BOGUE, St James

St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) will this morning start their quest to retain the girls title at the Milo County of Cornwall Athletics Association’s (COCAA) Western Championships when the eliminations are held at Herbert Morrison Technical, starting at 9:00 am.

Twenty-one schools are down to take part in the event which will see the finals being held alongside the boys’ at the St Elizabeth Technical Sports Complex on Saturday.

Munro College leads the boys’ section after 14 finals with 188 points after Tuesday’s eliminations at STETHS.

Two records were broken in the discus events on Tuesday. Munro’s Emanuel Oniya established a new record in the Class 2 discus when his final throw in the preliminaries landed at 48.55m, smashing the 46.53m-mark set last year by his teammate Rajae Gayle.

Petersfield’s Glenford Watson broke the 11-year-old Class 3 mark with his first throw of 43.74m, erasing the mark of 40.63m set in 1998 by Munro’s Basil Salkey.

Today, all three 1500m finals in Classes 1 through 3 will be the only track finals while points will be awarded in the three discus events, the shot put open, long jumps Classes 1,2 and 4, high jump Classes 1,3 and 4 and the javelin Open.

The Class 2 high jump and class 3 long jump along with the triple jump will be contested on Saturday.

Herbert Morrison Technical who were second last year, is expected to dominate the Class 2 sprint events with national junior representatives Shavine Hodges and Antonique Campbell along with Seidetha Palmer and could pick up first and second in the 100m, 200m and 400m events.

Hodges who won four gold medals last year while competing for Mt Alvernia High will be the main stay of the Herbert Morrison Class 2 runners as Campbell is still recovering from a hamstring injury suffered at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Poland last year.

STETHS’ Mellisa Teape is expected to score a lot of points in the Class 1 100m and 200m as well as the long jump where she will go up against teammate Raquel Farquharson who won the long and high jumps last year on her way to a silver medal in the heptathlon at Girls Championships.

Participating teams:

Albert Town, Anchovy High, Balaclava High, Cambridge High, Cedric Titus, Frome Tech, Godfrey Stewart, Grange Hill, Green Pond, Green Island, Hampton High, Herbert Morrison, Holland High, Hopewell High, Irwin High, Knockalva High, Lacovia High, Little London, Maldon High, Maud McLeod, Mt Alvernia High, Muschett, Petersfield High, Rhodes Hall, Rusea’s High, St. James High, STETHS and William Knibb Memorial High.