Yohan Blake rakes in more awards

PHILADELPHIA, USA – The individual awards keep flowing in for St Jago’s Yohan Blake.

On Saturday afternoon, the
Jamaican was named the 113th Penn Relays Carnival’s High School Boys
outstanding athlete for relay events.

Blake won the award after
anchoring the St Jago 4x100m team to a record 39.96 seconds, and
followed that with a gutsy anchor leg on the 4x400m, splitting 45.4
seconds, but lost on the line to Long Beach Poly 3:09.89 to 3:10.43.

Blake who was named the Most
Outstanding Athlete at the recent ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ Champs after
breaking Tesfa Latty’s Class One 100m record with a smart 10.21
seconds, was also named the Austin Sealy Award winner at the Carifta
Games in the Turks and Caicos Islands two weeks later after setting a
new National Junior Record in the 100m – 10.11 seconds.

He had broken the record held by Raymond Stewart earlier in the heats when he clocked 10.18 seconds.
Long
Beach Poly’s time was the second fastest ever at the Penn Relays as
their anchor leg runner was also clocked in an identical 45.4 seconds
split.

JA boys dominate in sprint relays

Yohan Blake (front) of St Jago gets the baton
from Riker Hilton on the final exchange in the heats of the High School
Boys 4x100m relays yesterday. St Jago and Calabar, two of seven
Jamaican teams in the Championship finals today have the fastest times.
(Photo: Paul Reid)

PHILADELPHIA, USA – Kingston
College, Calabar and Jamaica College lead the Jamaican high school boys
in qualifying for both finals from yesterday’s heats of the 4x100m and
4x800m at the 113th Penn Relays Carnival in Philadelphia.

The heats and the finals of the
4x400m, along with the 400m hurdles and the field events, including the
long, triple and high jumps, will be held today, the final day of the
meet.
Despite less than desirable weather conditions, the Jamaican
boys sprint relay teams brought the packed house to its feet as seven
teams qualified for the eight-team final.

Champs Class One record holders St
Jago High and Calabar posted the fastest times with identical 40.94
seconds clocking, running in a steady drizzle and cool temperatures.
Record
holders and defending champions Camperdown, 41.50, running without
Remaldo Rose in their heat, former winners Holmwood Technical, 42.06,
Jamaica College, 41.93, Kingston College, KC, 41.91, and Wolmer’s
Boys’, 41.90, join South Shore of New York in the Championships of
Americas finals.

Edwin Allen only girls winners . as Holmwood are beaten to gold on three occasions

Kacia Jones (left) and Shauna Anderson of
Edwin Allen execute their baton change at the first changeover on their
way to the victory in the Championship of Americas High School Girls
4x100m relay at the 113th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field in
Philadelphia yesterday.

PHILADELPHIA, USA – Edwin Allen
High’s sprint relay team proved to be the only highlight for the
Jamaican girls’ high schools on yesterday’s second day of the 113th
Penn Relays Carnival in Philadelphia.

The Jamaicans’ day was ruined by a
combination of bad weather that forced the meet to be extended by
nearly three hours and a strong team from Eleanor Roosevelt of Maryland
who won the 4x400m and 4x800m relays.

An announced crowd of 39,166, the
second highest Friday crowd in Penn Relays history, turned up despite
the bad weather, as only last year’s 39,943 was higher.

Edwin Allen won their first ever
4x100m Championship of Americas, beating defending champions Holmwood
Technical in the sixth fastest time ever, 44.87 seconds.

The Michael Dyke-coached team

GOLD FOR WILLIAMS Jamaica teams waltz into Penn Relays finals

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania –
Vere Technical’s triple jumper Kimberly Williams continued her
outstanding season by setting a new Penn Relay record in the high
school event yesterday – her third straight title.

Williams, who won the event at
this year’s Girls Champs and Carifta Games, leaped 12.91m to break the
old mark of 12.87m set by Carlene Cummings of Morrow, New Jersey, in
1998.

On a mostly dry but cold day in
which some 23,996 fans braved the weather to enjoy the meet, the
Jamaican teams positioned themselves for honours on today’s second day
with outstanding performances in three relays.

Holmwood, who will defend three titles today, are in three finals – the 4x100m, 4x400m and 4x80m – along with Edwin Allen.

The Michael Dyke coached Edwin Allen have the fastest times of the Jamaicans in all three events.
Despite
her victory, it was not all smiles for the usually upbeat Williams. She
broke down in tears as she believed she had twice jumped further, but
was not credited by the officials.

GIRLS SEEK GLORY AT PENNS Holmwood more optimistic about longer relays

 

Velma Morant (front) reaches for the baton
from Vere Technical teammate Jura Levy at a practice session yesterday
ahead of today’s 113th Penn Relay Carnival at Franklin Field. Vere have
won 14 4x100m titles over the years. (Photo: Paul Reid)

PHILADELPHIA, USA – Jamaican
high school teams begin their hunt for honours as the 113th Penn Relay
Carnival gets underway here today at 10:00 am (9:00 am local time)
under challenging weather conditions at Franklin Field, University of
Pennsylvania.

The girls will be on the track
today, while the boys start their schedule tomorrow morning. One relay
final will be contested today, the Distance Medley, while there will be
heats in three others – the 4x100m, 4x400m and 4x800m.

Other finals involving Jamaicans will be the 400m hurdles, javelin, long jump, triple jump, high jump and shot putt.
Challenges
on the track apart, the weather could prove decisive as forecasts are
for rains and cool conditions. While there have been improvements in
the forecast from earlier this week, latest predictions yesterday were
for overcast conditions with a strong possibility of rain today.
Conditions could be worse tomorrow, with thunderstorms and cool
conditions predicted.

Strong Ja squad to tackle USA in Relays

 

PHILADELPHIA, USA – The Jamaica
Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) has named a strong squad to take
part in this weekend’s USA vs The Rest of the World Relays at the 113th
Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field, Philadelphia.

They will, however, have to find a
suitable replacement for world record-holder in the men’s 100m, Asafa
Powell, who was sidelined with what is being described as a minor
injury and will miss the meet.

Powell, who won the 100m here last
year, was down to run the 4x100m, along with MVP teammate and IAAF
World Championships 100m silver medallist Michael Frater, many-time
national representative Dwight Thomas and former William Knibb Memorial
sprinter Lerone Clarke.

Powell, who is yet to run outside
of Jamaica so far this season, had withdrawn from the Mt SAC relays in
California last week, citing the cooler than normal temperatures. The
weather is expected to be rainy and cool at the Penn Relays that will
start tomorrow morning.

Sherone Simpson, the fastest woman
last year, will headline the Don Quarrie-managed team that includes a
good blend of youth and experience.

Based on the composition of the
five teams submitted by the JAAA last week, the women’s Sprint Medley
team appears the best bet to give Jamaica their second win in the
series that is about seven years old.

Simpson will run one of the 200m
legs, along with former Holmwood Technical and current University of
Florida senior, Nadine Palmer.

The veteran Noveline Williams will
lead off on the 400m leg, while Kenia Sinclair, who has lowered the
national 800m record several times in the last two years, will run the
anchor leg.

The only event the Jamaicans have
ever won was the Men’s 4x400m in 2005 when the team that included
Michael Blackwood, Sanjay Ayre, Germaine Gonzales and Davian Clarke
crossed the line first.

Clarke will make way for former
Kingston College quarter-miler Leeford Green in this year’s team that
hopes to turn back the challenges of the other teams.

Olympic relay gold medal winner
Aleen Bailey, Commonwealth Games double gold medal winner Brigitte
Foster-Hylton, Palmer and former NCAA champion Peta-Gaye Dowdie will
make up the women’s 4x100m team.

Former national 400m champion
Shericka Williams will join an experienced crew, including Ronetta
Smith, Nadia Davey and Michelle Burgher on the women’s Mile Relay team.

The series, which is sponsored by
sports gear manufacturers Nike, features teams from several other
countries, including Canada, Great Britain, Nigeria and some all-stars
combinations. The greatest rivalry, however, is between the Jamaicans
and Americans and only the Jamaicans have ever won a relay other than
the home team.

 

Jamaican schools begin arriving in Philly today

PHILADELPHIA, USA – The bulk of Jamaica’s 35 high school teams are expected to start arriving in Philadelphia this evening as the countdown for the 113th Penn Relays Carnival gets on in earnest.

The relays will start on Thursday morning and 24 boys high schools and 11 girls schools are down to take part in the event that will run through Saturday evening.
Most of the teams are due in today, but the boys teams will not start arriving until Wednesday as they don’t get into action until Friday morning.

Registration of high school teams starts tomorrow morning.

ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ champions Calabar High and Holmwood will lead the Jamaican contingent that will also see seven college teams and three track clubs taking part.

GC Foster Sports College, UWI-Mona and the University of Technology will field men’s and women’s teams, while Knox Community College will enter a men’s team only.

John Mills TC, Red Hills TC and Seaward Gardens TC are all listed in the programme to take part, but it is understood that at least one other team, Flyers TC, will also take part.

The Jamaicans are expected to repeat last year’s dominance when they won all six Championship of Americas finals (4×100, 4×400 and 4x800m) in each section.

The St Jago team led by new National unior Record holder in the 100m, Yohan Blake, seems the team to beat after running times faster than the records in the 4x100m and 4x400m earlier this year.

Holmwood Technical girls swept all threerelays last year and will start favourites to repeat that feat this year.
The Jamaican high schools have been coming to the Penn Relays since the mid-1960s when Kingston College first made the trek and since then have become an integral part of the Penn Relays, despite several modifications to the rules.

J’can sprint queen Campbell to run at New York Grand Prix

 

NEW YORK CITY, New York (CMC) – Jamaican Olympic 200-metre champion Veronica Campbell is confirmed as one of the headliners for the IAAF New York Grand Prix on June 2, organisers have announced.

Campbell, the most successful female track athlete at the 2004 Athens Olympics, joins top American sprinters Lauryn Williams, Tyson Gay and Wallace Spearmon as big names for the meet.
Williams is the reigning world champion over 100 metres, Gay was the World Athletics Final and World Cup winner, and Spearmon is a World Championship silver medallist.

One of two IAAF World Athletics Tour meeting in the United States, the New York Grand Prixwill begin at 5.00 pm on June 2 at the state-of-the-art Icahn Stadium, on Randall’s Island.
Campbell is a triple-medallist from the Athens Olympics, winning gold at 200 metres and the 4×100-metre relay, and bronze at 100 metres to become the most decorated female track athlete at the 2004 Games.

The 24-year-old Campbell is expected to receive strident support from the large Jamaican population in the New York area.

Injury delays Asafa Powell’s start to season

KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – Asafa Powell, Jamaica’s world 100-metre record holder, has delayed his international debut for the 2007 season because of tendonitis in his knee.
Powell has pulled out of meets scheduled for the coming two weekends.

POWELL… I’m really not going to run that much this year before the World Championships

He was slated to form part of Jamaica’s sprint relay team at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, United States this coming weekend and the Jamaica International Invitational Meet on May 5 in Kingston.
His manager, Paul Doyle, said the athlete will not run if he is not 100 per cent fit.
While disclosing that it is the same injury that ruled him out of the Mt Sac Relays earlier this month, Doyle said “it’s not too serious”.

“We don’t want him to race at full speed if he is not 100 per cent,” he said of Powell, who is down to run the 100 metres in Kingston two weekends from now.

Doyle added of the Jamaica International Invitational. “There is a big possibility that he will miss that as well”.
Powell had earlier made it clear that he will not race much before the World Championships in Japan this summer.
He was quoted at the MtSac Relays as saying: “I’m really not going to run that much this year before the World Championships . But I’m going to Osaka to win gold.”

The world’s fastest man, however, remains in training under the watchful eyes of coach Stephen Francis in Kingston.
“He is still training, but we are just going play it day by day. We just want to play it safe,” Doyle added.

Bolt can do 200-400 double, says Quarrie

FIVE-TIME Olympian Donald Quarrie says Jamaica’s World Junior 200-metre record-holder Usain Bolt has the quality to be the best exponent of the gruelling 200-400m sprint double in world athletics.

BOLT… I’m looking forward to living up to expectation

“He has the talent to do it and it comes down to how much he wants to do it because his range is outstanding, his ability is outstanding, but it’s really how you approach that event that is most important; how much he wants to succeed at both events,” said Quarrie, the 200m gold medallist at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

“… The 400m is not a joke event and I believe if he gets more determined… he’ll do well,” added Quarrie, renowned for his dexterity in running the curve.
Bolt, who opened this season with a 45.92secs clocking at the Camperdown Classics in February, will run his second quarter-mile at the Guadeloupe Grand Prix on May 1, and his third at the May 5 Jamaica International Invitational meet at the National Stadium.

Humbled by Quarrie’s words and pointing to a similar sentiment echoed by Atlanta Olympics 200-400-metre double champion Michael Johnson of the USA a few years ago, Bolt is hoping to accomplish that feat.
“I’m really looking forward to living up to this expectation from a great Olympian like Quarrie… in the future,” the affable Bolt told the Sunday Observer on Wednesday after completing a workout at the Stadium East field.

“My coach (Glen Mills) decided that we’ll be starting the 400 this season and next season we’ll be going into it a little bit more, so right now we’re just using the 400 to work on my strength so I can run some better 200s later this season,” added the 20-year-old.

Since 2003 when he registered a superb 45.35secs at age 16, track & field aficionados thought Bolt would become the country’s dominant quarter-miler on the world stage.
“Basically what we’re trying to do in the first part of the season is to get as much strength as we can, both for speed, endurance, and explosive strength, and to this we have run one 400m,” Mills told the Sunday Observer.

He said they’re hoping to run a few more 400s ahead of the National Championships from June 23-25.
“We have two more coming up and hopefully we’ll get something worthwhile out of them. I would love to see him (Bolt) take up the 400 as an event, so I hope we’re making strides towards that,” Mills reasoned.

GraceKennedy expresses delight with Champs 2007

DEPUTY CEO of GraceKennedy, Don Wehby, has told the Observer that the corporate giants were extremely pleased with this the first of their three-year sponsorship of the annual ISSA Boys’ & Girls’ Athletic Championships which wrapped up at the National Stadium on Saturday.

In January, GraceKennedy announced they would be coming on as title sponsors of the high school championships in a deal worth J$42M representing $14m per year for the next three years. The announcement came just days after long-time sponsors VMBS, who sponsored the event since 1992, announced they were pulling out.

Speaking to the Observer from Trinidad yesterday, Wehby said things went well for GraceKennedy in their first year as title sponsors.

“I would say that we are very pleased, obviously it’s a learning experience, but we are pleased that there were a number of fantastic performances that we saw in our first year of sponsorship,” he said.

All set for Boys’ & Girls’ Champs

 

FOLLOWING months of training and intense competition in more than 20 development meets, more than 2,300 athletes from 78 Girls’ and 89 Boys’ teams will lay it on the line over the next four days of the GraceKennedy/ISSA National Athletics Championships at the National Stadium.

Defending champions Kingston College (KC) and Holmwood Technical will be aiming to retain their respective Boys’ and Girls’ titles.

KC (233.5 points), who are searching for the seventh straight hold on the Mortimor Geddes Trophy and 31st overall, are expected to again be challenged by last year’s second-placed finisher, Calabar (231.5), in a contest that experts say is too close to call.

Coach of the ‘Purples’, Lennox Graham, told the Observer his team is rounded in all three classes, in all disciplines, and his charges are up for the challenge.

“To pick a class and say it’s our strongest I would have to say Class One… we have good strength in Class Two – good hurdlers, good middle distance runners, good throwers, who are coming on at the right time…

“In Class Three, we have a nice, rounded bunch and the relays are fairly strong,” Graham said, noting that winning will depend on how his team performs each day.

St Jago’s Blake eyes sprint double

WORLD Junior Championship (2006) 100-metre bronze medallist Yohan Blake of St Jago High is eyeing the Class One sprint double at this week’s, GraceKennedy/ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Championships, which begins on Wednesday at the National Stadium.

Remaldo Rose, title holder of the Class One Boys’ 100m and 200m will only defend the 100m title due to Shin-splint injury. (Photos: Bryan Cummings)

Having clocked 10.41 seconds and 20.92secs to win the 100/200-metre double at last weekend’s Carifta Trials at Stadium East, many track and field pundits are giving Blake the favourite tag.

The soft spoken Blake, who returned 10.34secs and 21.52secs to take the Class Two double last year, is not bothered by this.

“Well the GraceKennedy/ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Championships is a stepping stone for me to the World Championships (Osaka, Japan) level, because my coach (Danny Hawthorne) thinks that I can extend it further,” Blake told the Sunday Observer. “What I intend to do (at Champs) is take those two records, the 100- and 200-metre records as well as take gold in the 4×100 and 4×400, so I expect to achieve a lot this year,” the sprinter added.

The 100m record of 10.24 seconds was established by Tesfa Latty of St George’s College in 2003, the same year that World Junior (200m) record holder Usain Bolt of William Knibb, posted 20.25secs to set the 200m record.

Jamaica’s Asafa Powell has been nominated for the 2007 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award.

After winning the 100m gold medal in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne last March, he twice equalled his own World Record of 9.77 seconds at Gateshead in June and Zurich in August, and won at each of the six Golden League meetings during the summer.

During the 2006 season, he ran under 10 seconds for the 100 metres a record 12 times and remained unbeaten in all 16 finals he contested.

In total, Powell has run under 10 seconds 25 times in his career. In November he was named 2006 IAAF Athlete of the Year.

Laureus Academy member and track legend, Michael Johnson, said: “Asafa Powell has become the dominant force in men’s sprinting over the last 12 months.

“You can tell he feels he has something to prove. He has run a world record 9.77 seconds three times now and you just know there is more to come,” Johnson was quoted as saying in a Laureus release.

Stayed honest

“I also like the way he has stayed honest to his roots and spends a great deal of time in Jamaica. That will help to encourage young athletes there.”

Other nominees in the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year category are Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso, Italian World Cup captain Fabio Cannavaro, Swiss tennis star Roger Federer, Germany’s Formula One legend Michael Schumacher and the world’s No.1 golfer, Tiger Woods.

A record number of leading sports journalists from around the world have voted this year to select the nominees. When the ballot closed on January 31, a total of 1,068 members of the Laureus World Sports Awards Media Selection Panel from 128 countries had cast their votes.

The winners of the Laureus World Sports Awards, as voted for by the members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, will be announced during a televised awards ceremony staged at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, on the evening of Monday, April 2.

Records tumble at Gibson Relays

Twelve records were accounted for at the 30th renewal of the Gibson Relays at the National Stadium on Saturday. The meet, which was fairly attended, had patrons on the edge at times, especially when the fastest man went down on the track and anchored his MVP sprint relay team to victory in a new time of 39.18 seconds, while the female team was in spanking form clocking 43.60 for their sprint relay.

Kingston College accounted for three records – class one 400m relay and class three in new times of 40.38 and 44.04 respectively, and the class three boys erased the 4×200 record in the heats clocking 1 minute 31.55 and returned to capture the final in 1 minute 33.76.

St Jago High boys had three victories with one in record time – class two 4x100m relay in 41.66. They also won the class four in 47.14 and the class two 4×200 in 1 minute 28.93. Holmwood girls accounted for two – in the 1600m relay in 3 minutes 35.68 and the 4×800 in 8 minutes 48.96.

Their boys took the equivalents in 3 minutes 13.48 and 7 minutes 45.06 respectively. Manchester High class three girls accounted for the only school girl sprint relay record in 46.00, and they also won class 4 in 49.10.

Kingston College won the class four 4×200 in 1 minute 37.90, class three in 1 minute 33.76, and St Jago class two in 1 minute 28.93 and Camperdown claiming class 1 in one minute 24.93.

Record-breaking day at Gibson

NINE records were broken at press time last night at the 31st staging of the Gibson Relays at the National Stadium in Kingston.

The records to fall prior to the finals of the 4×200 and 4×400 metres were the Clubs and Institutions 4×100 metres for men and women; the 4×100 metres for Boys Classes One, Two, Three and Four; the Girls Under-12 prep 4×100 metres; the Boys Under-10 prep 4×60 and the Men’s Open long jump.
If no more records were broken, the incentive package of $250,000 provided by Pepsi-Cola through its Gatorade brand, would be shared nine ways, with each team pocketing J$27,777.
According to statistics provided by the Gibson Relays organisers, 14 records were established in 2006.

Powell, Simpson tipped for RJR Sports Foundation awards

 

Commonwealth Games gold medallists Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson are heavily favoured to capture the 2006 RJR Sports Foundation Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards at the Pegasus Hotel tonight, starting at 7:00 pm.

 

The duo head a list of 10 men and 10 women nominated for the prestigious national awards.

Powell twice equalled his 100m world record and won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Australia last year, while Simpson ended the year as the world’s top female sprinter after winning the sprint double at the same meet.

The other male nominees are athletes Usain Bolt, Omar Brown, Maurice Smith and Maurice Wignall; footballer Claude Davis; cricketers Chris Gayle and Jerome Taylor; cyclist O’Neil Samuels and boxer Nicholas Walters.

Commonwealth medallists Veronica Campbell, Brigitte Foster-Hylton, Olivia McKoy, Kenia Sinclair, Trecia Smith and Novelene Williams join cyclist Iona Wynter and swimmer Alia Atkinson in the female category.

 

Fourteen category awards in athletics, badminton, cycling, cricket, football, squash, swimming, golf, rifle-shooting, horseracing, tennis, table tennis and boxing, and 22 individual awards will be presented to outstanding individuals who were not nominated in the main categories.

The 2006 Chairman’s Award winner will also be announced at the function at which Grenada Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell will be guest speaker.

World watches as J’can stars shine on debut

WORLD 100-metre record-holder Asafa Powell and top female sprinter Sherone Simpson began their season with a bang yesterday, returning impressive times in the 400-metre at the Queen’s/Grace Jackson meet at the Stadium East field in Kingston.

Observed by five international media outlets – three television crews from Switzerland, Norway and the UK (Gillette World Sports) and two print teams from Japan and The Netherlands – Powell clocked a personal best 47.67 seconds to win his heat of the men’s open 400-metres.
That time shaved 0.53 of a second off the 48.20secs he did last year before going on to run 12 sub-10-second clockings in the 100 metres, including two world record-equalling 9.77secs.

Conceding that he wanted to complete the quarter-mile in an even faster time, Powell told the Sunday Observer yesterday’s run was an indicator of things to come this year.
“This is a good sign for the 200 metres even though I don’t really like it as much,” he said. “The plans for the 100-metre really is just a lot of fireworks,” Powell stated.

Powell’s time was fourth overall on the day behind Mario Foresight (47.42), Chumaine Fitten (47.60) and Leeford Green (47.61).
Simpson posted 53.40 seconds to top the women’s 400-metre open ahead of MVP teammates Brigitte Foster-Hilton (54.44) and Nyoka Cole (55.01).
The Commonwealth 200-metre champion, who ran seven sub-11-second clockings in the 100m last season, is anticipating even better things in 2007.

“Running this 400 will definitely help me in the 100 and 200 as I look forward to the World Championships in Osaka (Japan)… I’m going there to medal in the 100, 200 and also the 4×100… I’m working very hard, so I’m looking forward to that,” Simpson said.

The Fastest Man On The Planet

Asafa is the fastest man on the planet…regardless of all the hype over this and that guy coming up he remains a true champion in all aspects. Now lets not talk about the once shooting Gatlin who is a disgrace to the sport…….Fastest man on the planet I do think so, be proud to rep JA.