Western athletes performed better then expected at last week’s 99th ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ National Championships.

Favourites such as Herbert Morrison’s Dexter Lee in the Boys’ Class One 100m; St Elizabeth Technical’s Peter-gay Reid in the Class Two high jump and Rochelle Farquharson in the triple-jump Open obliged, but there were also disappointments.

An injury to Lee at the end of the 100m when he cramped up on Friday night, resulted in the IAAF World Youth and World Junior champion being withdrawn from the remainder of the competition as well as the team to the 38th CARIFTA Games in St Lucia scheduled for this weekend.

Five girls schools earned points this year, one more than last year, while eight boys schools earned at least a point, the same as last year.

The western athletes earned a total of 19 medals, seven gold, seven silvers and five bronze medals.

The breakdown showed the girls winning three gold medals, four silvers and a bronze; the boys won four gold medals, three silvers and four bronze medals.

Despite failing to reach the Girls’ Class Two 4x100m relay finals where they were expected to get a medal, Herbert Morrison was the top western school on the girls’ side with 59 points and a best-ever eighth place from the 32 schools that scored points. STETHS, who scored 75 points last year, managed 49 for 10th place.

Frome Technical scored 11 points, three more than last year for 19th place, William Knibb got five points for 24th spot while Knockalva Technical scored three points for 28th place.

Boys Milo Western Champions Munro College retained their sixth place but with more points, 85 this year than the 61 last year.

STETHS was 10th place on 38 points, more than the 23 they got last year; Lee’s injury affected Herbert Morrison as they dropped to 16th place tied with William Knibb on 16 points; Cornwall improved from two points last year to six this year, tied with Petersfield on 25th place while Frome scored five points for 27th place.

Lee became the first runner from western Jamaica to win the Boys Class One 100m in 10 years since Albert Town’s Omar Brown won the second of his two titles and completed the set after winning in Classes Three and Two as well.

Lee returned a personal best 10.31 seconds while Munro College completed a hat-trick winning the last three Class Three Boys’ 100m when Kaniel Harrison sped to a personal best 11.10 seconds.

Adam Cummings had won last year while Rolando Reid had won the same race in 2007.

Cummings, the record holder in the Class Three 100m, Reid, Delano Williams and Patrick Campbell teamed up to win the Class Two 4x100m.

Harrison also took the bronze in the 400m, Williams ran a well-measured race to take second in the competitive Class Two 200m while Campbell landed third in the Class Two 100m hurdles.

Reid, who was injured at the Gibson Relays, rebounded well to take silver in the Class Two 400m.

STETHS’ David Dennis was a shock winner of the Class Three 100m hurdles while his schoolmate Nicholas Maitland took home the bronze in the 400m hurdles Open behind two Kingston College runners but redeemed himself with a fantastic anchor leg on the 4x400m relay team to take the silver.

Cornwall College won a medal for the first time in two years when Jhaun Bryan jumped a personal best of 2.00m to take third in the Class One high jump as Western Champs winner Tevaskie Lewin who has been injured all season and his teammate Demar Woods who was second, failed to make a qualifying height.

William Knibb’s Jason Young was fourth in both the Class One 100m and 200m finals.

After winning the second gold on offer at the meet when she landed in a personal best 12.70, CARIFTA Games medalist Rochelle Reid had to settle for second in the Class Two long jump then failed to make it to the finals of the 100m hurdles.

Reid won her first-ever Champ gold medal when she took the Class Two high jump title to add to her titles from CARIFTA Games, Penn Relays and Western Relays.

Anchored by Nicola Green, the Herbert Morrison girls’ medley relay team landed gold while Shavine Hodges took the silver in the Class Two 100m and was fourth in the 400m behind teammate Antonique Campbell who also took a silver medal in the 200m that she won last year. Seidetha Palmer was fourth.

The other medal went to STETHS’ Raquel Farquharson who made up a lot of grounds on the second day of the Heptathlon Open to repeat her bronze medal from last year.