What are your favourite memories from competing at Penn Relays?

My favourite memory of competing at Penn Relays has to be when me and my team won the 4x400m in 2016 as part of the Kingston College

(KC) quartet. We were already a very dominant team in Jamaica, so to take that dominance to the United States and to win such a coveted title and to lift that plaque, that’s my all-time favourite memory at Penns.

One of my fun or great moments in the Penn Relays history was in 2007 when our big team, St Jago weh consists of me, Ryker [Hylton], Adolphus Nevers – sadly he passed away, my condolences to his family – [Nickel] Ashmeade, also Andre [Walsh]. Running the 4x400m, there was a lot of big teams in the race with Calabar,

KC, one of the favourite teams in there that American put together was the Long Beach Polytechnic [High School].

It would be 2013. It was my first Penn Relays with the team winning the 4x400m as a Class Three [girls]. It was my first time representing Holmwood Technical High School at that level at the Penn Relays. Coming out there as the youngest on their team, along with Chrisann Gordon, winning that 4x4 was just magnificent. Getting in the feel of winning Champs and going overseas, not only running against high schools that are locally based, but also international, to come out on top. So it was just a great feeling for me at the time, because I was very young, inexperienced, but it was a moment to remember.

So many memories! I competed at the Penn Relays for 18 years from 2000 to 2018. Definitely, one of my favourite places to compete. The fans make the atmosphere magical. But if I must pick a favourite memory, I would say 2018. Why? That was the last time I would compete at the Penn Relays and we won the 4x100m relays, which made the farewell even more special.

For me, it would be hard to really differentiate between my favourite moments at Penn Relays because personally, for me, the first time I went to Penn Relays, in 2015, it was my first time ever travelling internationally and for that moment, that whole trip was just an experience. But to be honest, just being at the Penn Relays in itself was a dream coming true because, trust me, me and my team were really looking forward to it. But outside of that, everybody wanted to win so I would say my number one moment out of all would be the first time I actually won an event at the Penn Relays. It was really magical and I was ecstatic and happy. I got the chance to know that I was on top.

My best moment at Penn Relays was 2011 and 2012. Those are the two years I won the 100m women, that’s one of the reasons why. I was only primarily focused on the relays. We did have a strong relay team in 2011. And I shifted the focus to 100m and I actually won it and I came back the following year and won it again. I think I’m the second person to do the back-to-back win at that event at the Penn Relays.