Jamaica’s Edwin Allen High School ran a blistering 43.95secs world record for high school girls in the 4x100m relay at the University of Technology (UTech) Track & Field Classic in Kingston on Saturday, when they placed second to the senior MVP Track Club, which clocked a meet record of 43.31.
It was the fastest schoolgirl time for the year and was also the first sub-44secs time by any Jamaican high school girl quartet. Edwin Allen’s achievement was their second record-breaking performance in two week. At the end of March, the same team of Christania Williams, Claudette Allen, Saqukine Cameron and Monique Spencer ran a scorching 44.17 that erased the old Class 1 record, with anchor Spencer easing up several meters before the finish line.
Finishing behind MVP and Edwin Allen were UTech Jamaica (43.99), G.C. Foster College (44.60), and UTech Track Club (46.77). Edwin Allen and UTech Jamaica also broke the old meet record of 44.12 set by G. C. Foster in 2008.
Seven meet records were broken and one tied. Prominent among the highlight was Boys Champs winners Calabar High School’s super run for a world leading 7mins, 33.39secs in the boys’ 4 x 800m relay. The quartet of Rajay Hamilton, Gawayne Porter, Alex Hutton and Jorel Belafonte made keeping pace with them difficult. In second place was Holmwood Technical 7:37.99, followed by Kingston College/KC (7:44.22), Jamaica College (7:44.22), Jamaica College (7:44.49), and Munro College (8:14.21).
Earlier in the evening, Calabar’s sprint relay team took a big slice out of the 40.40 record set by Bridgeport High in 2011, by clocking 40.06 well ahead of second place KC (40.26), also below the old record.
Senior hurdler Ristananna Tracey of Racers Track Club also registered a world leading 55.64secs that broke MVP’s Kaliese Spencer’s mark of 56.32secs. Jeneive Russell (UTech) was a distant second in 57.27secs.
But in the men’s sprint relay, Racers Track Club’s Kenroy Anderson, Michael Frater, Warren Weir and Yohan Blake posted 38.41 for a new record, erasing 38.46 set by MVP in 2009. Anchored by Blake, the team was not far removed from UTech Jamaica, who had Julian Forte on the backstretch and Tyquendo Tracey on anchor and also went below the previous record one-hundredth of a second behind Racers in 38.42. MVP was third in 38.91.
In the Girls 4x400m relay for high school record, UTech Jamaica was responsible for the sixth record on the track with 3:36.04. They defeated St. Jago High School (3:36.89), who were followed by Holmwood Technical on 3:38.40 and a watered down Edwin Allen High School team with 3:42.11.
World sprint relay gold medalist Carrie Russell of MVP was equaled Schillonie Calvert’s 2009 record in the women’s 100m Invitational. Russell clocked 11.19secs to defeat Calvert, second in 11.36. MVP’s Anneisha McLaughlin was third in 11.40.
Odayne Richards of MVP made his statement on the field she he threw 19.15m in the shot put to surpass 2011 meet record of 18.08m. Results