SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth –

Three triple gold medallists emerged from the Milo County of Cornwall Athletics Association’s (COCAA) Western Champs that ended at the St Elizabeth Technical High in Santa Cruz last Saturday.

They are Munro College Class 3 athletes, Levar Dunchie who broke three records in the 800m, 1500m and 3,000m and Keneil Harrison who took home four gold medals – winning the100m, 200m and 400m and who ran a monster leg of the 4x100m relay and Frome Technical’s Stephanie Barrett who won the Class 3 girls 800m, 1500m and 3,000m.

In addition to seven records that were broken and one equalled at the boys’ eliminations held at STETHS on Tuesday, the boys and girls combined to break another 16 records, while one was equalled on Saturday.

Munro boys and STETHS girls retained their respective titles at the meet which was also sponsored by Wisynco.

Munro who had opened up a big gap after 14 finals on

Tuesday cruised to a massive win, totalling 453 points to finish ahead of STETHS-347, Herbert Morrison-268, Petersfield-145 and William Knibb-109.

STETHS had to dig deep to fight off Herbert Morrison late on Saturday and finally won with 454 points ahead of the Montego Bay school’s 380. Frome Technical was third in 115 followed by Grange Hill-104 and Hampton School-96.

Harrison and Dunchie who will share the Boys Class 3 title with 27 points each, swept all the individual events in their class and while Dunchie set new standards for his races, Harrison took home five medals including a silver in the 4x400m where he ran the third leg.

Dunchie lowered the records in the 1500m – 4:42.49 seconds and the 3,000m- 10.24.4 seconds on Tuesday and then broke the 800m record on Saturday.

Barrett won the 3,000m – 11:06.88 seconds on Thursday then added the 1500m- 5:12.73 seconds and 800m- 2:22.05 seconds on Saturday.

There were also several double winners including Herbert Morrison’s IAAF double World Champion Dexter Lee who won the Class 1 sprint double that had eluded him last year when his older brother Keneil beat him in the 200m final.

STETHS’ Melissa Teape took the Girls Class 1 double while Herbert Morrison’s duo of Seidetha Palmer and Shavine Hodges accounted for all three Class 2 sprint titles, with Hodges winning the 200m ahead of Palmer as well as the 400m where she easily beat Frome Technical’s Rochelle Clayton and Irwin High’s Renae Ambersely.

Nicola Green of Herbert Morrison won the Girls Class 2 800 and 1500m events and was third in the 3000m.

Munro’s Rolando Reid retained his Class 2 100m title ahead of teammate Delano Williams but it was Williams who turned the tables on Reid to win the 200m event.

STETHS’ Nicholas Maitland looks set for a medal at Boys’ Champs in April after easily winning the boys’ 400m hurdles Open in a new record 51.57 seconds before winning the Class 1 400m with a sub 49 seconds run.

Frome Technical’s Andre Moodie retained his Class 1 boys’ 800m title, running 1:55.76 seconds under the record 1:57.85 seconds he set last year.

Seven of the records came in the relays including William Knibb’s smart 41.90 seconds in the boys Class 1 4x100m after Herbert Morrison fumbled the baton on the second exchange.

Herbert Morrison’s Palmer and Hodges ran on two record-breaking relay teams, teaming with Ramona Burchell and Dickeisha Kent to win the 4x100m in 47.18seconds and with Daniella Kerr and Camille Nelson to win the 4x400m in 3:56.33 seconds.

The Munro College Class 2 4x100m team of Gavin Ray Clarke, Rolando Reid, Patrick Campbell and Delano Williams clocked 43.39 seconds to set the new record.