PHILADELPHIA, USA – Holmwood Technical’s Cedricka Williams set a new Penn Relays record 57.23m as she retained her high school girls’ discus title on Friday’s second day of the 127th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

There were three Jamaican winners in the field events on Friday morning as Camperdown’s Britannia Johnson won the shot put with 14.04m and St Jago High’s Jade-Ann Dawkins won the triple jump with 13.02m (0.8m/s).

Williams, the ISSA Champs and Carifta Games champion, got her big throw in the fourth round to break the previous record of 54.72m set in 2016 by Shanice Love, then of Excelsior High.

She became the fifth Jamaican to break the Penn Relays record after Kamesha Marshall of Mannings School in 2000, Danniel Thomas of Edwin Allen High in 2012, Gleneve Grange in 2013 and Love.

St Jago’s Abigail Martin was second with 54.54m, Britannie Johnson of Camperdon was third with 47.33m, Excelsior’s Najhada Seymoure was fifth with 45.57m and Immaculate Conception’s Maja Henry was 10th with 39.26m.

Brittannia Johnson was also a big winner as she became the third Jamaican to win the shot put, after Nadia Alexander of St Hugh’s in 2004 and Danielle Sloley of Immaculate Conception in 2019.

Rochele Solmon of Edwin Allen finished third with 13.57m and Juliet Smith of Immaculate Conception fourth with 13.00m.

Dawkins performed up to expectation and is now tied for fourth best all-time jump at Penns with former Edwin Allen jumper Ackelia Smith who won in 2019.

Wolmer’s Girls’ Shanniqua Williams was second in the high jump with 1.70m, the same height as third placed Deijanae Bruce of Edwin Allen, while 14 year-old Aaliyah Willary of Rhodes Hall was fourth with 1.68m, followed by Malaika Cunningham of Wolmer’s and Carifta Games Under-20 champion Torian Caven of Vere Technical, both with 1.65m.

Mt Alvernia High’s Aaliyah Foster was third in the long jump with 5.78m (-0.1m/s) and Richelle Stanley of St Elizabeth Technical was fourth with 5.71 (0.5m/s).

-Paul A Reid