Edwin Allen ready to retain title – Dyke
Published:Wednesday | March 10, 2021 | 12:27 AMRaymond Graham/Gleaner Writer
With the weekend’s completion of the second series of Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association qualifying trial meets held across the island, coach of national girls champions Edwin Allen High School, Michael Dyke, is pleased with his team’s performances so far, and has stated that they are comfortably placed to retain their title at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships.
“After two weeks of competition, I am comfortable, and if there is a Championships this year, I know I will be right there on that Saturday evening when the final scored is tallied and being announced,” said a confident Dyke, shortly after his team’s impressive performances at the various meets over the weekend.
Competing at G.C. Foster College, Jamaica College, Excelsior High School and the National Stadium, the girls from Frankfield, Clarendon, scored several wins in the different disciplines, showing the overall depth of the team.
At G.C. Foster College, they swept the 800m and 1500m events. In the Class One 800m event, Jessica McLean won in 2:13.67, finishing ahead of Rushana Dwyer, 2:18.51, to secure a quinella. Rickeisha Simms took the Class Two race in 2:15.39, while Rhiana Gayle topped the field in Class Three in a time of 2:18.51.
TURNING THE TABLE
Dwyer took the 1500m event, turning the table on McLean, winning the event in 4:53.96, ahead of her teammate, 4:54.15. Simms secured another win in the Class Two contest in a time of 4:44.50, as did Gayle, who won the Class Three event in 5:01.15.
At the National Stadium, Edwin Allen captured two of three 200m races along with the 2000m steeplechase event, while they also had big performances in the long jump.
With Tia Clayton yet to make her season debut, her twin sister Tina topped the field in the Class Two 200m, with in a winning time of 24.37 seconds despite a negative wind of 1.6 metres per second, while Angel Robinson came out on top in Class Four in 26.16 seconds with teammate Toniann Allen taking third place in 26.62 seconds.
Sanyae Gibson, 7:32.56, was victorious in the 2000m steeplechase with teammate Janet Jackson finishing third in 7:52.99.
Robinson returned t0 secure a double win after winning the Class Four long jump with a distance of 5.20m, with her teammate, Allen taking second with a leap of 5.17m.
Serena Cole’s winning mark of 5.49m in Class Two and the outstanding Ackelia Smith, 6.42m in Class One, demonstrated Edwin Allen’s strength in the horizontal jumps.
Following similar success for Monifa Edwards, 12.77m in the Class One shot put, and Rochelle Solomon’s winning Class Two effort of 15.86m at the Excelsior High School meet, Dyke expressed shock at the high level of performances registered by his girls.
“We have gone two meets and the results are alarming despite the limited number of athletes we have, but there have been really good results so far in the various classes and respective disciplines,” Dyke said.
“Class Four has started well, middle distance is doing extremely well, and over the weekend it was a good showing by our long jumpers, and we also saw our throwers coming into their own. This shows a steady balance across the board,” Dyke stated.