PHILADELPHIA, USA — After leaving empty-handed last year, Holmwood Technical girls left Franklin Field with a handful of titles yesterday having swept all their Championships of Americas relay events on the second day of the 116th Penn Relays Carnival here.

Led by the indefatigable 15-year-old Chris-Ann Gordon and 14-year-old Diana Johnson, the Maurice Wilson-coached girls won the 4x800m, 4x100m and 4x400m in front of a reported 38,904 spectators, who turned out in brilliant weather yesterday after Thursday’s 24,132-strong crowd for a two-day total of 63,036.

Holmwood, who won the 4x800m in 8 minutes 42.49 seconds, the 4x100m in 45.41 seconds and the 4x400m in 3 minutes 39.66 seconds, were completing their first sweep since 2006.

Ironically, although Wilson had refused to take Gordon to the meet last year, she turned out to be the key ingredient running both anchor legs in the longer races, splitting an eye-popping 52.79 seconds in the 4x400m to hold off Edwin Allen’s Ristananna Tracey, after running 2 minutes 09.46 seconds to anchor the 4x800m in the morning.

Wilson, who has led Holmwood to 16 titles, was calm at the end of the day, telling reporters he was “extremely happy” with the girls’ performance and that not winning anything last year “was enough motivation to work hard this year”.

He added: “We were getting better as Girls’ Champs approached, while others were levelling off, and for the first time in three years we actually put in serious preparations after Champs for Penn Relays.”

The 4x400m win was a fitting end to the day, as Gordon held off Edwin Allen, who were second in 3 minutes 41.04 seconds and Benjamin Cardozo of New York, third in 3 minutes 42.27 seconds.

Manchester High and Vere Technical were fourth and fifth, respectively.

Allison Daley led off with 57.2 seconds, Janieve Russell ran 53.8 seconds on the second leg, while Petra Fanty split 55.9 seconds.

They started the ball rolling in the 4x800m with a commanding display of power running, taking over the race early and never relented, winning their eighth title in the two-mile event.

The team of Lovan Palmer, Petrene Plummer, Monique Thompson and Chris-Ann Gordon ran 8 minutes 42.49 seconds, their season-best and the third-fastest time ever at the Penn Relays, only behind Vere Technical’s record 8 minutes 37. 71 seconds and Holmwood’s 2008 winning time of 8 minutes 41.92 seconds.

Despite a gallant 2 minutes 06.72 seconds anchor leg from Ristananna Tracey for defending champions Edwin Allen, the Clarendon school finished a distant second in 8 minutes 47.73 seconds.

The team that made one change from the one that ran in Thursday’s qualifying heats bringing in Chris-Ann Gordon for Chantae McLean was led off by Palmer, who split 2 minutes 11.77 seconds.

The difference came on the second leg when Plummer blitzed a 2-minute, 08.78-second leg, opening an 80m gap over Edwin Allen’s Desreen Montaque, who split 2 minutes 16.04 seconds.

Thompson’s 2 minutes 12.00 seconds and Gordon’s 2 minutes 09.95 seconds cruised the final two legs, extending their lead all the time.

Assistant coach Dwight Jones told the Observer the girls had run to plan, as they took over the race as planned… “We are more than satisfied with this performance, the girls ran well and we are happy.”

A few hours later the sprint relay team, anchored by 14-year-old Diana Johnson, ran a modest 45.41 seconds to win, as Jamaican schools occupied the top four places.

Herbert Morrison were second in 45.81 seconds, thanks to a fast-finshing Antonique Campbell; Edwin Allen, the fastest qualifiers on Thursday, were third in 45.87 seconds, while The Queen’s were fourth in 45.99 seconds and the fifth Jamaican school, Manchester High were seventh in 46.79 seconds.

Wilson admitted to reporters that he “expected to win” the 4x100m, but thought it would be a fight to the wire and said the team’s experience gave them the edge.

Camperdown High were third in the consolation ‘small schools’ final in 47.05 seconds behind the top American school this year, Junipero Serra of Gardena, California and Ohio’s Bishop Hartley, while St Jago were fifth in 47.26 seconds

In the lone field event contested national junior record holder Candicea Bernard improved on her second place last year when she won the discus with a brilliant 48.05m mark, to become only the second Jamaican schoolgirl to win the event here after Mannings School’s Kamesha Marshall, 10 years ago.

The winning distance came in the third round when she was in sixth position after opening up with a 39.12m effort.

Vere Technical’s Vanessa Levy was second with 44.47m, while Edwin Allen’s Sasha-gay Marston was fifth with 42.51m.