Mandeville, Manchester — They were pressed hard, but in the end fierce determination came to the fore as Edwin Allen High extended their run of success at the recent ISSA/GraceKennedy Girls’ Champs to six straight and seven in eight years.

Edwin Allen High, from Frankfield in northern Clarendon, held off Hydel High by seven points at last week’s 109th staging of the track and field championships at the National Stadium.

The Michael Dyke-led Edwin Allen team tallied 291 points, to Hydel High’s 284. Another central Jamaica -based school, former champions Holmwood Technical High finished with 220 points for third place.

Among other schools from south central Jamaica, Vere Technical High finished eighth with 64 points, Spalding High were ninth with 51 points, St Elizabeth Technical were 13th with 38 points, Manchester High 14th with 36, Clarendon College 16th with 25 points, and Bellefield high were 20th with 16 points.

STETHS was the best placed central school in the boys’ competition, placing fifth with 90 points, Bellefield High were eighth with 40 points, Edwin Allen had their best showing in years with ninth place from 39 points, Holmwood Technical were 12th with 23 points, Clarendon College 13th with 18 points, two more than Lacovia High with 16 points, Manchester High were joint 22nd on seven points. Munro College placed 24th with six points, one point better than BB Coke on five points while Vere Technical were tied in 29th place on four points.

Many expected Edwin Allen High to run away with the girls’ title but were pushed all the way by the brilliance of the Hydel High coaching staff.

In post-Champs interviews, Dyke pointed to their weakness in the 400m and some injuries that made the race closer than expected.

Edwin Allen scored heavily in the sprints however with Kevona Davis, despite not been at her brilliant best, easily retaining the Class 2 sprint double while the Clayton twins shared the Class 3 100m and 200m titles.

Tina, the 200m specialist, upset the form charts in the 100m when she ran away from the field to win in a Championships record and World Age Group record 11.27 seconds, beating the 11.37 seconds set by her sister only weeks earlier.

They teamed up with two more teammates to break the record in the Class 3 4x100m with a new 44.25 seconds time.

Despite the controversial disqualification of Michael Buchanan from the semi-finals of the Class 1 110m hurdles, STETHS did well to place in the top five in the boys’ section.

Tavaughn Martin of Bellefield High looks like a very promising athlete after setting a new record in the Class 3 1500m, running 4:12.50 seconds and he also placed second in the 800m.

Spalding High’s Kishay Rowe won the Girls Class 3 800m to be unbeaten the entire season, and was second in the 1500m to Holmwood Technical’s Jodyann Mitchell.

Vere Technical’s Marie Forbes won the class 1 shot out with 13.94m after placing third in the discus where she was favoured to win.

Holmwood’s Cedricka Williams also set a new record in the Class 3 discus throw with a new mark of 42.47m.