Defending champs KC comfortably ahead after day one of Champs
A litany of errors by top schools marked day one of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/ Gracekennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium yesterday.
Defending champions Kingston College (KC), Calabar High and Jamaica College (JC), seen as the main challengers, all let valuable points slip in the afternoon session of day one.
At the end of the first day, after six finals, KC on 55 points, had built up a 24-point lead over Calabar High and St Jago High who were tied for second place with 31 points. St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) on 26 points were in fourth place while JC on 24 points rounded out the top five.
KC got off to a good start, taking gold in the first two finals of the day. Kirk Dawkins showed grit and determination to get the better of the 2019 champion Rivaldo Marshall of Calabar, overtaking him just before the line as Marshall led after clearing the final hurdle.
Dawkins won in 5:52.74 minutes, Marshall was second in 5:53.74, while Matthew Gordon of JC came home in third in 6:04.80 minutes. Crispus Atukwatse of KC finished seventh to claim two points for his school, however Devon Dacosta of JC was disqualified and failed to score. KC took 11 points from the first event while the expected challengers JC, took six.
Akeel Hanchard also obliged for the champions, winning the javelin Open with a best of 62.93m which came on his second throw. Christopher Young of Edwin Allen was second with 62.12m, while Andre Raymond of St Jago was third with 61.18m. Chevaughn Fletcher finished fifth to grab four important points for KC, while JC tallied five points after Veayon Joseph and Jemar Ferguson finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
Kavian Kerr of St Jago High broke the heart of Luke Brown of Calabar High when he produced his best jump of 7.81m on his final attempt to take the gold medal in the Class One long jump. Brown’s 7.65m earned him the silver medal.
Apalos Edwards of JC was expected to score heavily in the Class One long jump but failed to make the top eight. His teammate Uroy Ryan finished third and collected six points for the “Dark Blues”.
Jaheim Cox collected two points for KC with his seventh place finish, after a best of 7.09m on his final attempt.
KC won two of the three sprint
hurdles finals which closed proceedings on day one, as they amassed 29 points from the final three events.
KC’S Daniel Clarke held his composure to win the Class Three 100m hurdles in a new personal best of 13.04 seconds after his teammate Kahiem Carby was disqualified for a false start. Ricoy Hunter of STETHS was second in 13.19 seconds, while Shaquane Gordon of Calabar was third in 13.28 seconds.
Allem Pinto of STETHS won the Class Two 110m hurdles final in 13.55 seconds, just ahead of Andre Harris of St Jago who was second in 13.57.
The KC pair of Amontae Wray (13.70) and Jadan Campbell (13.76) were third and fourth, respectively, collecting 11 points for the “Purples”. However, JC suffered a setback when Matthew Malcolm was disqualified thus failing to score any points for his school.
The final event for the boys was a very dramatic one. First, Rahyme Christian of Clarendon College was disqualified for a false start and after the race got under way, four athletes failed to finish.
Jerome Campbell and Schavon Carr of Calabar, Jordani Woodley of Rusea’s and Sharvis Simmonds of Excelsior High, all hit hurdles and failed to finish.
Tajae Francis of KC managed to avoid the carnage to win the race in 13.52 seconds, Jaheim Stern of JC was second in 13.78 seconds, while Radjae Reid of Excelsior was third in 15.25 seconds. KC’S Vashaun Vascianna, who was one of the favourites for gold, failed to finish his race in the semi-finals after appearing injured.
Day two will see only one final being contested, the Class Two long jump which is set to start at 1:00 pm. The decathlon Open will also get under way today, along with the heats of the 4x100m, medley relays, 100m first round and 400m first round.