St Mary are Eastern Champs once again

ST MARY High School’s dominance at the Eastern Athletics Championships continued yesterday as the Dwayne Williams-coached team was crowned overall champions for the seventh time in a row.

St Mary amassed 672.50 points to leave Titchfield High School a distant second with 566 points. St Mary proved to have the best girls’ team in eastern Jamaica, topping their rivals with 437 points points, while their boys, with 235.50 points, were only bettered by Titchfield, who cranked out performances worth 276.

Williams, who was winning his eighth title as coach, had mixed feelings about his team’s overall results.

“Happy once again for taking home the overall title. Not surprised with the win by our girls as this was expected. We knew coming into the championships the boys were behind the eight ball as we lost several of our athletes from last year’s team but they gave it their all,” said Williams, who had high praises for Rasheed Grant, the Class Three double winner among the boys and Shone Walters, who in her final year, took the girls’ Class One 800 and 1500 metres.

On yesterday’s final day of competition, Walters, who is expected to do well in the middle distances at next month’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships, wrote her name in the record books after winning the 800 metres in 2 minutes, 11 .72 seconds (2:11.72) to erase the previous mark of 2:16.39 set by former St Mary athlete, Abbigail Schaffe, in 2016.

Port Antonio High School’s Shaneel Clarke Giddings was also inside the old mark, finishing second in 2:16.48.

On Monday’s opening day she won the Class One 1500 metres in 4:48.00.

Keleisha Bell of St Mary also enjoyed double success, capturing the Class Two sprint double. In the 100 metres, she won in 13.05 seconds, while clocking 26.24 in the 200 metres.

St Mary went on to sweep the 100 metres with Shayon Smith, competing in Class Four, also winning in 13.05 seconds, while Shagay Shippy won Class Two in 12.26, and Shantae Pryce captured Class One in 11.97.

The champions also had a clean sweep in the 4x100m relays, winning Class Four in 51.01, Class Three in 49.98, Class Two in 47.74 and Class One in a record 49.77 seconds.

Alexia Austin of Glengoffe High School continued her good form this season, running into a negative 2.1 metres per second wind to win the Class One 100-metre hurdles, stopping the clock at 14.17 seconds. Austin’s time was quicker than the 14.74-second record former Titchfield athlete Shanice Burrell had set in 2017. The feat means Austin is now the record holder at the meet in all classes.

Port Antonio’s Clarke Giddings, the Class One 400-metre champion, ran a blinder on the anchor leg of the girls’ 4x400 metres, making up some 40 metres to get by St Mary in a record 3:49.48 seconds. St Mary clocked the same time for second place.

Among the boys, Grant wrote his name in the record books twice with two exceptional performances. First, he won the 400 metres in 51.04 seconds to erase the previous best of 51.06 set by former Seaforth High School athlete, Javair Bell, in 2007.

Then, he broke Bell’s 800-metre record of 2 minutes, 04.74 seconds, also done in 2007, with a new mark of 2:02.56 seconds.

Titchfield had a one-two finish the boys’ Class One 100 metres through De Shaun Strachan and Cardiff McKenzie, who clocked 11.04 and 11.07 seconds, respectively.

St Mary’s Daniel Ellis was third in 11.11 seconds.

Ainsley Brown of Port Antonio, who represented Jamaica at the Carifta Games on local soil last year, had double success at the meet after winning the boys’ Class One 400 metres in 50.06 and the 800 metres in 1:59.60.

Antwon Salmon of Titchfield was victorious in the boy’s javelin with a mark of 40.40 metres, while Akimo Thompson of St Thomas Technical took second with 39.41 metres.