One record was broken up to press time at yesterday's 32nd staging of the Gibson Relays at the National Stadium in Kingston on a day of thrills and spills.

Run under windy and unusually cool conditions for most of the day, a fair sized crowd witnessed the highs and lows, celebrations from winners and the heartbreak of a Jamaica College team that looked set to take the High School boys' 4x800m.

St Jago's Yohan Blake (second left) takes the baton from Nickel Ashmede as he goes after Calabar's anchor-leg runner, Oshane Bailey, during the final of the Boys Class 1 4x100m event at the 32nd Gibson Relays at the National Stadium yesterday. St Jago (40.29secs) retained their title ahead of Calabar (40.34). (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

Jamaica's College's Earl Lee was leading the field by about 15 metres with a lap to go when he was tripped by the anchor leg runner from Edith Dalton James High, who was about to be passed.

Tempers flared near the finish line following the race as the two teams had to be separated.

The fall took everything out of Lee, who faded to the back of the field as Calabar went on to win in 7:42.93 seconds ahead of Holmwood Technical and Vere Technical.

Manchester took the High School girls section in 8:51.34 seconds, beating Holmwood Technical.

Royalty Track Club's Tanice Barnett is well placed for a cash windfall as her record was the only one up to press time. If it stands up, she would take home the $500,000 prize offered by Gatorade to be shared by the record-breakers.

Barnett's 5:04.20 seconds in the Women's mile broke her one-year-old record of 5:05.48 seconds.

Petrona McLymont finished well behind in 5:20.96 in second place and Carla Thompson of Edwin Allen was third in 5:21.26 seconds.

Kirk Brown won the Men's section in 4:22.17 seconds ahead of last year's winner, Evan Allen (4:33.60 seconds) and Shawn Pitter (4:41.68 seconds).

St Jago High successfully defended the Boys High School Class 1 4x100m title, thanks to yet another outstanding anchor leg from national Junior record-holder Yohan Blake, finishing in 40.29 seconds - an anti-climactic time after running a meet record 40.07 seconds last year and twice going under the 40-seconds barrier.

The St Jago quartet, which included Andre Walsh, Riker Hylton and Nickel Ashmede, was expected to at least threaten the meet record.

Holmwood started best, but a blistering second leg from Winston Blake gave Jamaica College the lead, which they held until the anchor leg when Blake ran past three athletes, holding off the Calabar anchor leg runner who finished in 40.34 seconds. Jamaica College were third in 40.81 seconds.

Calabar took the Class 2 event in 42.27 seconds ahead of Wolmer's Boys', 42.74 seconds.

St Jago were the Class 3 champions in 43.98 seconds, beating Kingston College, 44.23, and Calabar High, 44.90 seconds, while Kingston College took the Class 4 event in 46.55 seconds, coming home ahead of St George's College, 47.29 seconds, and Wolmer's Boys, 48.24 seconds.

Edwin Allen dethroned Holmwood in the Girls Class 1 sprint relay, winning in 45.54 seconds ahead of the record-holders who ran 46.83 seconds and Vere Technical, 46.87 seconds.
Vere won in Class 2 in 45.90 seconds, again beating rivals Holmwood, who won Classes 3 and 4.

The Glen Mills-coached High Performance quartet of Antiguan Daniel Bailey, Trinidadian Emmanuel Collinder and Jamaicans Alonzo Barrett and Usian Bolt, easily won the Institutions Men's 4x100m in 39.11 seconds ahead of MVP, 39.84 seconds, and Akan TC, 40.39 seconds.

GC Foster, anchored by Annastacia Leroy, won the Women's section in 44.03 seconds, beating UTech, 44.33 seconds, and Royalty TC, 45.91 seconds.

Herbert McGregor retained the Men's long jump with a wind-aided 8.12m leap - his first time over the eight-metre mark, but he was pushed by a gale force 6.0mph wind, well over the 2.0mph limit.

Kingston College's Tarik Batchelor was second with 7.38m and Morant Bay High's Dean Swimmer third in 7.36m. Both were also wind-aided.

Immaculate High's Terri-Ann Grant won the high jump with 1.70m, the same height as second-placed Claudia Calder of Alpha Academy, with St Jago's Ichama Dawkins third with 1.60m.

Former Vere Technical athlete, Rose-Ann Jones, won the Women's Open long jump with a wind-aided 6.04m mark in a following wind of 3.1mph as she added the title to that won at the Western Relays two weeks ago.

High Performance's Yanique Levy, who was second in Montego Bay, was second again yesterday with a 5.88m mark, while Wolmer's Girls' Jhenelle Facey was third with 5.70m.

The Kingston College duo of Omari Dookie and Jonathon Reid, along with Calabar's Jovan Hardware, took the first three places in the Men's high jump, all clearing 2.00m.

Hansel Parchment of Morant Bay took the Men's 110m hurdles Open, sprinting away from the small field to win in 14.84 seconds, ahead of Luis Flores of High Performance,15.20 seconds, and Joel White of St Jago High, 15.31 seconds.

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