Edwin Allen High won two Championship of America events, including smashing their own Penn Relays record, and Holmwood Technical pulled off a big upset over defending 4x400m champions Hydel High on yesterday’s rain-affected second day of the 125th staging of the Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, USA.

On a day when the competition had to be suspended twice, for a combined time of about 90 minutes, due to the occurrence of lightning in the vicinity of Franklin Field, the Jamaican high school girls lit up the track with their own brand of electricity.

The second stoppage came minutes before the start of the high school girls’ 4x400m, but mercifully the thunderstorms that were forecast did not materialise as the Jamaicans completed yet another sweep of the main relays.

The Edwin Allen 4x100m team blazed to 43.62 seconds under their own record of 43.96 set in 2017, with the team of Serena Cole, Kevona Davis and the Clayton twins, Tina and Tia, winning their sixth-straight and eighth overall, while also breaking their tie with Vere Technical for the most consecutive wins.

Davis was winning her third title and was also in the 2017 team that set the previous record in her debut run at Penn Relays.

Head Coach Michael Dyke said while he was concerned about the weather early in the day, he was in no doubt they would have broken the Penn Relays record.

On Thursday, Edwin Allen had run 44.21 seconds in the preliminaries without Davis and Cole, which Dyke described as “remarkable” and added, “I was a bit concerned with the weather this morning, but fortunately it changed in the right time for us.”

Dyke said they were confident the team would run under the old record. “Based on the team that we put together, I had no doubt that we would have broken the record. How far it would have gone, I am not sure — we were taking a shot at the National Junior Record.”

They could have run even faster but for a slight wobble on the first hand-off between Cole and Davis, and Dyke said they were here to stay while sending a warning to their challengers. “It will be a long wait, maybe another four years, before another team can challenge us.”

Jamaican teams occupied the first six places as Hydel High were second with 44.69 seconds, followed by St Jago with 44.78 seconds, Holmwood Technical with 45.04 seconds, Excelsior High with 45.75 seconds, and St Catherine High with 45.99 seconds, while Rusea’s High finished ninth in 46.80 seconds.

Immaculate Conception won the international final, catching The Queen’s School on the line to win in 46.32 seconds to their 46.35 seconds. Petersfield High were third with 46.39 seconds, Vere Technical fourth with 47.05 seconds, followed by Papine High with 47.67 seconds, St Andrews High with 47.95 seconds, and Herbert Morrison Technical with 49.02 seconds.

Edwin Allen won their sixth 4x800m title and first since 2012, as the team of Jessica McLaren, Kayan Green, Nadine Rose and Rushana Dwyer combined for 8:54.02 minutes.

Edwin Allen were the only Jamaican team in the final as Union Catholic of New Jersey were second in 9:00.36 minutes and Neumann Goretti of Philadelphia third in 9:03.07 minutes.

In driving rain following the second lightning break, Holmwood Technical foiled Hydel High’s bid for a third-straight win, running three minutes 37.20 seconds in cold rain.

Dwight Jones, one of the Holmwood coaches, told the Jamaica Observer, “We are just happy that we won. Once we saw the rain we knew the conditions would have suited Holmwood, and we went out there and capitalised.”

It was Holmwood Technical’s sixth win in the mile relays and first in nine years since 2010, and Jones said they changed up their running from the preliminaries on Thursday.

Danaille Brissett led off and opened up a decent lead before handing off to Daniella Deer. Rickiann Russell then split 55.07 seconds on the third leg, opening up a 20-metre gap before handing over to Kavia Francis who ran 53.61 seconds and held off a charging Charokee Young, who ran 52.08 seconds on the anchor for Hydel, who ran 3:38.01 minutes.

Spalding High were third in 3:43.83 minutes, Edwin Allen sixth in 3:46.56 minutes, and Petersfield High eighth in 3:57.78 minutes, while The Queen’s School did not show up for the race.