Records shattered at Gibson Relays

Spectators were treated to some fast running and smooth baton exchanges at the 28th staging of the highly recognised Gibson Relays meet at the National Stadium last Saturday.

The morning session, which saw the heats was not well attended but when the scorching sun gave way in the evening, track and field fans poured into the venue.

And from the moment the first final ran off, the spectators were cheering on their favourite athletes and teams. The athletes, who performed on the field and the track certainly gave the fans much to cheer about.

Holmwood Technical High served notice to all comers in the March 24-27 VMBS Boys and Girls Athletic Championships when their Class One girls clocked 44.81 seconds for a new record which removed the old mark of 45.58 held by Vere Technical.

The defending VMBS Girls Champions won the Girls 4x400 Open event in a time of 3:39.24. World Junior 200 metres silver medalist, Aneisha McLaughlin anchored the Holmwood team to victory.

Sherone Simpson of the University of Technology (UTech) clocked 11.11 seconds for a new record in the Women 100 metres. Simpson eclipsed the record set by Eldeece Clarke (11.21) of The Bahamas in 1996.

Jamaica's latest sprint sensation Asafa Powell anchored the UTech team to a record breaking time of 39.24 seconds in the 4x100 metres Men event to erase Cast Club's mark of 39.70 seconds. Other members of UTech winning spring relay team were Ryan James, Ainsley Waugh and Winston Smith.

There was also a record-breaking performance by Toni Ann D'Oyley, who represented the IT Dat track club in 13.43 sceonds in the Women 100 metres hurdles. The old mark of 15.24 seconds was set by Immaculate's Monique Morgan at last year's meet.
Germaine Mason, the national high jump record hurdler, extended the mark of 2.20 jointly held by himself and Dennis Fearon to 2.25 metres.

Manchester High's Class Four girls 4x100 metres relay team winning time of 48.10 second removed Vere's 48.75 set in 1991. Edwin Allen's Class Three girls ran a record-breaking time of 46.46 in the spring relay. The old mark of 47.29 was held by Camperdown High in 1990.