SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Class One hurdlers Shamer Blake of St Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) and Alexis James of Petersfield High, and Munro College’s Class Three thrower Javontae Smith each broke two records as the two-day County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) Western Championships ended at the St Elizabeth Technical Sports Complex in Santa Cruz in Saturday.

A total of 14 records were set over the two days, with the first day being held at Herbert Morrison Technical in Montego Bay on Wednesday as the preliminary points saw St Elizabeth Technical retain both the boys’ and girls’ titles.

Saturday’s final day was marred by two power cuts, one at the very start of the competition that knocked out power to the finish line system, forcing the organisers to resort to hand-timing.

The second power cut came during the second and final heat of the final event of the day, the Boys’ 4x400m relay Open, after Cornwall College had won the first race.

The power cut also resulted in the Class One boys’ triple jump not being held as well, and up to the time of writing a number of events had not been scored, but the preliminary points standings were in favour of the champions retaining their titles.

In the boys’ section, after 43 finals STETHS had tallied 361.5 points, followed by former champions Munro College who secured 201.33 points, Herbert Morrison Technical were third with 189.33 points, Petersfield High were fourth with 155, and William Knibb fifth with 152.

The girls also had 43 finals, with STETHS leading on 355.5 points, Petersfield were next on 258, Mt Alvernia High third with 237, William Knibb Memorial fourth with 167.5 and Maggotty High fifth with 116 points.

James, the silver medallist in the 100m hurdles from the World Under-20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, last year, lowered her own record in the Class One 100m hurdles in the morning when she won in 13.51 seconds, under the 13.91 seconds she set last year.

Later in the afternoon she used a brilliant start to get the better of a fast-closing Carleta Bernard of Mt Alvernia to win the Class One 100m in 11.24 seconds, beating the 11.39 seconds set in 2005 by Mannings’ Michelle Mattis.

Bernard, who was second in 11.34 seconds, was also under the old record but broke the 200m record when she ran 23.27 seconds, under the 23.40 seconds set by Nickesha Anderson of Herbert Morrison Technical in 2004.

Blake broke two hurdles records, lowering the Class One 110m mark when he ran 13.81 seconds to beat the 14.05 seconds set in 2018 by Rusea’s High’s Brithon Senior, then running 50.62 seconds to win the Class One 400m hurdles, thereby beating the 51.47 seconds set also in 2018 by another STETHS runner, Jauavney James.

Smith, who smashed the Class Three boys’ shot put record on Wednesday, was on a mission and won the discus throw on Saturday with a massive 54.69m, more than five metres over the 49.22m set in 2018 by another Munro College thrower Altwayne Bedward whose shot put record he also broke.

The first record to fall on Saturday came in the long jump pit where Mt Alvernia High’s Aaliyah Foster, last year’s ISSA Champs Class 2 champion, jumped 6.19m in the first round to beat the 5.88m set three years ago by STETHS’s Jodian Stewart.

Foster, who also won the Class One 400m and ran on two relay teams, was consistent, with just one of her other five jumps being under 5.91m, q 5.82m effort in the fourth round.

ISSA Champs medallist Habiba Harris of STETHS, also sparkled with 13.52 seconds to win the Girls Class One 100m hurdles, beating James’ 13.73 seconds set in 2021.