Ramone McKenzie takes a solid 200/400 double and the Jamaican High School Championships (© Anthony Foster)
Kingston, JamaicaWorld Youth 200m champion Ramone McKenzie of dethroned champions Calabar and Holmwood's pair of Dianna Johnson and Chris-Ann Gordon were the star performers at Jamaica's Boys' and Girls' Athletics Championships, which ended Saturday (4) at the National Stadium.
McKenzie, 19, secured the 200/400m Class One double in 20.66 and 46.88 respectively.
Holmwood's 13-year-old Johnson took the Class Four sprint double by running meet records of 24.62 on Saturday's final day to add to her 11.90 100m 11.90 (Friday 3).
However, the performance, arguably the best of the meet, saw Gordon, only 14-years- old, destroying the Class Three 400m field, which included Carifta Under-17 champion Shericka Jackson of Vere, to win in 52.68.
Gordon, who won the 100m and 200m in Class Four last year, ran away with the 400 and 800m in her first Class Three year. She ran 2:13.45 for victory in the 800m.
Gordon, who returned to clock 51.2 on anchor for Holmwood to break the record in the 4x400m open (3:34.35), ran faster than her seniors - Jodi-Ann Muir, 18, of Wolmer's (53.45) in Class One and Petra Fanty, 17, of Holmwood, the Class Two winner in 54.24.
However, while all these great performances were unfolding, Kingston College (KC) and Calabar were battling out the boys' title down to the final event, the boys' 4x400m.
In the end, KC maintained their lead and took top honours by a whisker, 223.5 over Calabar’s 222. Jamaica College (JC), 154, and Wolmer's, 144, and St Jago, 122.5, rounded off the top five.
Holmwood, however, had no such problems in securing their seventh straight hold on the girls' crown, as they led from day two to finish with 400.5 points to Edwin Allen's 203. Vere, the Veronica Campbell-Brown’s school was next with 194.5, followed by Sherone Simpson’s Manchester, which tallied 154.5.
Anthony Foster for the IAAF
