By Adrian Robinson, TrackAlerts.com writer
The 7th staging of the UTECH Classic got off to a record breaking start. Records tumbled as the first event got on the way.
The 4 x100m relay set things off for the afternoon proceedings. There were 6 sections for the relays, men, women, boys and girls for High Schools, followed by Prep and Primary Schools together.
The 4x100m for women was first up with a twist. Edwin Allen asked to be placed in the event as they were going after the world High School record. Vere Technical had that record of 44.13 done in 2009. The race was won by MVP, second was a close Edwin Allen, Utech came third. All teams got records, they all went under 44 seconds. Edwin Allen is now the fastest High School in the world with 43.95sec for the 4x100m.
The men's 4x100m record went also, both Racers and Utech with times of 38.41 and 38.42 respectively went under the record set by MVP in 2009 of 38.46. Racers team was Mario Forsythe, Michael Frater, Warren Weir and Yohan Blake.
"We did not practice for this event, and the changes were not good, but we are still happy for the win," said Blake, who was injured at this meet a year ago.
Weir returned to false start in the men's 100m.
The High School girls 4x100m was taken by Holmwood in 44.89, then came St Jago with Kimone Shaw on anchor in 45.43.
The boy's equivalent contributed much excitement, St Jago lead all the way, but fumbled the baton on the final change over, similarly done at the last Gibson Relays. The experts quipped, "the best place for St Jago to get things right will be the Penn Relays."
Both Calabar and KC's 40.06 and 40.26 broke the record of 40.46 held by Bridgeport High form 2011. St Benedicts Primary girls team with 55.00sec got the better of Lannamans Prep who came in with 55.23sec. The boys race was the opposite, Lannamans Prep won in 51.04, second was St Benedicts Primary closing fast with 52.34.
Next in line was Hurdles, a smart early season 55.64 run by Ristanana Tracey of Racers was enough to remove the record set by Keliese Spencer of MVP 56.32 held since 2009. Janieve Russell gave chase up to 350 meters, but faded with a 57.27 run.
Annsert Whyte of Racers came away with victory in 50.33, Josef Robertson was never able to match is own record of 50.15 as he did 50.63.
For the women's 800m, Simoya Campbell did enough with 2:05.03, to hold off Marleena Eubanks of Edwin Allen who did 2:07.09. The men's 800m was captured by Jowayne Hibbert of UWI, he won with 1:48.28.
Christine Day of MVP with 51.43 and Annastacia Leroy from Sprint Tech, who did 51.51, extracted their own excitement as they battled from start to finish in the women's 400m dash.
In the men's 400m, Chumaine Fitten of Cameron Blazers did 46.12 to get the better of Ricardo Chambers of Racers, with his 46.28.
Latoya Greaves of MVP did well with 13.20 to overtake Megan Simmonds of Utech running 13.45. The 110m hurdles was won by Stefon Fennell of UWI in 13.81 running into a head wind of -0.5m.
The Women 100 Meter Dash Invitational was taken with a powerful run from Carrie Russell of MVP doing 11.19, followed by Schillonie Calvert of Racers 11.36. Invitational men 100m was won by Jason Livermore, he did 10.25, close for second with the same time was Andrew Hinds of MVP.
The ever improving Stephenie Mcpherson of MVP ran well to take the 200M in 22.93. Utech Natasha Morrison was second doing 23.31, also 3rd went to Kerron Stewart of Racers in 23.64.
Nester Carter from the MVP camp did enough with 20.54 to hold off a persistent Julian Forte, Forte's time was 20.65.
The 1500m for men went to Lenford Adams 3:59.98 running for Discover U, second went to Demarley Johnson from UWI he got 4:05.47.
The meet ended with some exciting relays. Calabar and STETHS rhad a ding dong battle for the High School mile relay, in the end Calabar took the race with a record run of 3:10.61, held by Munro 3:10.66.
The men's 4x40m was won by Utech, G.C Foster dropped the baton, but somehow came back to overtake UWI for second place in 3:13.79. The winning time for the race was 3:08.77. Both St Jago and Utech 4x400m for women got record runs 3:of 36.89 and 3:36.04. Finally the 4x800m for Boys was wrestled away by Calabar in spectacular form, breaking a record that stood for over two decades.
