Tue | May 14, 2024

Champs in Black and White

The moments that made the high-school showpiece unforgettable

Published:Sunday | April 10, 2022 | 12:16 AM
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Hydel High’s Kerrica Hill wins her Class Two girls 100 metres hurdles heat in a record 12.89 seconds at the National Stadium on Friday night.
Elton Tucker
Hydel High’s Kerrica Hill wins her Class Two girls 100 metres hurdles heat in a record 12.89 seconds at the National Stadium on Friday night.
Oneka Wilson celebrates breaking the Class One 100-metre hurdles ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Championships record inside the National Stadium yesterday.
Kenyon Hemans
Oneka Wilson celebrates breaking the Class One 100-metre hurdles ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Championships record inside the National Stadium yesterday.
Jamaica College’s distance duo JVaughn Blake and Handal Roban (left) competing in the boys’ Class One 800 metres at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships inside the National Stadium yesterday.
Gladstone Taylor
Jamaica College’s distance duo JVaughn Blake and Handal Roban (left) competing in the boys’ Class One 800 metres at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships inside the National Stadium yesterday.
Hydel High School’s Brianna Lyston celebrates winning the Girls’ Class One 200 metres at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships inside the National Stadium yesterday.
Kenyon Hemans
Hydel High School’s Brianna Lyston celebrates winning the Girls’ Class One 200 metres at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships inside the National Stadium yesterday.
Hydel’s Malayia Duncan watches the clock just after winning the Class Four girls’ 70-metre hurdles at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships inside the National Stadium yesterday.
Gladstone Taylor
Hydel’s Malayia Duncan watches the clock just after winning the Class Four girls’ 70-metre hurdles at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships inside the National Stadium yesterday.
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THE ISSA/GRACEKENNEDY Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships is undoubtedly the greatest high-school event in the world. But even as we celebrate that, year on year, it seems to get better and here at The Gleaner, we believe that is largely due to some special moments. These are moments that immortalise an athlete and leave a mark on the collective memories of track and field athletes everywhere. Here are a few from Champs 2022, we thought maybe you would never forget.

Kerrica Hill smashes world record … twice!

Hydel High School’s Kerrica Hill stormed to 22.89 seconds in the Class Two girls’ 100-metre semi-finals. Hill was breaking Excelsior’s Ackera Nugent’s 12.91, a World Under-18 record set in 2019.

But Hill wasn’t done yet, and returned to the final a day later to break it again, lowering the mark to an astounding 12.71.

JC’s double delight

When Edwin Allen’s Chevonne Hall stopped the clock at one minute, forty-eight point five-eight seconds in 2021, that was just the second time Jamaica had seen schoolboys run that fast over 800 metres.

In 2022, JVoughn Clarke of Jamaica College did it again.

Running the final yesterday, Blake, pushed hard by his teammate, Handal Roban, stopped the clock on 1:48.58. Roban was in fine form, running his teammate all the way to the tape in 1:48.72.

Brianna Lyston finds redemption

Where is Brianna Lyston? Common question over the last three years. Lyston had burst on to the scene in Class Four, running for St Jago High School and looked imperious. Injuries and poor form relegated her to a has-been until she resurfaced in 2022, running for Hydel High School. She was running fast and promised to give the dominant Edwin Allen twins, Tia and Tina Clayton, a run for their money. Disappointment in the 100, Lyston was second to Tina, clocking 11.26, pipped by three-hundredth of a second. Come Saturday, and running into a negative headwind, Lyston showed she is back, smashing Simone Facey’s 2004 record of 22.71 ad stopping the clock at 22.53.

Hydel makes it three records from three wins

Kerrica Hill’s world record was out of this world. But her teammates weren’t too shabby either, as Hydel copped three of the four sprint hurdle titles on offer. To boot, they did so in record-breaking fashion at each time of asking. Hill, 12.71 in Class Two, Class Four, Malayia Duncan, 10.38, and Oneka Wilson, 13.00 in Class One. Brilliant all round.