CATHERINE HALL, St James — Sixteen records were smashed at Saturday’s final of the Milo-sponsored County of Cornwall Athletics Association’s Western High school championships at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.

A total of 28 records were broken, two equalled and one established over the three days of the event that started on Tuesday with the girls’ eliminations at William Knibb Memorial and continued on Thursday at the St Elizabeth Technical Sports Complex with the boys’ eliminations.

Munro College boys and St Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) girls retained their titles as 32 schools competed in either section, the largest total in years.

The Neil Harrison-coached Munro won their fifth straight title after scoring 452 points, 199 more than second placed STETHS with Herbert Morrison- 228.5 points, Petersfield -179 and Cornwall College- 110 rounding out the top five.

STETHS girls, coached by Milton Brown, won their 10th straight with 419 points, 99 more than Herbert Morrison’s 320 with Mannings third with 200 and William Knibb-125 and Hampton School-77 the top five.

Meanwhile Munro College athletes won two class championships while Herbert Morrison had three of four girls’ class champions.

Herbert Morrison’s Tevaskie Lewin scored 31.5 points to top Class 1; Petersfield’s discus and shot put thrower Glenford Watson scored 21 points to top Class 2; Munro’s Javauri Mitchell was the top Class 3 athlete with 22 points while Class 4 sprint double champion Rushane Edwards scored 20.5 points in Class 4.

Central American and Caribbean juniors Under 20 gold medalist Seidatha Palmer scored 27 points from winning the Class One 100m and long jump and taking third in the 400m; two STETHS athletes Opal James and Cherifa Bartlett tied for 21 points in Class 2 while the Herbert Morrison pair of Juel Silvera and Kishauna Smith won Classes 3 and 4 with 19 and 29.5 points respectively.

STETHS’ James was a triple champion, winning the Class 2 high and long jumps (a new record 5.81m) as well as the triple jump Open in 11.79m just missing the record 11.80m set in 2002 by Mt Alvernia’s Andrea Linton.

Munro’s Edwards set a new mark of 22.29 seconds in the Class 4 200m to smash the 22.96 seconds set six years ago by Jerome Silvera after he won the 100m gold earlier with 11.5 seconds.

His team mate Delano Williams who represented the Turks and Caicos Islands at both the IAAF World Juniors in Canada last year as well as the Commonwealth Games in India, was a surprise winner of the 100m after upsetting defending champion Andrew Fisher of STETHS with a 10.51 clocking before returning to clock a smart 20.73 seconds to win the 200m.

Another Munro College runner, Waynee Hyman broke Usain Brooks’ four year old record 48.1 seconds in the Class 1 400m when he raced to a new 47.26 seconds to win the one lap race.

Irwin High School’s Rene Ambursley continued her good season in the 400m as she ran a personal best 54.98 seconds to win the Class 1 400m event, beating the 55.3 time held jointly by Herbert Morrison’s Nickesha Anderson and STETHS Davita Prendergast.

Herbert Morrison Technical’s Siedatha Palmer took the Class 1 100m in 11.85 seconds, holding off William Knibb’s Stacika Bright and another Herbert Morrison runner Remona Burchell.

Three of the girls sprint relay records were broken: Herbert Morrison won the Class 1 in 46.99 seconds, STETHS won the Class 2 in 47.54 seconds while STETHS won Class 4 in 50.85 seconds.

A number of middle distance records were also broken on Saturday as Petersfield’s Tion Gray added the Class 3 1500m record (4:28.5 seconds) to the 3,000m Open he broke on Thursday.

Munro’s Giovanni Foote ran 1 minute 55.0 seconds to win the Class 1 800m while Giovanni Mowatt ran 4 minutes 03.7 seconds in the Class 1 1500m.

Rolando Reid of Munro College who is nursing a hamstring injury and ran only in the Sprint Medley Relays, won the javelin Open that was contested for the first time at the meet in decades and established the new mark of 50.02m.