Jamaica College: Multiple relay threat

Jamaica College (JC) are the fastest school team of 2022 in the 4x100m, the 4x400m, the 4x800m and the sprint medley.

JC entered last week’s Corporate Area Championships as the time leaders in the 4x800m and the medley and scored chart-topping times in the other two.

The Old Hope Road-based school overtook St Jago High School twice, with a time of 40.24 seconds in the Class One 4x100m and with a clocking of three minutes 0.9.96 seconds in the 4x400m. Those times surpassed St Jago’s Gibson McCook Relay winning times of 40.26 and 3.10.48, respectively.

In the medley, JC advanced their own season’s best from 3:30.82 to 3.29.40, with Omarion Davis whizzing his two-lap anchor leg in 1:53:00.

Secure in the knowledge that his Class Two 4x100m squadron is also the island’s fastest at 41.68, JC’s head coach Neil Harrison is a happy man. “I think we are quite good, especially in the upper classes, and I think we have the ammunition to dominate the two events at Boys’ Championships,” he said Tuesday. “I think Kingston College (KC) are very strong in the Class Three 4x100m, and should be difficult to beat. We are hoping that at least we can be medal contenders in that event at the end of the day,” the coach added.

KC won the Class Three 4x100m at Gibson McCook Relays with the season’s leading time of 44.36.

WORKING TOWARDS A CLEAN SWEEP

JC had fast 4x400m and 4x800m teams last year but, with the prestigious Penn Relays rubbed off the schedule by COVID-19, there was nowhere to go. “We thought we had a missed opportunity based on the pandemic, because there was no Penn Relays. We thought we had an opportunity to make a clean sweep in all three events. The situation looks possible this time and we are working towards it and we are hoping that, at the end of the day, we’ll able to rise to the occasion,” the coach offered.

At Gibson McCook, JC uncorked a stunning record run of 7: 24.30 in the 4x800m. In like manner at the Corporate Area Championships, Jayden Brown, Kemario Bygrave, 400m winner Deandre Watkin and Vincentian Handal Roban ran the first sub-3.10 time of the year. KC were in front at the first exchange but, after Bygrave took over with a 47.2 seconds split, Watkin 47.1 and Roban 46.9 were never in danger.

“I think there’s room for improvement for the 4x400m, and even the 4x100m, to run faster because we have run the fastest time for the 4x100m so far this season and I still think there’s an element of surprise to add to that quartet as well,” Harrison contended.

In the Class One 4x100m, Harrison deployed Uroy Ryan, Dwight Downer, 200m winner Jaiden Reid and Deandre McIntosh. He could also call on Boys and Girls’ Championships Class Three 100m record holder Christopher Scott and 2021 Class Two 100m runner-up Hector Benjamin. The 4x400m unit could later include 400m prospect Tariq Dacres and 800m ace J’Voughnn Blake.