KINGSTON College have taken a slight lead after six finals after yesterday’s third day of the 103rd ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys Athletics Championships at the National Stadium as the North Street giants chase their first title since 2009.

Kingston College had accumulated 45 points, three more than Jamaica College’s (42) and 11 more than defending champions Calabar High with the pole vault Open set to be completed last night.

Wolmer’s Boys were on 17 points in fourth place with St Jago High in fifth on 15.

Kingston College’s head coach Michael Russell told the Jamaica Observer last night that they were on course to win the Mortimer Geddes trophy for the first time in four years. “This is where we thought we should be… we are still on course to win,” he said,

After picking up just 18 points after the first two finals on Wednesday, the Class One and Two long jumps, Kingston College closed the gap on early leaders Jamaica College to one point after picking up a further 13 points in the 200m steeple chase Open with second and third places, the final events of the day and first track final.

Bryan Golding was second in 6:10.80 and Hayden Ptolemy third in 6:15.09 behind Holmwood Technical’s Rodney Henry who won in 6: 07.46.

Yesterday as expected, Calabar’s Federic Dacres, the IAAF World Youth and World Junior champion, retained the discus Class One in his bid to retain the discus/shot put double, winning with 62.80m, a distance he thought was “OK but I was expecting to go out with a bigger mark”. He perhaps was hoping to smash the record of 66.88m set by former Calabar teammate Traves Smikle two years ago.

Dacres, who led from the first round, spoke about glitches in his technique in post-competition interviews, but added “I did my best”.

Munro College’s Jevaughn Shaw who led after the preliminaries went out in style when he won his first ever medal at Champs — his final appearance at the meet — taking silver with a personal best 55.96m despite nursing a badly sprained right big toe that he injured at Western Championships when a teammate accidentally dropped a shot put on it.

Another Calabar athlete Basil Bingham took the bronze with 52.91m.

Despite a dip in his form in the past few weeks, Ascott High’s Vashon McCarthy won the Class Two shot put with 16.25m, beating Jamaica College’s Karl-Leon Grant (16.20m) and Kingston College’s Jaime Hugh Brown (16.15m).

Wolmer’s Boys’ Oshane Shaw upset two-time champion Xavier Bolnad to win the pole vault Open, both clearing 3.80m, while Calabar’s Binghan took up his sceond bronze of the afternoon after clearing 3.60m.

St Jago High’s Lushane Wilson won the Class Three high jump with 1.93m beating the Wolmer’s Boys’ pair of Sadiki Morgan (1.91m) and Jon Michael Davis (1.84m).

Meanwhile, on the track, Munro College’s Delano Williams stayed on course to defend his Class One sprint double after easing through to today’s semi-finals of the 100m after winning his first round heat yesterday in 10.95 seconds. Odail Todd of Green Island also won his heat in 10.64 seconds, while Jevaughn Minzie also looked easy winning his heat in 10.65 seconds.

The semi-finals are set for 3:50 pm and the final set for 8:00 tonight.

All three runners had also advanced to the semi-finals of the 200m set to be run last night.

Calabar High’s Michael OHara was the fastest in Class Two with 10.83 seconds ahead of Jamaica College’s Waseem Williams (10.93 seconds) and Hydel’s Romario Clarke (10.96).

Herbert Morrison’s Jevony Murray leads the Class Three qualifying with 11.51 seconds followed by Mathew Brown of Cornwall College (11.56) and Seaforth’s Michael Bentley who ran 11.57.

POINTS STANDINGS AFTER 6 FINALS

Kingston College 45

Jamaica College 42

Calabar High 34

Wolmer’s Boys’ 17

St Jago High 15

Holmwood Technical 12

Ascott High 9

Cornwall College 9

Petersfield 9

Munro College 7

Old Harbour High 5

Campion College 4

Manchester High 2

Hydel High 1

Herbert Morrison Technical 1