Boys’ sprint relay will be a close affair at Penns

JAMAICAN high-school boys’ teams have dominated the 4x100 metres at the prestigious Penn Relays for many years, with Camperdown High (nine wins), Kingston College and Calabar High (eight each) and Wolmer’s Boys (six) the top teams.

After their last failure in 2009 to capture the event, it has all been Jamaican teams since, and come next Friday inside the Franklin Field stadium in Philadelphia, the winning trend should continue. The only question here is, who will win? It is a wide-open affair.

Kingston College (KC), with the outstanding Bouwahjgie Nkrumie on anchor, won the Class One sprint relay at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) in 40.01 seconds. They were then touted as favourites to romp their ninth win at Penns, but their chances suffered a massive blow, as Nkrumie sustained an injury at last week’s Carifta Games and will not be a part of the KC quartet.

At the Gibson McCook Relays, Jamaica College (JC) were victorious in 40.01, where KC had baton problems and failed to finish. The JC team, with the likes of the in-form Malique Smith-Band and Hector Benjamin, did not get the chance to finish the final at Champs, as their third-leg runner, Mark Anthony Miller, pulled up with an injury before passing the baton.

The Old Hope Road-based JC are now the favourites to go all the way, but will be mindful of what happened a year ago when they looked to be likely winners, before Camperdown’s anchor-leg runner Roshawn Clarke ran a blinder coming from third to bring his team to victory in a massive upset. It took the photo finish camera to decide the outcome of the race, which Camperdown won in 40.13, just ahead of JC and St Jago High.

St Jago, after second-place finishes at Gibson McCook Relays in 40.44 and Champs in 40.40, will be highly motivated as the school’s 2007 winning team, which was led by Yohan Blake, will be inducted in the Penn Relays Wall of Fame.

Edwin Allen High were third at Champs in 40.59 without their ace sprinter Bryan Levell, due to injury. Levell is set to return to the team for Penns and this should be a major boost for them. His presence could help them go all the way and capture their first Penn Relays boys’ title.

With Nkrumie out, KC should, however, not be written off, while St Elizabeth Technical cannot be taken lightly. Like a year ago, we could witness another upset in what is expected to be another very close affair.