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'Remarkable run' by Edwin Allen's 4x800m - Dyke

Published:Wednesday | January 24, 2018 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence/Gleaner Writer
Rushana Dwyer (front) of Edwin Allen High competing in the Class Three 800m at last year's Boys and Girls' Championships.
Dyke
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Michael Dyke, head track and field coach at Edwin Allen High, has described his team's 4x800 metres win at last Saturday's Central Hurdles and Relays meet as a 'remarkable run'.

Edwin Allen won a duel with Holmwood Technical High in 8 minutes 54.58 seconds at G.C. Foster College and led Dyke to expect better things later in the season. In addition, he believes his team could challenge the Penn Relays record in a few years.

Jessica McLean, Kara Grant, Kayann Green and Rushana Dwyer outraced a Holmwood quartet with three members of the winning 2017 Penn Relays unit.

"Based on the results today (Saturday)," the coach commented, "I am not surprised, because those girls have been working despite the challenges we have been having with the weather."

Cemore Donald, Edwin Allen's reigning Boys and Girls' Championships Class Two 800m and 1500m champion, didn't run. In that regard, Dyke said, "Running 8.54 at this time, without Cemore, is a remarkable run at this point in time."

Holmwood clocked 8 minutes 56.03 seconds, to give the Central Hurdles and Relays meet two teams under the record of 8.57.44 set by Edwin Allen six years ago.

better things ahead

"It's only going to get better, and it's always a competitive event between Holmwood over the past few years," he noted, in the knowledge that his team beat their rivals at the 2017 Gibson-McCook Relays in 8 minutes 47.71 seconds, but lost to the same school at the Penn Relays.

In a hint that McLean and Dwyer might not run at Penn this year, he intoned, "I'm not sure what will happen at Penn as yet because we have two Class Threes in the team and, you know, I'm sort of iffy about it but we will see as the season progresses." Jamaican high schools seldom use Class Three girls at the Penn Relays, but last year Edwin Allen, Hydel High and St Jago High all used athletes from this age group.

On Saturday, the top Edwin Allen baton bearer was Grant. Now in her second season after moving from Spalding High School, Grant moved her team into a big lead with the fastest leg of the race - 2 minutes 10.8 seconds. According to the coach, Grant's diligence in training is paying off.

"Kara is a hard worker and I strategically placed her at a point where she can help the team to recover in case of any unforeseen setback in the early stage, so she did exactly that," he reflected.

A great Vere Technical High School team set the Penn Relays record of 8 minutes 37.71 seconds in 1991. Dyke believes Edwin Allen can go that fast in a few years. "I am eyeing this team, probably not this year but another year or two, to challenge that record because with the two Class Three girls and Donald," he reasoned. "You know, anything is possible."

At Boys and Girls' Championships last March, Donald won the Class Two 800m and 1500m and Dwyer did the same in Class Three, with McLean fourth in both Class Three finals. On Saturday, the long-legged Dwyer overtook Holmwood's 2017 Class One 800m champion Chrisanni May to secure the win for Edwin Allen.