WITHOUT much flash or flare, the Edwin Allen girls went about their business of retaining Girls Champs 2015.

The margin of victory may be deceptive in the picture of domination which it paints. It did not seem so over the five days of the event. However, such was the easy power and confidence of the Frankfield, Clarendon machine that they racked up 321 points — 100 more than any of their competitors.

As predicted, Hydel High and St Jago High were nearest Michael Dyke’s ladies. Hydel managed 221 points to show that their strong programme will not be going anywhere for a while, and St Jago had some amazing performances on their way to 219.33 points. The .33 came from a three-way tie in the long jump.

Perennial competitors Holmwood will be disappointed with their fourth place and 206 as probably too will be Vere Technical with 136 points in fifth.

While St Jago dominated the sprints in fine fashion, Shellece Clark provided a rare fanfared performance with her 100 and 200 double in Class Two. After running 11.81 ahead of Hydel’s Yanique Dayle (11.84) to win the 100m on Friday, Clark returned to edge Dayle again in the 200m, running 24.12 seconds to win ahead of the Hydel athlete’s 24.15.

Otherwise, St Jago took the sprints with brilliant performances despite the adversarial headwind, which prevailed through much of the Championships.

Natalliah Whyte was the star girl of the event, completing a tally of four gold medals in 100, 200, 4×400 and 4×100 in her first year of Class One. Whyte clocked 11.77 in the 100 to edge Shauna Helps of Wolmers in 11.81. Shanice Reid, also of St Jago was third.

In the 200, despite Helps’ absence, Whyte had the superb Saquine Cameron as competition. She ran 23.56 ahead of Sasha Lee Forbes of Holmwood (23.82), and Cameron (23.92) who picked up an injury and didn’t return for Edwin Allen’s relays.

In the Class Three 100m, St Jago’s Kimone Shaw (11.81) unsurprisingly brought it home, however, it was a welcome surprise for the Monk Street team when Joanne Reid ran to surprise gold ahead of Edwin Allen favourite Kevona Davis in Class Four.

Jago’s Peta-Gaye Williams ran astounding 13.56 into a -3.0 headwind to dismiss Melaine Walker’s 100-metre hurdles record. This was in the semi-final, as her time of 13.88 in the final came in the context of her teammate having been disqualified.

Edwin Allen also got in on the record-breaking, however, becoming the first team to go below 45 seconds in the Class Two 4×100. They ran 44.88, anchored by triple gold-medallist Clark.

Shian Salmon of Hydel, though disappointed with her height, did not make any mistakes in winning the high jump with 1.73m.

— Yakum Fitz-Henley