Jamaica College (JC) closed the gap between themselves and defending champions Kingston College (KC) to 23 points on day two of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships yesterday.

The boys from Old Hope Road scored eight points in the Class Two long jump to take their tally to 32 points, while KC failed to add to their overnight tally of 55 points, after both of their athletes in the long jump failed to make the final round.

Calabar won heat one of two in 43.19secs to advance to the final of the Class Three 4x100m with the best time. KC were second in 43.61secs and JC were third in 44.31secs. Vere Technical, who were fourth in 46.18 and Clarendon College, who were fifth in 46.84secs, advanced to the final as the fastest losers.

Only the top three teams from heat two advanced to the final. St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) won with 44.70secs; St Jago were second with 45.68secs and Cornwall College were third with 46.24secs.

In the Class Two 4x100m, JC won heat one in 41.37s, St. Jago were second in 41.61s and Ferncourt High were third in 43.31s. None of the other teams from heat one advanced to the final. Heat two was won by Calabar in 41.26s, KC were second in 41.63s and Excelsior were third in 42.23s. Wolmer’s in 42.39s and Steer Town Academy in 43.51s, were third and fourth, respectively, and also advanced to the final.

In Class One, JC won heat one in 40.59secs ahead of second place Wolmer’s Boys’ in 40.64secs and STETHS third in 40.66secs. There were five qualifiers from heat two. St Jago won with the fastest time overall of 40.28secs ahead of Edwin Allen in 40.88secs, Clarendon College third in 40.89secs, St Catherine High fourth in 41.02secs, while KC scraped into the final in 41.06secs.

There were two sections of the sprint medley. JC won section one in 3:31.77 minutes and KC won section two in 3:32.98 minutes. The other qualifiers for the finals are STETHS, Calabar, St Jago, Excelsior, Cornwall College and Wolmer’s Boys’.

The Class Three 100m heats had four sections. Section one was won by Tahj-Marques White of KC in 11.49secs, section two was won by Malik Carridice of Vere Technical in 11.69secs, section three was won by Tramaine Todd of STETHS in 11.57secs, while section four was won by Khamani Gordon of Calabar in 11.63secs. They along with 20 other athletes have advanced to today’s semi-finals.

In Class Two, Hector Benjamin of JC won section one in 10.91secs, Orlando Wint of STETHS won section two in 10.98secs, Joshua St Jean of Edwin Allen won section three in 11.07secs and Deandre Daley of Herbert Morrison won section four 10.74secs, to lead the other 20 qualifiers into the semi-finals.

In Class One, Bouwahjgie Nkrumie of KC won section one in 10.81secs, Antonio Watson of Petersfield was less of a showman than he was in the 200m but cruised to victory in 10.65secs just the same. Bryan Levell of Edwin Allen won section three in 10.73secs, while the rarely seen Sachin Dennis won section four in 10.75secs, and they along with 20 other qualifiers will face the starter in the semi-finals today starting at 10:55 am.

Omary Robinson of JC, Zachary Wallace of Maggotty High, Jordan Taylor of KC and Durville Jackson of Calabar all won their respective heats in the Class Three 400m to advance with 20 other athletes to Friday’s semi-finals.

In Class Two, Mark Manley of Calabar (49.74), Derrick Grant of Ferncourt (48.91), Jaiden Reid of JC and Dante Dacres of Wolmer’s Boys’ were the ones leading 20 other athletes into the semi-finals. While for Class One, Revon Williams (47.43) and Javier Brown (47.51) of JC along with Tahj Hamm (46.87) of Holmwood and Jeremy Bembridge of Calabar (46.93) were the ones to lead the qualifiers to the semi-finals.

The gruelling decathlon Open was the final event on track on day two as the 400m closed the evening. After five events scored, including the 100m, long jump, shot put and high jump, Javain Johnson of Kingston College led the way with five more disciplines to be contested today.

Along with the decathlon, nine other finals will be contested today. The first final will be the Class Three high jump, to be followed by the 1500m, all classes, Class One discus, the Class Two shot put and the 100m finals, all classes, which will close the programme for day three.

Boys’ points standings after seven finals

1) Kingston College 55

2) St Jago High 40

3) Calabar High 37

4) St Elizabeth Technical 30

4) Jamaica College 30

6) Excelsior High 9

7) St George’s College 7

7) Edwin Allen High 7

7) Wolmer’s Boys 7

10) Bellefield High 6

10) Cornwall College 6

12) Clarendon College 3

13) Vere Technical 2

14) Oberlin High 1