Led by double gold medals from the Rusea’s High pair of Aalliyah Francis and Lavanya Williams, athletes from western Jamaica-based schools won 10 medals as part of an outstanding display at last week’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium.

Francis was one of the stars of the week-long championships that were returning after a year’s absence, winning the Class 1 200m and 400m events, while Williams, who was competing at the event for the first time, made a big first impression as she took the Class 3 ‘sprint double.’

Fifteen western Jamaica-based schools scored points at ‘Champs’, eight among the boys with seven among the girls.

Maggotty High was 10th in the boys’ section with 21 points, Cornwall College were 11th with 18.5 points, Petersfield High were 12th with 18 points, while Rusea’s High (seven points) Muschett High (five points), Rhodes Hall (three points), Lacovia High (two points) and Herbert Morrison (one point) also scored .

Rusea’s High finished seventh in the female section with 70 points, while Mt Alvernia (12 points), Rhodes Hall (eight points), Herbert Morrison with seven, while Maggotty High, Petersfield High, and Albert Town each picked up five points.

Francis, who also won the double at the COCAA Western Champs, won her medals in the span of a few hours on Saturday, winning the 400m in a personal best 52.51 seconds and then returned later in the afternoon to take the 200m in 23.85 seconds, just missed equalling her personal best of 23.84 seconds, while running into a strong headwind of -3.1m/s.

Williams also repeated her Western Champs feat when she ‘upset’ the predictions to easily win the Class 3 ‘double’ with times of 12.18 seconds (-2.4m/s) in the 100m and 24.50 seconds (-1.3m/s) in the 200m.

Williams, who was one of three female ‘sprint double’ winners, dominated in all her races, winning by wide margins.

Antonio Watson of Petersfield also won two medals, taking the gold in the boys’ Class 1 200m in 20.74 seconds (-1.7m/s) after placing second in the hotly contested boys’ Class 1 100m 10.58 seconds (-2.3m/s) beaten by STETHS’ Sachin Dennis as the St Elizabeth school swept all three boys’100m titles.

Rusea’s High’s Leonie Samuels was the first western Jamaica-based winner at Champs when she won the girls’ Class 1 shot put with a personal best 13.21m, in what was also an upset.

Daniela Anglin scored all seven of Herbert Morrison’s points in the girls section when she placed second in the Class 1 high jump, while Alliyah Foster of Mt Alvernia High won a silver medal in the Class 2 long jump.

Western Champs’ back-to-back champion Rhianna Lewis of Rhodes Hall High won the bronze in the girls’ Class 4 high jump.