Edwin Allen quartet expected to be in record-breaking form
Usual suspects set to dominate Penn Relays 4x100
Published:Thursday | April 21, 2022 | 12:10 AMRaymond Graham/Gleaner Writer
AFTER A COVID-19-enforced absence of two years, the world’s largest and oldest relay carnival, the Penn Relays, will be back this year with its 125th staging set for three days starting on April 28 inside the Franklin Field Stadium on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
As usual, thousands of Jamaicans in North America are expected to once again pack the stadium to witness what is expected to be more dominance from Jamaican high-school teams.
Following the recent ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships and the Carifta Games in Kingston where there were outstanding performances, this year’s staging could see the greatest performances ever by the Jamaican teams at the carnival and several records are expected to go.
All eyes will be on the Michael Dyke-coached Edwin Allen 4x100 metres quartet of Serena Cole, Tina and Tia Clayton and Brandy Hall, as they will be hoping to take the event to a different level when the final gets under way on Friday, April 29 at 3:20 p.m. Jamaica time. A win for Edwin Allen would make it seven in a row and ninth overall.
EXPECTING NO DIFFERENT
In 2019, the team, which included the Clayton twins, Cole and Kevona Davis, romped to victory in a record 43.62 seconds, the school’s second sub-44 mark at the event. With Hall now replacing Davis, there is not expected to be very much difference, bearing in mind what took place at Champs. Inside the National Stadium, the quartet demolished the Class One 4x100 relay record, breaking it by nearly a second when they clocked 43.28.
Earlier at the Gibson McCook Relays the same quartet broke the Class One record, posting 43.37 seconds.
The Clayton twins and Cole were all part of two Jamaica junior teams that have gone sub-43 seconds. The trio set the World Under-20 record of 42.94 seconds in Nairobi, Kenya, last year before smashing that record at the Carifta Games last week with an astonishing 42.58, with Hydel High’s Brianna Lyston running the third leg.
Though Hall is not blessed with the speed of Lyston, once the conditions are right, a sub-43-second time is on the cards here.
Hydel, with the likes of Lyston, Kerrica Hill, Alana Reid and Oneika Wilson, will be hoping to spoil the Edwin Allen party but it will take something very special from them or any of the North American teams to do so. It should be Edwin Allen versus the clock.
At the last staging of the Penn Relays, Jamaican teams dominated the event with the top six spots going to the island. Edwin Allen finished ahead of Hydel, St Jago, Holmwood, Excelsior and St Catherine High in that order.