WOLMER’S Boys’ ended their 54-year drought yesterday, gaining their 12th hold on the coveted Mortimer Geddes Trophy as the 100th staging of the ISSA GraceKennedy Boys’ Athletics Championships ended at the National Stadium.

Wolmers’ clinched the title by virtue of finishing ahead of Calabar in the 38th and last race of the Championships, the 4×400 metre relay. Both teams were locked on 198.5 points after 37 finals.

However, the maroon-and-gold-clad boys, who are coached by a panel of four — Christopher Harley, David Riley, Gregg Scott and Lamar Brown — clocked 3 minutes 17.06 seconds to place second in the mile relay and take 10 points.

They won by seven points because Calabar, who were seeking their 22nd hold on the trophy, could only muster seventh place for three points in the 4x400m to end with 201.5 points.

The Heroes Circle-based school, which won the first staging of the Championships back in 1910 at Sabina Park, also won the title in 1915, 1917, 1924, 1927, 1929, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1949 and 1956.

David Riley, who spoke on behalf of the coaching staff, was elated that they had pulled off the victory despite a number of mishaps over the four

days of competition.

“It is remarkable, but we talked to the guys and we asked them to step it up a bit and they really performed better than we expected… today,” Riley told the Sunday Observer.

“They just were exceptional in terms of performance and they really came out and did what they were prepared to do and even exceeded some of our expectations. I think we have a great team,” Riley added.

Kingston College (KC), who were seeking a record 32nd title, had to settle for third place with 192 points. The top five was completed by Jamaica College (JC), 153, and St Jago, 110 points.

Holmwood scored 273.33 to win their eight consecutive hold on the Girls’ trophy ahead of Edwin Allen 258 points in second.

The Wolmer’s victory charge was led by Dwayne Extol, who won the 400m, placed second in the 400m hurdles, second in the 200m and clocked 47.89secs on anchor in the 4×400 relay to secure the title.

Julian Forte and Odeane Skeene were also instrumental as they won two individual gold medals in the Class One and Two 100m and 200m, and shared in the 4x400m silver medal.

The turning point for Wolmer’s came in Class One 110 hurdles when Calabar’s favourite Deuce Carter, who was a clear three metres ahead of the

field, crashed into the ninth flight of hurdle, then was disqualified.

Calabar’s other athlete, Jerome Myers, who had a poor start, stopped after clearing the fourth hurdle and walked off the track.

As a result of Carter’s mishap, Kamal Fuller of Wolmer’s won in 14.17secs, ahead of KC’s

Lemmar Wilson, 14.47, and Kevaughn Allen of Wolmer’s, 14.50.

Wolmers’ also secured gold in the Class Two 110 hurdles courtesy of Yanick Hart, who posted 13.95 into a negative wind (-2.4 m/s). Omar Graham of Manchester took silver in 14.35 ahead of Kemar Williams of Calabar, 14.48.

The Class Three 100 hurdles was captured by JC’s Mason in 13.53secs, despite a massive head wind of (-3.7 m/s). Okeen Williams of St Elizabeth Technical, 13.71, and Hackeem Lewis of Wolmer’s, 13.75, rounded out the medals.

Calabar’s failed charge came mainly from the field events as the Michael Clarke-coached outfit dominated the throws, winning the Class One and Two discus and shot put events, where Wolmer’s had no finalists.

However, things did not go as planned on the track for Calabar, as many of their medal favourites either underperformed or suffered mishaps in

their events.

Chad Wright secured his second gold medal with a record heave of 18.22 metres (6kg) in the Class One shot put. The mark ensured that Wright automatically qualified for the IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, this summer.

The IAAF World Junior standard in 18.00m.

Oshane Chamber of Calabar heaved the discus 50.75m to win Class Two in a new record. Chamber topped the old mark of 48.77m set by JC’s Shariff Small in 2004 by 1.98 metres.

Chadwick DaCosta of KC secured silver with 50.13m ahead of Calabar’s Fredrick Dacres, 49.42m.

Anchored by Ricardo Powell, who failed to make the 200m and 400m finals, Calabar won the Class One 4×100 relay in 40.97secs. Powell, whose right knee was heavily strapped, produced a scintillating leg to overall his Camperdown opponent, who had a five-metre lead after collecting his baton first. Camperdown stopped the clock at 41.04 ahead of St George’s College, 41.28.

Walker of JC won a third gold medal after anchoring the Dark Blues to a victory in the Class Three 4x100m in a record 43.04secs. The

previous mark of 43.26 was established by St George’s in 2009.

St Jago (43.43secs) and Wolmer’s (43.74secs) completed the podium places.

The Class One high jump was won by KC’s Johnathan Reid in 2.10m, followed by St Jago’s Machel Baker with a clearance of 2.05m. The was a three-way tie for third between

Kemarki Absolam of St George’s College, Ramone Bailey of Wolmers’ and St Jago’s David Hall, who all cleared 2.00m.

Ashani Wright of JC cleared 2.00m to win the Class Two equivalent ahead of Calabar’s Demar Robinson and Jason Lewis who both cleared 1.95 to tie for second.

Wright, who celebrated his 18th birthday with a record 39.86m to win the Class One Discus on Thursday, won the shot put ahead of his teammate Ashinia Miller 17.72m and Emmanuel Chinedu AfamOnyia of Munro College 16.56.

Rohan Walker of Jamaica College became only the third Class Three athlete in the history of Champs after record holder Ali Watson (49.63secs) of Calabar and Darrion Bent (49.80secs) to post a sub-50 time to win the 400m. Running in lane six, Walker rushed into a commanding lead at the 300m mark and held on for victory, in a credible 49.97secs. Ivan Henry of St Jago took the silver in 50.83 ahead of Jordon James of Wolmer’s with 51.14. Walker of JC returned three hours later to pull off an upset victory in the Class Three 200m in 22.30secs. St Jago’s Keavaughn Rattray, who established a new meet record of 22.07 in semi-final action on Friday, had to settle for the silver in 22.60secs. Tyler Mason of JC, who had earlier won the 100m hurdles, took the bronze in 23.12secs.

The Class Two equivalent went to Lennox Williams of Manchester in 48.25secs, followed by Demar Levy of St Elizabeth Technical 49.19 and Omari McDonald of St Jago 49.24secs.

Running from lane eight, Dwayne Extol of Wolmer’s lead from the gun-to-tape, to win the Class One 400m in 47.43 secs ahead of the Vere technical pair of Demar Murray 47.53 and Jermaine Gayle 47.61 secs.

The gold was Extol’s second medal of the Championships, having placed second in the 400m hurdles on Friday with 51.67secs. He copped a third individual medal in the 200m, clocking 21.38secs for silver.

However Extol, who led up to 170 metres, willfully slowed down to allow his teammate Julian Forte to win in 21.32 secs.

It was Forte’s second gold medal of the Championships, having posted 10.49 to take the 100m title on Friday.

“We had a deal that the person who came off the corner first should win and Dwayne just held up his end of the bargain,” Forte told the Sunday Observer.

Brandon Tomlinson of Manchester collected the bronze with 21.57.

The Class Two equivalent was also won by a Wolmerian, as Odeane Skeene, running in lane six, took control of the race after 110 metres and held off a strong challenge from Munro College’s Delano Williams (21.47) and Bridgeport’s Jazeel Murphy (21.48) in the last 10 metres, to win in 21.40secs.

Murphy, who has been nursing a right hamstring injury, was stretchered of the track. He attempted to stop after 180 metres while clutching the leg and grimacing in pain.

Skeene, who had also won the Class Two 100m in 10.46secs on Friday, was elated about his double gold medal performances.

“I’m very happy to have been able to win two gold medals,” Skeene said, noting that he had hoped to run faster in the 200m.

National Junior 1500 metres record-holder Kemoy Campbell of Bellefield High returned one of the top performances of the meet, chopping 14.85 seconds of his own 5000m record.

He lapped the entire field to clock 14 mins 18.55secs. The old mark was 14:33.43.

Andre Housey of Holmwood (15:55.56) and Oraine Wint of Balaclava (15:58.08) were second and third, respectively.

On Friday, the NACAC Cross Country junior Champion posted a record 3 minutes 45.54 seconds to take gold in the 1500m.

Kevin White of Holmwood produced a sprint finish to win the Class One 800m in a creditable 1 minute 51.45secs ahead of the KC pair of Donohue Williams(1:52.51mins) and Johwayne Hebert (1:53.15mins).

In Class Two, Brian Smith of Clarendon College won in 1 mins 55.55, followed by Oshane Turner of Petersfield (1:55.69 mins) and Foga Road’s Kevon Robinson (1:56.42).

The Class Three 800m went to Shavanes Robinson of Titchfield in 2 mins 07.11, adding to his 1500m gold (4:25.67mins) on Friday. Norman Pittersgill of Calabar was second in the same time, while Chad Miller was third in 2:07.45.

The sprint medley relay (400m, 200m, 200m, 800m) was won by St Jago in 3 mins 34.01 ahead of William Knibb (3:34.06) and Wolmers’ (3:34.21).