News Americas, PHILADELPHIA, PA, Sat. April 28, 2012: Clarendon, Jamaica must have been proud yesterday as the girls of Edwin Allen took big wins at the 118th running of the annual Penn Relays at Ben Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
Edwin Allen High School took the win in the High School Girls Championship of America Friday in a time of 3:42.06.
The second and third spots were also dominated by Jamaicans with Holmwood and Vere Technical coming in, in a time of 3:43.93 and 3:45.23, respectively.
Edwin Allen girls also took the win in the High School Girls’ 4×800 Championship of America in a time of 8:52.97 while Holmwood was third in a time of 9:12.75.
The girls also came third in the High School Girls’ 4×100 Championship of America while Herbert Morrison was second in a time of 46.49.
Meanwhile, Fedrick Dacres of Calabar was third in the High School Boys’ Discus Throw Championship while Ashinia Miller, also of Calabar, was second in the High School Boys’ Shot Put Championship. Emmanuel Onyia of Munro College was third in the shot put as well.
Today, Holmwood, St. Jago and Kingston College are in the run for the title of High School Boys’ 4×800 Championship of America while Wolmers, Herbert Morrison and Jamaica College will compete for the title of High School Boys’ 4×100 Championship of America.
The top races of the day will, however, be the USA vs. the World Sprint Medleys. At 11:40 today, Jamaica’s women, will take on the USA Blue and Red team in the World Women Sprint Medley while at 12:55 the Caribbean men of Jamaica, Guyana, the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago will clash with the US red and blue teams as well as Germany, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Canada black and red in the USA vs. the World Men’s 4×100. The US side will include Justin Gatlin and Walter Dix.
“For a track and field athlete The Penn Relays is like the N.B.A. All-Star weekend. You get all these Olympic and World Championship gold medalists on the same track, working together as teammates, not as competitors,” Gatlin said Friday.
At 1:15 p.m. it will be the USA vs. the World Women’s 4×100 as the Caribbean nations of Jamaica, The Bahamas, The Dominican Republic, The British Virgin Islands and Trinidad and Tobago, take on Nigeria and the US blue and red teams made up of Carmelita Jeter and Sanya Richards-Ross among others.
“My season has started out well, I started with indoors and I wasn’t sure if I was going to run but my coach and I thought if I didn’t have to tweak my training much that I still could be competitive… From that I won my first indoor title I ran 50.4 to start and it was kind of hard to start training in Waco because this year I didn’t have any professionals to race with as they were all collegiate girls so I really had to get myself up in the morning to run,” said Richards-Ross yesterday. “I will run in Jamaica in two weeks and I love competing there. The fans in Jamaica really get into it there and it is always a great atmosphere (on Philly crowd and Jamaica crowds booing) you do know we are in Philadelphia right? But it is always just a friendly rivalry that we enjoy.”
(Reporting by Ann Walters)
