#Penns2022 | Expect JC, KC, Jago to provide 1600-metre cracker
Published:Sunday | April 24, 2022 | 12:12 AMRaymond Graham - Gleaner Writer
THE THOUSANDS of fans expected inside the Franklin Field Stadium at this weekend Penn Relays in Philadelphia are in store for something very special in the High School Boys’ Championships of America 4x400m relay finals, which is scheduled for 3 p.m. Jamaica time on Saturday.
Here, the trio of Kingston College (KC), Jamaica College (JC) and St Jago will be in a dog fight to see who comes out on top.
With a season’s best 3 minutes 09.96 seconds, done when winning at the Corporate Area Development meet, Jamaica College will be aiming for their fifth title and their first since 2016 and are slight favourites here.
The Old Hope Road team was also in good form at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships, where the members clocked 3:10.04 to score a close win over Kingston College, 3 :10.68, with St Jago third in 3:11.69. Earlier, at the Gibson McCook Relays, JC were third in 3:12.49 seconds as St Jago, 3:10.48, won ahead of KC, 3:11.13.
With the 4x800 metres finals set for fifty minutes after the 4x400m, the JC line-up could be affected with Kemarrio Bygrave, J’Voughnn Blake, Deandre Watkin and Handel Roban down for duties in both events. But with Mark Anthony Miller, Malique Smith and Tariq Dacres as quality alternates, this could be little bother to the Old Hope Road team as their 4x800m team is way out of class among high school teams and running the 4x400 before could be a good warm-up for them.
HIGHLY MOTIVATED
While JC could end the meet with three titles and create history, KC will be highly motivated for this as it is their best chance to come away with a relay win at Penns and after finishing third in three relays in 2019, and will be hoping for a win here.
The likes of Emmanuel Rwotomiya, Shamer Uter, Marcinho Rose, and any of the Henry twins to choose from is a formidable line-up for the North Street team. Like they did at Champs, they will be hoping to lead from the start and do enough this time to stave off a fast-finishing Jamaica College.
St Jago definitely cannot be left out of the mix as the school has a solid record at Penns in this event with six titles. Only Calabar, with 10, have more. With the outstanding Gregory Prince in St Jago’s line-up, they could steal the show, in what is expected to be a battle of epic proportions.