TEAM captain of Kingston College, Jonathan Reid, says he will be aiming at the Boys Champs high jump record this year even as he goes for the World Junior Championships qualification standard of 2.14 metres.

The 17-year-old Reid, who won the event at ‘Champs’ last year with 2.05 metres, will have a crack at Enrico Gordon’s record of 2.15 metres set in 1995 as he seeks to go out with a bang in his last year of high school.

Silver medallist at the Penn Relays and Carifta Under-17 champion in 2008, Reid won the Class One high jump at the Douglas Forrest Invitational on Saturday, returning to competition after undergoing knee surgery last October when an MRI scan showed damage to his miniscus in his right knee.

Jonathan, younger brother of Julian Reid who represented Jamaica in the triple jump at the World Championships last year when he starred for Texas A&M University with a silver medal in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Outdoor Championships, revealed his objectives for the new season.

“I am trying to get in some good performances in my last year at Champs, so I can go to the (United) States. We don’t really have the facilities for field events in Jamaica, so I will go… to study and do the high jump.

“My brother Julian is also motivating me to come there as well,” said the 6ft-3in youngster.

“This year is World Junior (Championship) year, and the World Junior qualifying is 2.14, so I am looking to clear nothing less than 2.14 metres and I think I can do it,” said Reid, who holds a personal best 2.06 metres achieved when he placed second at the Penn Relays two years ago.

Because of the surgery, Reid said he was still doing background training and would not jumping again until some time in February.

The defending Boys Champion cleared 2.00 metres at the Forrest meet and made three attempts at 2.07m to see where he is at.

After the attempts, Reid added: “I am right where I left off. As a religious person I am leaving it up to God,” explained Reid as he strives for new standards in the months ahead.

He injured himself last season doing the triple jump and for a while it appeared that icing would do the job until Dr Warren Blake, himself a KC past student, determined that the athlete’s miniscus was actually torn after x-ray and ultrasound examinations found nothing wrong.

Meanwhile Reid, who placed 17th at the World Youth Championships in 2007 as a 14-year-old, added: “I want to set an example and leave on a high note as captain of the team. I want all of us come together and sort it out.”

With no star sprinters this year, Reid believes the high jump will be the stellar competiton for 2010 with athletes such as Jovan Hardware and Machel Baker of St Jago, Kemarki Absalom of St George’s and Ramone Bailey of Wolmer’s as some of his main rivals.