Twelve athletes from three Jamaican high schools will travel to Staten Island, New York this Saturday (24 Jan) to compete at the New York International Showcase at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex.
Holland High, Jamaica College and Hydel High will each send competitors to the second annual New York International Showcase indoor track meet, which has attracted 3,500 athletes from 280 schools and clubs across the United States and other countries.
The event (New York International Showcase) was created by Jamaican Olympian Sanjay Ayre and has quickly become one of the top high school track meets in America. Last year, MileSplit ranked the showcase as the third-best high school track and field meet in the United States for Most Nationally Elite Performances during the indoor season.
Holland High will send two athletes to the competition, while both Jamaica College and Hydel High will each be represented by five individuals in various events. This marks the first time that Jamaica College and Holland High have competed at the New York International Showcase.
Shanoya Douglas headlines the Jamaican contingent and will compete for Holland High after transferring from Muschette High in September. The 18-year-old sprinter followed her longtime coach Gary Smythe to the Trelawny-based school at the start of the current academic year.
Douglas and her Holland High teammate Johan-Ramaldo Smythe both represented Muschett High School at the inaugural meet in 2025. Last year at the same venue, Douglas won three medals including one gold medal. She set a Jamaican Under-20 national record in the women’s 300m invitational with a time of 37.78 seconds. The World Under-20 200m bronze medallist also placed second in two other races, running 7.44 seconds in the women’s 60m invitational and 6.91 in the girls’ 55m invitational.
Douglas will compete at the New York International Showcase in the girls’ 60m and 300m invitationals on Saturday after completing a busy outdoor season in 2024.
Johan-Ramaldo Smythe will join Douglas as Holland High’s second representative. The 18-year-old also moved to Holland High to continue training under his father and coach Garth Smythe. At last year’s showcase, he placed second in the boys’ 200m invitational with a time of 21.55 seconds and finished fourth in both the boys’ 55m and 60m events.
Smythe arrives in New York in excellent form after breaking the Boys’ Class One 100m record at last weekend’s JC Development Meet with a time of 10.47 seconds. He also ran 21.10 in the 200m at that competition.
Hydel High, who captured their second girls’ title in three years at the 2024 ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, will be led by Nastassia Fletcher. Last year, she won the girls’ varsity 500m in 1:12.98 and will compete in the 400m this weekend.
Sashana Johnson will also represent Hydel High in the 200m. She finished fourth in last year’s girls’ 400m invitational in 56.23 seconds and placed 13th in the 200m with a time of 24.76 seconds.
Jamaica College finished third in the boys’ section at last year’s championships and will send five athletes to individual events.
The complete list of Jamaican individual entries for New York International Showcase includes:
Jamaica College: Kai Kelly (60m), DeAndre Gayle (200m), Nathaniel Martin (200m), Makaelan Woods (200m), Omary Robinson (400m)
Hydel High: Shemonique Hazle (60m), Kevina Bourne (200m), Sashana Johnson (200m), Aaliyah Mullings (60m hurdles, 400m), Nastassia Fletcher (400m)
Holland High: Shanoya Douglas, Johan-Ramaldo Smythe
Both Jamaica College and Hydel High will also field 4x200m relay teams at the meet.
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