Coach Johnson: JC can lower 4x800m record at Penn Relays

AFTER smashing the 4x800 metres record at this year’s Gibson McCook Relays with an astonishing seven minutes 24 .30 seconds and beating nearest rivals Kingston College by nearly 12 seconds, coach Dwayne Johnson is confident that Jamaica College will break Calabar High’s four-year old Penn Relays record of 7:26.09.

“Well, I expect the team to once again do great and lower the Penn Relays record, based on the current form of the guys; and going close to 7:20 is a possibility, once the weather is okay,” Johnson told The Gleaner in a recent interview.

Undoubtedly, the Old Hope Road-based school has the best set of middle-distance high-school male athletes in the country, and so when the quartet of Khandelle Frue, Omarion Davis, Handal Roban and J’Voughnn Blake broke the Western Relays record it was no surprise. The depth of the squad is so great that Kemarrio Bygrave replaced Frue at the Gibson McCook Relays and they broke another record in a faster time.

The final of this event is set to get under way on Saturday, April 30 at 3 p.m. (Jamaica time), and Jamaica College will start overwhelming favourites to win their first title in the event. Blake, the 800m and 1500m under-20 champion at the recent Carifta Games, will be hoping to finish his high-school career on a high. He is the only returnee from the team which finished fourth in 2019.

After a second-place finish in the event in 2019, Kingston College, with the Henry twins, Gianni and Giovouni, will be hoping to deny the big favourites, but it will take an Herculean effort from the North Street-based school to deny Jamaica College.