By Gary Smith, TrackAlerts.Com Contributor
Pre-champs favourites Calabar and Edwin Allen High took charge on day three at the ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Championships at the National Stadium in Kingston, on Thursday night.
Two records were broken on the day, with Lamar Reid and Shakiel Chattoo of Calabar leaving with something extra to celebrate about.
After finishing day two 12 points behind Jamaica College, defending champions Calabar moved ahead on the boys’ side on Thursday with 60 points after seven events.
Over night leaders JC are followed in second with 40pts, with Kingston College sitting third on 33pts, St. Jago High fourth on 18pts and Edwin Allen High completing the top five with 16pts.
On the girls’ side defending champs Edwin Allen High moved ahead of bedtime leaders Hydel High at the end of the third day of action.
After six events, Edwin Allen are the leaders with 48pts — taking over from Hydel, who are on 41pts in second place.
Holmwood Technical are third with 21pts, while St. Jago climbed to fourth on 20.33 pts. Rusea’s High and Vere Technical are both on 12pts and tied for fifth place.
Edwin Allen Picking Up The Points
Ackeila Smith of Edwin Allen was among the winners on the day after she took the Class Four girls Long Jump with a mark of 5.34m.
The silver medal went to Valissa Brown of Wolmer’s High at 5.30m and Samantha Jibbson of Holmwood Technical completed the podium places with a leap of 5.20m.
Annia Ashley handed the champions another victory on Wednesday after she bounced back from her fifth place finish from last season to clear 1.77m to take the Class Three girls High Jump final.
She grabbed the gold medal ahead of Rusea’s jumper Lamara Distin (1.74m) and Anissa Walters of Holy Childhood High (1.68m).
The other girls final on day three saw St Jago grabbing a 1-3 finish in the Long Jump for Class Two.
Tissanna Hickling leaped 5.95m to secure the top spot on the podium, with her schoolmate Nhayilla Renteria taking the bronze on a 5.73m effort. The silver medal was won by Trishauna Hemmings of Glengoffe High, with a standard of 5.88m.
Points With Records For C’Bar
Calabar’s Lamar Reid shattered a 22-year-old long standing champs record on day 3 after he produced a clearance of 1.99m to break the Class Three boys High Jump mark of Ryan Chambers, which was previously set in 1993.
Chambers had cleared 1.98m during that season.
With his effort, Reid easily defeated Vanderleer Palmer of St. Jago, who cleared 1.81m and Herbert Morrison’s Javeir Hall (1.78m).
Shakiel Chattoo broke the boys decathlon record after piling up 6988 points to capture the 10 event competition. 3061
Needing to run under six-minutes in the 1500m, the final event in the competition — to improve the old mark, Chattoo, who finished fourth in the combined event last year, motored home in 5:14.73, as he improved the previous overall mark of 6471, set by Maurice Harrison of Excelsior High in 2014.
In the other final on the day, Rasheeda Downer of Kingston College won the Class One boys shot put with a heave of 16.47m, while Andre Chin of Calabar (15.53m) and teammate Savion Burke (15.10m) combined for 13 points.
Looking Good In The Prelims
Michael O’Hara cruised to 20.91 seconds to win semifinal one of the Class One 200m, while Chad Walker of St Jago showboated his way to a semifinal victory in heat two in a time of 21.07.
Twayne Crooks of Calabar clocked 21.05 to win the third and final semifinal heat and also earned his place into Saturday’s final.
Man of the moment Christopher Taylor of Calabar flashed into the Class Two boys half lap final with an impressive 20.97secs performance and stayed on course for breaking the 2007 record of 20.89 set by Ramone McKenzie, a former C’Bar sprinter.
Tyreke Wilson, also from Calabar was the second fastest qualifier for the final with a time of 21.11, but Kingston College’s Jhevaughn Matherson pulled up injured in the same semifinals and his out of the championships.
“Jhevaughn failed to recovered from the hamstring injury he picked up earlier this season,” a source told SportingAlert.
“He tried putting it together in the 100m, but felt something was wrong after the heat earlier in the day and unfortunately for him and for KC his hamstring gave way and that’s a big blow in their title chase.”
Saqukine Cameron of Edwin Allen, who false started in the heats of the 100m is now turning her full attention to winning the half lap event.
Cameron qualified fastest in the Class One girls 200m with a time of 23.51, but she will be joined by Sashalee Forbes (Holmwood, 23.93) and St. Jago pair of Natalliah Whyte (23.81) and Shanice Reid (24.01), who all have medal aspirations.
