna Tracey at the helm, Edwin Allen High School won at the Milo Central Championships for the second time in a row. Tracey appeared three times as Edwin Allen stacked up 378 points to outdistance the 325.5-point total scored by Holmwood Technical at GC Foster College last Thursday and Friday, Feb. 25 & 26.
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Edwin Allen's Tracey
DPalmer/TrackLife photo
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High jump fans got a special treat as a three-way clash produced a national junior record. Tracey’s teammate Kimberly Williams took the lead in the Class 2 final with a first-time clearance at 1.83 meters and jumped alone at 1.85. Another first-timer saw her over and a booming bound gave her a second attempt success at 1.88 meters.
Her super display defeated the formidable pair of Manchester’s Chanice Porter and Holmwood ace Janieve Russell.
Tracey started with an easy win in the 400m hurdles, timed in 57.7secs. When she returned for the Class 1 800m, she was a business-like mood. She burned the first lap in just 60.3secs and, with Chantal Duncan of Vere well back, she reached the finish in 2 minutes 06.60 seconds.
It was a fine run on a windy day at GC Foster and a perfect follow-up to her superb run at Vere the previous Saturday. Her dominating display ended with a 53.2sec opening leg to Edwin Allen’s victorious 4x4 relay.
The second fastest 800m run of the day came in Class 2 from Chris-Ann Gordon of Holmwood. Beaten in qualifying by Simoya Campbell of Spauldings, Gordon took charge early in the final and used her speed to break away. She finished in 2: 10.76.
Vere’s Shericka Jackson took a 200-400 double in Class 3 but it wasn’t easy. The 400 was a warm-up for a Girls Champs clash with Gordon but the 200 was a battle. After a narrow loss to Jackson in the heats, 100m champion Christiania Williams of Edwin Allen blasted the curve in the final. Jackson had to hurry to catch Williams on the line.
In the heats, Jackson beat Williams 23.81 to 24.09. So it was a surprise when Williams got lane 1 for the final. Despite that, the final was even closer, 24.03 – 24.09.
St. Jago Boys Repeat
St. Jago High also repeated its 2010 boys’ team victory with 259 points, well clear of Holmwood, 166.5. On this side of the gender fence, Blake Thompson of Edwin Allen and Jevaughn Menzie of Bog Walk won the 100 and 200 in Classes 3 and 2, respectively. Floyde Henry of Holmwood was half way to a Class 1 double as well when he suffered an injury in the 200m final.
Rusheen McDonald of Garvey Maceo High School held off Krisneve Palmer of Bellefield to preserve his winning streak in the Class 1 400m, 48.00 to 48.04. McDonald set a personal best of 47.92 in the heats.
The St. Jago win was achieved without Kevaughn Rattray, double record breaker in the Champs Class 3 sprints in 2010. In his absence, the Monk Streeters had 1-2 finishes in the Class 3 high jump and the 400, led by Andre McDonald and Jaron Brown, respectively.
HUBERT LAWRENCE, author of the Champs 100 book, has covered local and international track and field since 1987.