Holmwood Technical cruised to a sixth straight Girls Championships title as they outclassed the field with a massive 352 points to win by over 130 points as the ISSA/GraceKennedy-sponsored event ended at the National Stadium last night.

Shauna Anderson anchors Edwin Allen to victory in the Class One in the 4x100m relay at the National Stadium yesterday. Anderson was winning her third gold medal of the meet. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

The total was almost identical to the 353.5 they scored last year, with Vere (210.5), Edwin Allen (206), Manchester (147) and St Jago (125.5) rounding out the top five.

The champions overcame a number of mishaps, including break-ins on consecutive nights at their Kingston base, to land the title going away.
The Christiana-based school also won three of the six relays, while Edwin Allen landed two.

Head coach, Maurice Wilson, said in light of all that went on since they got to Kingston on Tuesday, "This one was actually difficult. If it was a close Champs we would have lost."

Wilson explained that they had to look at a different way to win this year from the previous four times.

"We didn't have the core of high-standard athletes, so we had to concentrate on getting points where we could and we were lucky... to do so from early."

Wilson praised senior athletes Salcia Slack and Bobby-Gaye Wilkins for their roles in the victory, describing the latter as the "anchor for the team, an understated person who goes out and sets the example in every area... losing her will make a lot of difference the programme", he said.

Wilkins, in her final year at Champs, repeated her amazing double from last year, winning both Class One 400 and 800m in just under two-and-half hours.

Just before 2:00 pm, the Pan-Am Juniors 400m gold medallist stamped her class in the one-lap event, going to the front early and never relenting to win in 52.46secs, increasing her margin with every stride.

Vere Technical's Kayan Robinson (54.67) was second and Edwin Allen's Shakeeri Cole (54.85) third - a repeat of last year's top three.

Wilkins returned just after 4:15 pm to power her way through crowd of runners on the last turn to sprint home in the 800m in 2:10.89 with Cole taking silver in 2:11.86 and last year's Class Two champion, Keno Heaven of Holmwood, the bronze in 2:12.85.

Wilkins ended her Champs career with a brilliant anchor leg in the mile relay, catching the runners from Edwin Allen and Manchester as her team won in 3:36.44 seconds. She timed an amazing 50.8sec split.

Slack was the only triple champions at the meet, adding the Heptathlon record to the Class One discus and triple jump Open won on Friday, but settled for second in the long jump behind Todea-Kay Willis of St Andrew High, 6.13m to 5.92m.

Slack scored 5,411 points to beat the old Heptathlon mark of 5,282 set in 2004 by Nadina Marsh.

Manchester's Natoya Goule was also a double winner, taking the Class Two 800m in 2:08.78secs after winning the 1500m Friday as the Edwin Allen pair of Nikita Tracey and Mackola Joseph finished second and third - improving one place from last year.

There were also three sprint double winners: Edwin Allen's Shawna Anderson in Class One, Vere's Jura Levy in Class Two and Holmwood's Chris-Ann Gordon in Class Four.

Manchester's Sandrae Farquharson, who won the Class Three 400m earlier, returned to cop the 200 to land two individual gold.

Levy, who broke the 100m record Friday, sped to a smart 24.48secs, holding off a fast-charging 400m champion, Antonique Campbell of Herbert Morrison (24.62) and Denesha Morrison of Manchester (25.07).

Anderson completed the Class One double, winning the 200m in 24.61 ahead of Vere's Kayan Robinson (24.79) and teammate Naffene Briscoe (24.82).

Holmwood's Gordon added the Class Four 200m title to the 100m won Friday after clocking 25.32secs. Kessi Ann Brown of Wolmer's (26.10) was second while Oshin Brooks-Gillings of Alpha (26.25) was third.

In the 400m, Herbert Morrison's Campbell, the Class Three sprint double champion last year, ran a well-timed race in the last 70-metres to upstage the defending champion, Shana-Gaye Tracey of Manchester, to win the Class Two 400m in a PB 54.58secs.

Tracey, who won the 400m hurdles title on Friday, went out hard and led as they came into the home stretch but had nothing left for Campbell's superior foot speed.

Edwin Allen's Amoy Blake was second in 54.99 seconds while Denesha Morris of Manchester third in 55.11 as Tracey faded to fourth.

Farquharson of Manchester nipped Vere's Shericka Jackson for the Class Three title after a stirring battle down the home stretch after both had separated themselves from the field.

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