Munro, STETHS enter final day out front
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Defending champions Munro College and St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) will take leads into today’s final of the County of Cornwall Athletics Association’s (COCAA) Milo Western high schools championships at Herbert Morrison High.
The eliminations of both the boys’ and the girls’ sections were held earlier this week where most of the finals in the field events were completed.
One record was set in the boys’ eliminations at Herbert Morrison on Thursday, Emmanuelle Oniya of Munro throwing the Class One shot put 17.54m to break a 12-year-old record of 16.53m set by Claston Bernard as his school opened up a 20-point lead after 13 finals.
Munro College scored 100.5 points to be followed by Petersfield on 80, STETHS on 68, Herbert Morrison, 67 and Godfrey Stewart on 29 being the top five schools.
Three records were set on Tuesday’s girls eliminations at William Knibb High in Martha Brae, all by St Elizabeth Technical athletes.
Rochelle Reid won the Class One high jump with 1.65m, beating the 1.60m mark held jointly by six others.
IAAF World Youth Championships fourth-place finisher Rochelle Farquharson set the new mark in the Class Two long jump after landing at 5.75m to surpass the 5.70m set by Mannings School’s Jodian Vanriel in 2003.
The third mark came in the Class Three 1,500m where Alethia McLaughlin avenged her loss to Frome Technical’s Stephanie Barrett last year, romping to a 5-minute, 56.86-second timing, out-duelling Barrett in the home stretch.
With the finals of the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m in all classes set to be contested today, the action promises to be competitive as a number of national junior representatives will also be in action.
Herbert Morrison’s World Junior Championships and Pan-Am Games representative Antonique Campbell, who has shown good early season form, is expected to dominate the Class One sprints with Godfrey Stewarts’ Samantha Curtis and Bliss Crawford of William Knibb also contending for medals.
On the boys’ side, Petersfield’s Wayne Hyman, who represented the island at the IAAF World Youth Championships last year, could win his first medals at Western Champs when he competes in the Class One 200m and 400m events.
He will, however, face Munro College’s Dexter McKenzie, STETHS’ Kimarley Brown and Herbert Morrison’s Tevaskie Lewin in the 200m.
