Local schools set to dominate boys’ 4x100m at Penns

THE FINAL day of competition at this year’s staging of the 118th Penn Relays in Philadelphia should see another victory for a Jamaican high school in the boys’ 4x100 metres.

Jamaican teams have dominated the Championships of America 4x100m and have won it every year the meet has been held since 2005. The last American high school team to win the event was Glanville High of Ohio in 2004.

Holmwood Technical won the event in 2005 and this year Jamaica College (JC) will be hoping to defend the title they won ahead of St Elizabeth Technical in 2023.

Camperdown High who won their last title in 2022 after a superb anchor leg from 400m hurdles specialist Roshawn Clarke are the Jamaican high school with most wins in the event. The east Kingston-based school has nine titles, the same as Boys and Girls’ High of Brooklyn, New York. Kingston College (KC) and Calabar High both have eight titles each.

Jamaican high schools have also registered the fastest times in the event. Calabar’s super team of 2017 are the record-holders after their winning mark of 39.00 seconds. The team included Tyreke Wilson, Christopher Taylor, Michael Stephens and Dejour Russell.

Excelsior to upstage JC

Both Calabar and KC will be hoping to join Camperdown on nine wins and cannot be ruled out in the event. Calabar were second in the Class One final at the ISSA Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) in 40.10 seconds behind JC who won in 40.01.

JC will be hoping to make it back to back wins at the Penn Relays and pick up their fourth title. St Jago High who won at the Gibson McCook Relays in 40.45 and placed third at Champs in 40.39 cannot be ruled out as they seek Penn Relays title number-five.

However, the team to beat at the Penn Relays will be the David Riley-coached Excelsior High. The Excelsior High boys are having a dream season so far and look set to continue that trend in Philadelphia.

A year ago at the Penn Relays, the Mountain View Avenue-based school won the consolation final after taking home the International 4x100m event in 41.04, the second-fastest time among boys’ high school teams. Only JC’s winning time of 40.97 in the Championships of America final was faster.

That Excelsior team included Lennon Green, Damor Miller and Daniel Wright who are all back and with Demarco Bennett, Richard Hall and Malike Nugent to choose from this time around they could go all the way. They were fourth in Class One at Champs in 40.45 while their Class Two team won in 40.35.

With their Class Two athletes set to be members of the team at Penns they will definitely be much stronger. Excelsior will be the team to beat and a win will give them their first Championship of America 4x100m title.