EXCELSIOR High’s Najhada Seymoure retained her ISSA/GraceKennedy Athletics Championships Girls’ Class One discus title when she threw a personal best 52.16m in the final at the National Stadium on Wednesday.

Seymoure went into the championships with the best mark of 51.77m and led from the front. She produced her winning mark in the first round as Edwin Allen High’s Shamoyea Morris repeated her second place from last year with a best of 51.99m. Able Mills of St Catherine High took third with 51.20m.

Earlier in the day, Clarendon College’s Jamelia Young shook off a slow start to win the Girls’ Class 2 shot put gold medal with 13.65m.

After qualifying at sixth place on Tuesday’s opening day, Young trailed in fifth place after the first round on Wednesday before she took the lead in the third round, never looking back, to underline her number one ranking going into the championships.

Wolmer’s Girls’ Bethany Thomas took the silver medal with 13.19m, with Jada Francis of Immaculate Conception taking the bronze with 13.03m.

In the Class One shot put Clarendon College’s Marla Kay Lampart has a date with destiny on Saturday when she will have the meet record of 15.33m in her sights.

In mid January Lampart, who was second in Class Two last year, broke the Jamaican Under-20 record with a massive 15.98m at the Central Hurdles, Relays and Field Events meet at G C Foster College of Physical Education and Sport. She said then that she would be going after former Camperdown High star Britannia Johnson’s 2023 Champs record.

Lampart’s throw in January was a World Under-20 leading mark then, and was better than the previous Jamaican national junior record 15.72m set in 2015 by Lloydrica Cameron at an NCAA meet in Jacksonville, Florida.

On Wednesday, Lampart qualified in sixth position for the final with 12.20m and will be part of a quality field chasing the medals.

Excelsior High’s Kimeka Smith, last year’s Class Two gold medal winner, leads the qualifying with 14.67m. Smith was followed by Able Mills (13.44m) of St Catherine High and last year’s bronze medallist Natassia Burrell of Hydel High who threw 13.33m. Mills and Burrell were also both finalists in the discus.

Jessica Francis of Alphansus Davis High jumped a wind-aided 5.38m (2.8m/s) to lead the qualifiers into Thursday’s final of the Girls’ Class Four long jump final.

Francis needed one jump to get the automatic qualifying mark of 4.90m, and is followed by Anastacia Richards of St Elizabeth Technical with 5.19m (0.5m/s) and Excelsior High’s Christina Clarke who produced a mark of 5.07m (0.4m/s).

Peyton-Ann Edwards of Convent of Mercy Academy “Alpha” is also through to the final with a mark of 5.04m (1.4m/s)

— Paul A Reid