Any rumours of injury surrounding Calabar High’s star Christopher Taylor have now been put to rest as the young prodigy cruised to victory in his season opener at the fourth Anthrick Corporate Area Championships yesterday.

The crowd, which flocked the UWI Usain Bolt Track at the University of the West Indies, stuck around in anticipation of something impressive during a brief delay, and the wait was not in vain.

Taylor, the World Youth 400m champion, got out to a blistering start from lane seven in heat one of the the boys’ Class One 200m event and left the field in his wake coming off the curve.

From there, the 16-year-old came bouncing in for an easy win in 20.98 seconds in a positive 0.9 metres per second wind speed. He might have had Zharnel Hughes’ three-year-old record of 20.80 seconds beaten had he not geared down with some 15 metres to go.

Another Calabar favourite, Michael Stephens, also opened his account in good nick, finishing joint first in the boys’ Class One 100m with former teammate Malique Scott, now representing Excelsior High. Both athletes crossed the line together in 10.78 seconds.

But while the Calabar star and his teammates showed that they will not relinquish their ISSA Boys’ Championship title without a fight, rivals Kingston College were on the way to retaining the Corporate Area honours at press time with a score of 244 points after 23 events scored.

Calabar were chasing in second on 180 with Jamaica College third on 116.

On the flip side, Excelsior High have virtually dethroned Wolmer’s High School for Girls, as they were comfortably leading with 270.5 points, ahead of The Queens School (182.5) and Camperdown (171) after 30 events scored.

The champion schools in both sections will pocket $250,000 with $100,000 for the runners-up and $50,000 for the third-placed teams.Meanwhile, of the over 15 records broken, five were registered in the mouth-watering Digicel Grand Prix events, chief among them an impressive 1:52.92-minute-clocking by Calabar’s Kimar Farquharson in the boys’ Class Two 800 metres.

Farquharson’s time which lowered the previous record of 1:57.49 minutes set last year by Dujon Blackman was not too far off the ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Championship record of 1:52.27 minutes.

The 15-year-old won ahead of Kingston College’s Aryamanya Rodgers (1:58.07 minutes) and Jahari Taylor (1:59.06) of Wolmer’s Boys’.

Michaela Lewis of The Queens School finished tops in the girls’ Class Two event, also in a record time of 2:17.36 minutes, lowering Zinedine Russell’s previous mark of 2:21.76 minutes set last year. Her teammate Britney Brown (2:17.41) completed the quinella, with Camperdown’s Jody Chambers (2:28.92) in third.

In girls’ Class One action, Kelly-Ann Downer of St Andrew High lowered Abi-gaye McTavish’s mark of 2:18.90 minutes, when she stopped the clock at 2:17.79 minutes to win ahead of Tamia McLean (2:20.60) of Excelsior and Shakera Samuels (2:26.00) of The Queens School.

The other two records came from field events, where Kingston College’s Shaquille Lowe leapt to an eye-popping 7.05m in a negative 0.2-metre-per-second wind speed to win the boys’ Class Two long jump.

Lowe erased the previous mark of 6.78m held by Joel Morgan in securing victory ahead of teammate Wayne Pinnock (7.03m) and Tyrell Johnson (6.57m) of Calabar.

Excelsior’s Rushellee Jones topped the girls’ Class One high jump and bettered the previous two-year-old height of 1.70m set by Safia Morgan after clearing the bar at 1.75m. Lorean Murray (1.70m) of St Andrew High and D’Andra Morris (1.70m) took the minor spots.

Earlier, Kingston College’s Rodgers was superior in victory in the boys’ Class Two 1,500m, clocking a fast 3:59.59 minutes to erase the previous mark of 4:14.55 minutes set by Detroy Stewart last year. He won ahead of Taylor (4:16.25) of Wolmer’s Boys’ and Jamaica College’s Rackeem Davis (4:33.94).

Rodgers’ time was even faster than that of his Class One teammate Kristoff Darby, who clocked 4:01.11 minutes to lower the old mark of 4:05.48 minutes set by Delano Rochester in 2015. Another Kingston College standout Shane Buchanan was second in 4:01.25 minutes, with Shane Henry (4:09.08) of Wolmer’s Boys’ third.

Jody Chambers of Camperdown also established a new mark in victory in the girls’ Class Two event, clocking 5:21.02 minutes to lower the previous time of 5:21.51 minutes set back in 2014 by Gabrielle Miller. Crystal Brown (5:28.64) of Mavis Bank was second and Joelle Morgan (5:28.68) of The Queens School third.