The Jamaica Star :: Sport :: St Jago's boys, Holmwood's girls to dominate at Gibson

BY RAYMOND GRAHAM, Star Writer

( L - R ) Natoya Goule, Naffene Briscoe, Bobby-Gaye Wilkins ... expected to run on Holmwood's 4x800m and 4x400m teams. Ace sprinter Ramone 'Batman' McKenzie., Yohan Blake

THE National Stadium will be buzzing with excitement tomorrow as the most popular relay meet on the local calendar, the Gibson Relays, will be on.

Tomorrow's opening event, the 4x400m for high school boys begins at 9:45 a.m.

Several fierce battles are expected, especially among the high school boys. With the GraceKennedy/ISSA Boys' and Girls' Championships just some three weeks away, most of the teams at this stage are nearing their peak and come Saturday evening many questions will be answered as teams try to go into the major championships with psychological advantages.

It's a very important year for local juniors. The World Junior Championships will be held in Poland later this year and athletes, in addition to seeking to do well for their schools, will have on eye on getting to the world stage. Track and field fans will also get a chance to see those athletes who did so well for Jamaica at last year's World Youth Championships.

As usual, the Class One 4x100m relays for both sexes, along with the 4x400m and 4x800 metres relay are the Champion-ship events where winner swill collect commemorative Gibson Relays watches. Like last year, there should be some epic battles in these in these events.

St Jago favorites

St Jago's Class One 4x100m quartet (from left) Yohan Blake, Nickel Ashmeade, Rykert Hylton and André Walsh are expected to scorch the track at the Gibson Relays. - file

The Danny Hawthorne-coached St Jago boys will definitely start favourites to retain their title in the Class One event. The most devastating schoolboy sprint relay quartet ever, the Yohan Blake-led team, has moved from strength to strength after silencing their critics at 'Gibson' last year, when turning back teams like Camperdown, Calabar and Kingston College. They even went on later to decimate the Penn Relays Championship record.

Winners return

What is even more frightening this year, as far as their rivals are concerned, is that it is the same quartet of Blake, Nickel Ashmeade, André Walsh and Rykert Hylton that will be defending their title. The squad now has more firepower as former Morant Bay and Wolmer's High athlete Akeem Smith is now at the institution. It is unlikely that he will get a chance to compete as it will be unwise to change a winning team.

At the recent Camperdown Classics, they gave some glimpse of what can be expected this season when they strolled to an easy 40.15 seconds to win the Class One event, ahead of Calabar (40.25) and Jamaica College (41.12).

The Michael Clarke-coached Calabar will have to produce something close to a miracle to deny St Jago as the likes of Warren Weir, Oshane Bailey and new Class One athlete Ramone 'Batman' McKenzie will have to

be perfect on all changes and and hope that their anchor leg will have a substantial lead on Blake.

Western Relay champions Holmwood Technical, along with Jamaica College and Kingston College, will be hoping to pull off some upsets but it is going to take a brave man to bet against the St Jago team which should easily go under 40 seconds and establish a record time for the event. Last year, Kingston College surprised the powerful St Jago team of Blake, Ashmeade, André Wise and Hylton to win the 4x400m. Since then the St Jago team which now includes Adolphus Nevers has improved by leaps and bounds, winning at the 2007 Champs while just failing to beat Long Beach Poly at the Penn Relays. Both Kingston College and St Jago have retained most of their squad members. Kingston College ran 3:15 at the recent Western Relays while St Jago easily won at Central Championships with a 3:12 clocking.

Last year Nevers was the weak leg for St Jago but he has shown tremendous improvement in 2008 running sub-49 seconds at Central Championships and a relay split of 47 seconds in the 4x400m.

Strong class two team

Calabar, with their strong Class Two team, are expected to start slight favourites to take both the 4x100 and 4x200 metres events. Kingston College, who won at Western Relays with a leading time of 43.22, St Jago (43.37) at Central Championships along with Wolmer's (43.48) at Camperdown Classic and Jamaica College (43.50) at Camperdown Classic should make this a humdinger.

It should be no different in Class Three as Jamaica College, Wolmer's, St Jago and Kingston College will be fighting for top honours. Kingston College will do well but Jamaica College and Wolmer's who had a tight finish at the Camperdown Classic, are expected to renew rivalry with Central Championship winners St Jago.

They clocked 7:49.08 to defeat Kingston College at the Western Relays but Manchester High will have to improve to deny the Penn Relays champions this time around in the 4x800 for high schoolboys. The race will not be confined to those two schools as Calabar and Jamaica College, with their strong middle-distance programmes this year, will be coming to spoil their party.

Like last year, Holmwood Technical will dominate the high school girls events. Despite losing the likes of Schillonie Calvert and Anastasia Le-Roy, the team from Christiana, which has become the most dominant female track and field aggregation over the past seven years, has so much talent, they should easily roll over their opponents.

However, they are going to find it very difficult to retain their Championship Class One 4x100m as Edwin Allen are the big favourites. The Penn Relays champions, winners at Camperdown Classic with 46.54 seconds and 45.31 seconds at the Central Championships, will be hard to deny. Holmwood are expected to take second ahead of Vere Technical.

Unlike the Class One event, the Class Two 4x100 metres should be very competitive. Before the season started, Manchester High appeared to be the team to beat but things have changed since as Holmwood Technical have shown great improvement while Vere Technical, with the likes of Velma Morant and Jura Levy, are also in the money. Holmwood, with their 46.28 clocking at Central Championships, are the season leaders but Manchester (46.51) winners at Western Relays and Vere Technical (46.51), and runners-up to Holmwood at Central Championships, are not far behind. This will go down to the wire and the team with the best changes should win.

Left: Jura Levy ... will run Class Two sprint relay for Vere Technical. Right: Donahue Williams (left) and Rolando Berch ... two key members of Kingston College's 4x800m team.

Holmwood, with their very strong set of young athletes, should take both the Class Three, and Four 4x100m relays. In Class Three the challenge should come from Vere Technical, Manchester and St Jago.

In Class Four, Holmwood and Manchester have gone under 50 seconds this year but the likes of St Elizabeth Technical and St Jago should not be taken lightly.

Based on their performance at the Western Relays, Holmwood Technical, with a leading time of 3:38.06, should once again bag another 4x400m title.

Following their surprise victory over Holmwood in the 4x800m at the Western Relays, Manchester High's girls, like the boys, will have to lift their level this time around as Holmwood perform best when the odds are against them. Manchester High have the little giant, Natoya Goule, in their line up, but Holmwood will this time turn the tables and show them who are tops in 4x800 metres.