Bad day for JC at Penns

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania:

Jamaica College (JC) suffered two big setbacks on yesterday’s opening day of the 127th staging of the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

JC were among the favourites to win the 4x800 metres, 4x400m and 4x100m but, at the end of the day, dropped out of the first two ahead of today’s finals.

It all went wrong for the Neil Harrison-coached team in the opening event of the day, the preliminary round of the Championships of America 4x800m, where they are the defending champions and came into the meet as the top seeds. After winning their heat in seven minutes 49.29 seconds for the fastest time on the day, they were disqualified. Former Calabar High athlete Nicholas Power, who ran the second leg on the team, was deemed to be ineligible to compete at the Championships and his presence on the team saw three teams protesting his participation and they were disqualified from the event. Power was not eligible to compete for JC at the recent ISSA-GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships and, according to the Penn Relays rules, athletes who are ineligible for their national championships cannot compete at the meet.

Kingston College (KC), led by Ainsley Campbell who won their heat in 7: 54.79 seconds, are now the fifth-fastest qualifiers going into today’s finals where they will be joined by many-time winners St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), who finished second in their heat in 7:55.96. Seaton Hall Prep of New Jersey, with their winning time of 7:49.99, are the fastest qualifiers going into today’s finals at 4:50 p.m.

JC suffered another major setback in the preliminary round of the Championships of America 4x400m .The pre-race favourites had a healthy lead on the second leg but Nakiel Denoon pulled up with a hamstring injury and they failed to finish.

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS

St Jago High, after winning their heat in 3:15.91 for the third-fastest time overall, will lead four other Jamaican teams into today’s final starting at 3:20 p.m. STETHS ,3:16.11, Edwin Allen High, 3:16.22, defending champions KC, 3:17.74, and Calabar, 3:17.82, are the other Jamaican teams in the final. Last year’s second-place finishers, Bullis High of Maryland, are the fastest qualifiers, with 3:14.12.

Six Jamaican teams are through to today’s final of the Championships of America 4x100m, where Troy Academy, out of Florida, and STETHS are joint fastest qualifiers after posting 41.32 seconds to win their heats. KC (41.72), Wolmer’s Boys’ (41.79), JC (41.85), along with defending champions Camperdown (42.03) and St Jago (42.03), are also through.

In the boys’ field events three Jamaicans picked up wins. They were led by Calabar’s Kobe Lawrence who threw a personal best 20.93 metres to win the high-school boys’ shot put. Shaiquan Dunn of St Jago took third with 18.07m.

Demario Prince of St Jago won the long jump with 7.42m while KC’s Nathan Wade was third with 7.22m.

Trevon Hamer of JC won the triple jump posting 15.17m as KC’s Javar Thomas ended third with 14.81m.

Isaiah Patrick and Aaron McKenzie of KC took second and third, respectively, in the high jump, with each clearing the bar at 1.98m.

Racquil Broderick of JC took third in the discus throw, with 61.92m.