By Anthony Foster, TrackAlerts.com writer
The big teams, apart from Edwin Allen, enjoyed good outings in the 4x100m relays on Thursday’s second day of Champs 2016 #taChamps.
The Girls pre-Champs favourites suffered from the brutal dropped baton in the Class 4 girls’ event. The incident happened on the final exchange.
Hydel, in the meantime, recorded the fastest time in the yougest age group joust 47.50 ahead of St. Jago 48.20, Manchester 49.38, St. Andrew High 49.52, Wolmer’s 49.52, Immaculate 49.85, Holmwood 49.90 and Camperdown 50.14.
In Class 3 the eight finalists are St. Catherine 46.15, St. Jago 46.60, Hydel 46.72, Edwin Allen 46.88, Holmwood 46.93, Wolmer’s 47.11, St. Mary High 47.31, and Excelsior 47.91.
In Class 2, the defending champions with top sprinter, Shellece Clark on the third leg, recorded the fastest time of 45.70 to lead rivals into the final set for Saturday. St. Jago with their sprint standout, Kimone Shaw 45.90, Holmwood 45.99, Alpha 46.65, Vere 47.07, Manchester 47.10, Wolmer’s 47.28 and Hydel 47.49 are the other teams, advancing.
In Class 1, Holmwood with dreadlocks hair-styled, Ashley Williams, storming on the second leg, will enter the final with the fastest time 45.13, Edwin Allen 45.24, St. Jago 45.37, Hydel 45.87, Camperdown 45.97, Green Island 46.32, Excelsior 46.53 and Wolmer’s 46.69.
On the boys’ side, St. Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) 43.44 leads ahead of Kingston College (KC) 43.62, Calabar 44.21, Herbert Morrison 44.22, Wolmer’s 44.24, St. Jago 44.40, Jamaica College (JC) 44.50, William Knibb 44.85 are the Class 3 finalists.
Brandon Heath, Christopher Taylor, Michael Stephens and Dejour Russell in that order carried Calabar’s Class 2 team to 41.23, the fastest done in the prelims. KC 41.54, Munro College 41.81, JC 42.05, Wolmer’s 42.85, Excelsior 42.86, Rusea’s 42.88 and St. George’s 43.06 are the other teams into the final.
In the oldest class, KC with 3-way sprinter, said to be Rio Olympics-prepared, Akeem Bloomfield on anchor and 10.25 man, Jhevaughn Matherson handing off to him, was the only team to go below 40 seconds with 39.98. Calabar recorded the second best time of 40.17, JC 40.20, STETHS with double individual sprint favourite, Nigel Ellis on 2nd leg 40.44, St. Jago 40.13, St. Catherine 40.83, Herbert Morrison 41.00 and Garvey Maceo 41.19 are the other qualifiers
