Vere duo pleases Graham

The Vere Technical pair of Brittany Anderson and Amoi Brown brought a smile to the face of their hurdles coach, Raymond Graham, with their performances at last weekend's Carifta Trials. Speaking after Anderson and Brown had won their respective 100m hurdle finals, Graham said he wasn't surprised by their dominance. He also announced that Anderson won't hurdle again until Boys and Girls Championships.

Anderson experienced some knee pain after her exertions in the long jump on Saturday, but, Graham said he advised, "take the pain out of your head." Anderson, the Boys and Girl's Championships 100m class 2 favourite, gave a polished performance on Sunday and won the under-18 final in 13.21 seconds, ahead of defending class 2 champion Daszay Freeman of Manchester High School and Shanette Allison of Holmwood Technical High School.

The coach rates this as better than her season leading run of 13.18 seconds at the Youngster Goldsmith meet on February 4. He recalled that the wind reading then was -1.6 metres per second, and said, "She was against Freeman, against Allison and the wind reading is -3.2 so it's amazing what this young lady can do."

"The sky is the limit", he concluded.

Brown sparkled in the U20 100m hurdles final, winning in 13.34 seconds. She has overcome injury problems from last season. "In Class 2, she came fourth," Graham recounted, "and I saw the potential."

"Once she remains fit," the coach assured, "nobody can beat her."

Anderson and Brown are training partners at Vere. "Amoi pushes Anderson and vice versa so I'm not surprised", he concluded.

He was also very happy with the runner-up spot achieved by Wayne Pinnock of Kingston College in the 110m hurdles for under 18 boys.

"He jumped 7.25 and he was beaten by a world class athlete Dejour Russell."

Even Freeman is one of Anderson's prime rivals for the Boys and Girls Championships class 2 title, her return to form has Graham's approval.

"I'm happy to see Freeman coming back because people wrote her off," he said of the Manchester High standout who clocked 13.44 seconds on Sunday. He reckons that this strengthens Jamaica's bid for glory at the upcoming World Under-18 Championships. "This is good for Jamaica because World Youth is coming up" he projected, while regretting the expected absence of the United States. In a final nod to the prowess of Anderson and Freeman, he predicted, "Jamaica can sweep all the medals in the hurdles there."