PHILADELPHIA, USA — Jamaican high school boys will start their hunt for honours at the Penn Relays when they compete in two relays preliminaries, a long-distance event and six field events at Franklin Field on Friday.

Jamaica College (JC) will start the defence of their Championships of Americas 4x100m relays and will lead the Jamaican schools in the 4x800m preliminaries while Kingston College’s (KC) Ethan Gioko will contest the 3,000m final.

There will also be competition in the discus throw, shot put, javelin throw, high jump, long jump and triple jump events on what will be a packed day.

Athletes and fans will be hoping for warmer weather as yesterday started colder than expected, but forecasts are calling for warmer weather and more sunshine on Friday.

Over 25 Jamaican schools will be seeking spots in Saturday’s Championships of Americas and International finals and JC will lead the Jamaican charge along with KC, Excelsior High, St Jago High and dark horses Herbert Morrison Technical.

JC were denied back to back wins in the 4x800m event last year when they were disqualified for using an ineligible runner and will hope to make amends this year.

Former winners KC, St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) and Calabar High as well as Port Antonio High will also line up in the heats this morning.

STETHS’ Rickoy Hunter is the top-ranked athlete in the high school boys’ long jump while KC’s Nathan Wade is second with ISSA Boys’ Champs Class One winner Balvin Israel ranked third.

They will be joined by Renaldino Medwinter of Excelsior High, Amari Officer of St Georges College and Edward Sterling of Wolmer’s Boys.

JC’s Chavez Penn is expected to win the triple jump and will be accompanied by Javar Thomas of KC, Nicardo Grey of Wolmer’s Boys, the Cornwall College pair of Kesean-Jordan Rhooms and Obrien Bowen.

Four Jamaican schoolboys are down for the discus throw – Chad Hendricks of Munro College, Delano Lawrence of Calabar High, Antwon Walkin of KC and Joseph Solomon of Clarendon College.

Shaiquan Dunn of JC will hope to extend his unbeaten season when he lines up in the shot put where he will be joined by his teammate Jaylon Calder, Mar-Lando Farquharson of Cornwall College, Rajay Hemmings of St Catherine High and Devonte Edwards of Munro College.

Calabar High’s Jevonte Grant is the only Jamaican in the high jump event while six will contest the javelin — Lebron James, Dorian Charles and Jemar Ferguson of JC, Deandre Bristol of St George’s College, Brandon Falconer of STETHS and Javon Forrest of Camperdown.