Jamaica’s high school girls get started at Penns today

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA:

THE 128TH staging of the Penn Relays, one of, if not, the world’s greatest relay meets, gets under way this morning at the Franklin Field Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennysylvania.

Undoubtedly, the most popular track and field relay meet in the world, which attracts high school and college athletes from the United States, Jamaica, and the Caribbean, the Penn Relays will, once again, pull a large crowd over the three days of competition, especially on Saturday’s final day. Saturdays normally enjoy crowds of 40,000-plus spectators.

With excellent weather conditions projected for the three days of the meet, fans are in store for excellent performances from the athletes on and off the track in what is a Word Under-20 Championships year for juniors and Olympic Games for seniors.

This year, there will be a bonus for the fans.

On Saturday, there will be the Global Relays, set to include some of the top teams from around the world, including Jamaica.

The Jamaicans are preparing for next weekend’s World Relays in The Bahamas.

After rotating the schedule last year, which saw male high school teams competing on the first two days, the girls will take the track first.

NEWCOMERS

There will be a record number of Jamaican high school teams competing at the meet, including newcomers Muschette High School with wonder girl Shanoya Douglas and Lacovia High School with the superb Sabrina Dockery, two of the country’s brightest female junior stars.

Competition will get under way this morning at 8:00 Jamaica time with the preliminary round of the high school girls’ 4x800 metres, which will feature former champions, Edwin Allen High, who were second a year ago, and Hydel.

Holmwood Technical and Alphansus Davis will also feature in the preliminary round. Union Catholic out of New Jersey are the defending champions.

Union Catholic are the fastest qualifiers coming into the meet following their 8:53.48-minute, record-breaking run a few weeks ago in Arcadia, California.

There will also be preliminary-round action in the Girls’ 4x100 and 4x400-metre relays. Hydel are the defending champions in both and are favourites to retain their titles.

Wolmer’s Girls’ School, led by Natrece East, will be the first Jamaican team to take to the track in the 4x100s at 8:45 a.m. Holy Childhood, Immaculate Conception High, Lacovia, Maggotty, St Mary High, Vere Technical, Excelsior, St Catherine High, Holmwood Technical, Manchester, Mt Alvernia, St Elizabeth Technical, Edwin Allen, and St Jago are also down for the 4x100s.

Defending champions Hydel will take to the track at 3:55 p.m. in the Girls’ 4x400 metres. Also down to contest the 4x400 preliminaries are St Mary High, Taicus Golding, Muschett, Edwin Allen, Port Antonio, Vere Technical, St Catherine High, St Jago, Rhodes Hall, Holmwood, and Lacovia.

There will also be five field event finals today, including a record 31 entries from Jamaican high school teams.

The girls’ high jump will feature Najhanda Seymour of Excelsior and Able Mills of St Catherine, while St Jago’s Kimeka Smith takes to the ring in the shot put. Defending triple jump champion Jade Ann Dawkins, also of St Jago, will also be reporting to the runway.

Rihanna Sudlow of St Catherine High will start favourite to win the long jump, while Edwin Allen’s Rasheda Samuels is favoured to win the high jump.