Kingston College boys and Holmwood Technical girls have found the recipe for success at the VMBS/ISSA Boys' and Girls' Championships.

Both triumphed over the four days last week - KC for the sixth successive time and Holmwood girls for the fourth time in a row.

KC tallied 233.50 points in the 37 events offered, and Holmwood 319 points from 43 events.

Twelve meet records were broken, six in the girls and six in the boys with Wolmer's Josef Robertson finally shattering Kenneth Gray's 25-year-old previous national junior record of 50.46 seconds in the 400m hurdles Open.

Gregory Little equalled the mark in 2001, but a runaway start from Robertson in the final gifted him the new mark in a personal best 50.24 seconds. Were Robertson not looking over his shoulder for Leford Green of Kingston College, who clocked a personal best 50.81 seconds for the silver, he could have run under 50 seconds.

Champs was robbed of another showdown between the two in the Class One 400 metres, Green winning in a personal best 45.82 seconds and Robertson left to watch as a spectator after suffering muscle spasms and cramps on the morning of the final day.

Usain Bolt's meet record of 45.35 may not have been threatened, but the two would have taken a good look at it.
Holmwood's Tanesha Blair smashed the Javelin Open meet record, throwing 46.62 metres, to threaten Shaneka Parkes' national junior mark of 46.99 metres. Parkes held the previous Champs record of 45.08 metres set two years ago.
Sonita Sutherland has numbered herself as one of Jamaica's fastest young quarter-milers in history by clocking a personal best 51.13 seconds. And she is not finished yet.

The Holmwood Technical elite athlete may very well join Jamaican-born American Sanya Richards as one of the best quarter-milers of her generation.

Sutherland erased her Class One meet record of 52.10 seconds established last year, took the 800 metres, figured prominently in the 4x400m meet record of 3:37.43, and helped Holmwood to victory again the 4x100m relay.

As Sutherland aims to finish her junior career in style by shattering Sandie Richards' national junior record of 50.92 seconds, St Jago High's Yohan Blake has stepped up to enrich Jamaica's sprint legacy.

The Class Two sprinter ripped apart Remaldo Rose's meet record of 10.45 seconds set in 2004 to leave his stamp with a 10.34-second clocking. As a junior and now part of the Caribbean's elite sprinting network, Jamaicans are hoping that he will run as fast as an 18-year-old Obadele Thompson (10.08 seconds) or a 19-year-old Darrel Brown (10.01 seconds).

Perhaps that might be too much pressure to put on the young man, but his coach Danny Hawthorne is intent on making him a world-beater at every level.

"I told him at Champs not to run too hard, as 10.3 was enough for me," Hawthorne told Sporting World yesterday.
"He will run 10.2 at the World Juniors this year," Hawthorne predicted again. And the first time (when he predicted 10.3) he was right.

He also won the 200 metres and for those who saw Blake on the legs of the 4x400m relay, he could have a future in the one-lap event.

"He ran 45.27 seconds on his leg in the preliminaries of the 4x400m relay," Hawthorne said. That time, of course, would have broken Bolt's Class One 400m record indicated to earlier.

While Blake probably has at least another two years at Champs, fans will witness for a while a 15-year-old from Manchester High, who is being molded into a distance-running sensation.

Natoya Goule dipped under the 10-minute barrier in the 3,000 metres Open, bettering her own meet record of 10:08.10. She set a new mark and personal best 9:56.79, dragging along her good friend, 19 year-old Stacey Bell of Vere Technical, also under the 10 minutes. Bell ran a personal best 9:58.56.

But with the Class Three 800 metres final and a leg of the 4x400m relay to come, coach Jerry Holness advised her to only "shave the record a little".

Several hours later, Goule took down a peg, Evette Turner's 14-year meet record of 2:10.00 in the 800 metres. The young Manchester stalwart posted 2:09.60.

But Remaldo Rose of Camperdown disappointed, failing to clip Tesfa Latty's Class One 100m record of 10.24 seconds. He ran 10.30 seconds.

"He was under a lot of pressure," said Camperdown coach Jermaine Shand yesterday.

"He wanted to please too many people. But it is probably God's work that he did not break the record, because he knows he can break the record. Maybe it is just not the right time for him to break it.

"In a way I'm glad that he did not break it. He is no longer under pressure and he still has another year to go for it," Shand explained.

"Maybe if he did break the record, he may not have been able to run the 200 metres or the 4x400m," Shand pointed out.

Shand believes that Rose would make his mark at the World Juniors later this year.

KC Alain Bailey missed out on the triple, losing to Wolmer's Julian Reid in the long jump, but winning the high and triple jumps. Reid won the Class One long jump in a personal best 7.25 metres.

Other performances of note were Tewado Latty of Ardenne High (younger brother of Tesfa), winning the Class Two 400 metres in 47.55 seconds. Calabar's Warren Weir captured the Class Two 110m hurdles in 13.92 seconds.

Immaculate's Danielle Jeffery took the Class Two sprint double, winning the 100 and 200 metres in 11.75 and 24.16 seconds, respectively.

Bobby-Gaye Wilkins took both the 400 and 800 metres in Class Two, running 53.13 (personal best) and 2:11.56, respectively.

Vere Technical's Jillisa Grant won the Class Two long jump in a personal best 5.98 metres.

Calabar's Earl Lee surprised in the Class Three 100m, clocking 11.18 seconds, with Vere's Jura Levy eclipsing the field in the Class Three 200m in a time of 24.18 seconds.

Manchester's Shana-Gaye Tracey set up herself as one for the future, capturing the Class Three 400 metres in 54.39 seconds. Tracey ran her personal best in the semi-finals (54.23 seconds).

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