Raymond surprise in high jump at Penn Relays
DEJONE Raymond of St Elizabeth Technical was the only winner from the County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) at last weekend’s 126th staging of the Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Raymond was a surprise winner of the high school boys’ high jump on Friday’s second day as the Penn Relays resumed after a two-year break due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Only a handful of schools from western Jamaica participated in the meet and these included STETHS, Herbert Morrison Technical, Petersfield High, Rhodes Hall, and Munro College.
St Elizabeth Technical and Herbert Morrison Technical qualified for the Championships of Americas (COA) final in the high school boys’ 4x100m, while the St James school won their heat in the 4x400m but failed to advance to the final.
Raymond, who was ranked eighth going into the competition, equalled his personal best 2.05m to win the high jump, the first time a STETHS athlete was winning the event.
He was also the 11th Jamaican winner in the last 13 times the event had been staged.
His teammate Tierick Smith finished fifth with 1.93m.
The STETHS team of Jevorne Dunkley, Orlando Wint, Allem Pinto and Omario Johnson were seventh in the COA final in 41.83 seconds while the Herbert Morrison Technical team of Trevoy Smith, Mark Anthony Daley, Dylan Johnson and Deandre Daley was ninth in 42.82 seconds after running 41.90 in the preliminaries.
Herbert Morrison were awarded a miniature Penn Relays plaque after winning their heat in the 4x400m in 3:18.18 seconds, but did not advance.
The Petersfield High girls’ 4x100m team qualified for the International final, contested by the top eight internationals schools that did not make the COA final and placed eighth in 49.27 seconds after they were 11th overall in preliminaries where they had run 48.46 seconds. Petersfield athletes Royan Walters was eighth in the long jump with 6.63m (0.7m/s) but did not finish the competition, missing his last two jumps with an ankle injury; Yekini Bowen was eighth in the discus throw with a best mark of 54.33m; Tawani Murray was 10th in the girls’ triple jump with a best of 11.35m (2.0m/s), while Zavien Bowen was 15th in the girls’ discus throw with 33.08m.