EDWIN Allen have taken over the lead gong into today’s fourth and final day of the ISSA GraceKennedy Girls’ Championships, as they seek their first title while ending Holmwood Technical’s reign after seven years.

After trailing for the first two days, the Michael Dyke-coached school took over the lead early yesterday when they moved to 51 points after 10 finals and continued to add on to finish the day on 111 after 19 finals, 14.67 points ahead of Holmwood (96.33), with St Jago third on 81, followed by Manchester High on 76.33, and former champions and early leaders Vere Technical on 56 rounding off the top five.

Twenty-seven finals will be contested on today’s final day, which begins at 1:30 pm.

Two more records were broken yesterday, by Natoya Goule of Manchester High in the 1,500m Class One final and Edwin Allen’s Sasha-Gay Marston in the discus Class Two.

Goule lowered the time to 4 minutes 29.83 seconds, breaking the 4 minutes 30.79 seconds set by Kayann Thompson of Edwin Allen in 2004.

Goule, who has never lost an individual event at Champs, sprinted to the front at the gun and never relented, increasing her margin to win by over 100m with her teammate Charlene Brown taking second and Edwin Allen’s Charlene Nickle third.

Holmwood’s Petrine Plummer won the Class Two race in 4 minutes 40.77 seconds, with St Jago’s Shevelle McDonald in second place (4:40.81) and Taska Johnson of Vere Technical taking third in 4:42.38 minutes.

The Class Three event was won by Edwin Allen’s Marleena Eubanks in 4 minutes 43.13 seconds, holding off Roshae Burrell of St Jago in the home stretch with St Elizabeth Technical’s Alethia McLaughlin third.

Marston, who stands a sturdy 5′ 9″ at 17 years old, retained her title only after a dog fight with St Jago’s Kellion Knibb, who also broke the 14-year-old record of 43.42m set in 1996 by Manchester High’s Tanya Thomas.

The record fell twice in less than three minutes after Knibb threw 43.65m at 3:04 pm, Marston responded at 3:06 pm with a massive 45.65, exactly two metres farther than the St Jago athlete.

Another St Jago thrower, Fayon Gonzales, was third with 41.23m.

Marston — who had a series of 43.02m, 40.48m, 40.50m before the record, and fouling her final throw — told reporters she was “very happy, excited, and I can’t even explain it”. She added that her main aim was to “win and contribute to my school’s points tally”.

She said her aim was to throw 43.00m, but Knibb “pushed me and I hate being second and last in anything, I always want to be first”.

Edwin Allen made it two wins in the discus when Tasha Crosse won the Class Three event with a personal best throw of 34.86m, upsetting Holmwood Technical’s Gleneve Grange, who threw 33.88m with Manchester High’s Shereece Smith taking the bronze with 33.47m.

Knibb was not to be denied in the javelin open, upsetting last year’s bronze medal winner and pre-Champs favourite Ann-Marie Duffus of Edwin Allen.

St Jago took 16 points from the event as Tanesha Clarke was second with 40.72m behind Knibb’s 41.04m, relegating Duffus to third for the second straight year, as she had a best throw of 39.72m, a distance that would have won easily last year.

On the track, Antonique Campbell of Herbert Morrison won the first of what she hopes will be three gold medals when she produced a diving finish to win the girls Class One 100m in 11.73 secs, beating the Queen’s Diandra Gilbert (11.78) and Holmwood’s Ornella Livingston (11.82).

The Queen’s Danielle Williams held off a fast-starting Herbert Morrison High’s Seidatha Palmer to win Class Two in 11.61 secs to 11.70 secs, while Bright of William Knibb was third in 11.85 secs.

Holmwood Technical’s Diana Williams, last year’s Class Four champion, struck gold in the Class Three 100m in 11.76 secs, followed home by Saqukine Cameron of Edwin Allen (11.87) and Kedisha Dallas of Holmwood.

Shauna Helps of Wolmer’s won the Class Four race in 12.01 seconds, powering over the last 30 metres to past St Jago’s Natalliah Whyte (12.14), while Tasheca Stanley of Edwin Allen took third place in 12.15 secs.

Pan-American Junior Championships gold medallist Nikita Tracey and her sister Ristananna repeated last year’s quinella by taking gold and silver in the 400m hurdles open final.

Nikita, who is competing at her last Girls Champs, won in 57.42 secs, ahead of Ristananna (58.96), who held off World Youth Championships silver medallist Danielle Dowie of Wolmer’s (59.04), while 2008 winner Shanna-Gay Tracey of Manchester High was fourth.