Kingston College was in fine form last Saturday at the Gibson Relays winning the Class 1 4x100, as well as copping three other gold medals and breaking two records. (Photos: Bryan Cummings)
With just a little over a month left before the big championship, it is clear that Kingston College are ready to take their 30th Boys Champs crown.
KC began their winning ways in the Class 1 4x100m where they were extremely impressive making mincemeat of the highly fancied Camperdown High and Holmwood Technical High to finish the race in a new meet record of 40.38 seconds. They came back just two races after to break yet another record in the Class 3 4x100m where they ran 44.03 seconds to finish just ahead of Calabar and St Jago.
Later in the evening, KC won the Class 3 4x200m, just ahead of Calabar and Bridgeport, and the Class 4 4x100m, winning a close race against the Calabar team.
St Jago also performed well, winning three gold medals. The Monk Street-based school managed to win the Class 4 4x100m, the Class 2 4x100m (41.66,a new meet record) and the Class 2 4x200m. The star for the night was, however, Yohan Blake, the Carifta double sprint champion in Under 17 last year, who, after receiving the baton at the back of the pack in both the 4x100m and 4x200m in Class 2, blazed the track to anchor his team to victory in both events. Also, the Camperdown Class 1 quartet, which included World Junior bronze medallist Renaldo Rose, ran very well as they held off the challenge of the strong KC team.
On the girls' side, it was Holmwood Tech and Manchester High who shined. Holmwood, however, the favourites for both the Class 1 4x100m and the 4x200m Open, were unable to finish both races due to baton exchange problems and an injury to an athlete respectively. The fumbling of the baton in the Class 1 4x100m by Holmwood left an open field for the gold medal and Vere Tech made no mistakes in capturing it. In the Class 2 4x100m, Edwin Allen reigned supreme and again in the Open 4x200m, with the absence of Holmwood, sped to victory ahead of Vere Tech and St Jago.
Manchester High, though, were to make their presence felt in the Class 3 and Class 4 where they showed great preparation and great heart, especially in the Class 4.
The Holmwood athletes brought the house down with thrilling victories in both the boys and girls 4x400m.
