A Jamaican high school girls sprint team ran a high school 4x100m relay world record today at the scaled-down 45th staging of the Gibson-McCook Relays in the Kingston.
The crack squad of Class One girls (ages 17-19) Serena Cole, Tina Clayton, Brandy Hall, and Tina’s twin, Tia, in that running order, scorched the track at high speed to register 43.37secs. It was their second race of the season after running 44.48 at the Western Relays last week.
After that race, their coach Michael Dyke told the media that he hadn’t done any baton work for that meet and would fix things going forward. Now fans of the sport are anticipating the team’s performance at the upcoming world-renowned Boys and Girls Athletics Championships (Champs) in April. The Gibson Relay carnival is regarded as a dress rehearsal for Champs, when bragging rights will be at stake and the battle for supremacy will be raging for both genders.
A solid lead-off by Cole to Clayton, the second leg powerhouse and reigning World Under-20 100m champion at 11.09secs, opened the lead before passing to Hall, the defending Champs Class One 100m champion. The first three runners were part of Jamaica’s World Championships Under 20 world record team that clocked 42.94secs to erase the mark of 43.27 set by Germany in 2017.