St Mary High School girls and Buff Bay High School boys won the Eastern Athletics Championships in contrasting styles inside National Stadium yesterday.

St Mary High School girls successfully defended their title by over 100 points, while Buff Bay High School dethroned St Mary High School boys by one point in a nail-biting finale.

St Mary High School girls amassed an impressive 407 points and were miles clear of Buff Bay High School with 301.5 points. Oberlin High School with 198 were third ahead of Titchfield High School on 171.5 points. Glengoffe High School made it into the top five, scoring 121 points.

On the boys’ side, Buff Bay High School scored 245 points to St Mary High School’s 244. Titchfield High School with 148 were third ahead of Port Antonio High School on 115. St Thomas Technical High School were fifth with 111 points.

Entering the final event in the boys’ section, St Mary High School were six points ahead but Buff Bay High School turned things around in dramatic fashion, winning the 4x400m relay in 3:25.63 minutes to pick up 12 points. St Mary High School finished fifth and collected only five points to lose by the solitary point.

With their girls in dominant form, St Mary High School were the Combined team champions, totalling 651 points. Buff Bay High School were second with 546.5 points, with Titchfield High School third overall with 319.5 points.

The outstanding Raymond Richards of Buff Bay High School was the toast of the championships, winning two events and placing second in the other. He won the Class One high jump with an impressive 2.00m after his coach signalled him to go no further.

He won the javelin open with a record 52.33m, then followed that up jumping 14.42m for second in the triple jump behind Titchfield High School’s Jeremy Hibbert with 14.63m.

Earlier, Alexia Austin of Glengoffe High School got the final day rolling with victory in the girls’ Class Three long jump with a leap of 5.14m. Morant Bay High School’s Dacia Campbell won the girls’ javelin with 32.58m.

Abigail Scaaffe of St Mary High School won the 400m hurdles open with in a record 1:01.18 minutes, while Buff Bay High School’s Tyreece Jackson took the boys’ Class Two 400m hurdles in 56.36 seconds, which was just faster than the Class One winner Jahmani Smith of Port Antonio High School with 56.44 seconds.

Oberlin High School showed their strength in the shot put by capturing the Class One girls’ and boys’ titles. Keneil Abraham won the boys’ with 14.38m, while Talleen Gordon took the girls’ with 10.98m. Her teammate Shatoy Chambers was second with 9.90m.

The times in the 100m sprints were not frightening to trouble the other regions at the all-island champs next month, as in the boys’ section only Kenoy Francis of Buff Bay High School was able to dip below the 11-second barrier where he won Class One in 10.98 seconds (1.2 mps).

De’Jhaun Strachan of Titchfield High School won the Class Two in 11.02 seconds and St Mary High School’s Challi Harris took Class Three honours in 11.94 seconds.

St Mary High School showed tremendous depth to sweep all the girls’ 100-metre events in the four classes. Janaelia Campbell won Class One in 12.71; Glacian Loutin took Class Two in 12.34. It got even better as they were first and second in Class Three, during which Shantae Pryce won in 12.19 ahead of Tyra Taylor in 12.26. Pryce’s time was faster than her older teammates.

St Mary High got the quinela again in Class Four courtesy of Tianna Rhoomes, who won in 12.72 ahead of Shavelle Wilson in 12.89.

Those girls’ 100m victories propelled St Mary High to dominate the 4×100 relay as they won all four and two of the three boys’ relays.