IN ANY championships there are clashes in particular events which the fans always look forward to seeing and there are two big clashes at this year’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) which will have fans out of their seats.

In the Class Three girls’ 100 metres, Wolmer’s Girls’ Natrece East will go up against Edwin Allen High’s Kerelle Etienne. In the other big clash, Edwin Allen’s Theianna-Lee Terrelonge will match strides with Muschett High’s Shanoya Douglas. Today The Gleaner looks at the Class Three 100m clash.

East, who was second a year ago in the 100m final behind Terrelonge, will be hoping to go one place better this time around. She has been in exceptional form so far this season. At last weekend’s Carifta Trials, East clocked a season’s best 11.62 seconds to win the under-17. It’s the fastest time so far in the class heading into Champs.

After her close second-place finish last year where she clocked 11.59, her camp must have thought that winning the event this time around was a cinch for East, with Terrelonge moving up to Class Two. However, this will not be the case as she now has Etienne to contend with.

Etienne, out of Dominica, is one of several athletes from the eastern Caribbean who will be competing at the Championships this year. Like East, she has also been unbeaten in the event with her best of 11.70 coming in her first appearance on local soil at the Pure Water/JC/ R. Danny Williams meet in January. Since then she has been in fantastic form, running some fast relay legs for her school.

Both East and Etienne are expected to qualify easily through the rounds to set up a mouth-watering clash in the final. Both athletes have met before in the semifinals of the under-17 event at last year’s Carifta Games in The Bahamas. In that race, East was second in 11.83 to move on to the final while Etienne could only manage sixth in 12.33 and failed to advance.

However, things should be different this time around as Etienne has looked super fast this season and could go all the way. It is unlikely the record of 11.27 set by former Edwin Allen athlete Tina Clayton in 2019 will be troubled but it should be hot battle which should have the expected large crowd out of their seats.