Sport

Ryon Jones, Gleaner Writer

St Andrew blew away all challengers to retain their title at the 27th Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA)/Sagicor National Primary, All-Age and Junior High Schools Championships, which concluded yesterday at the National Stadium.

This is St Andrew's 16th hold on the title.

They amassed 328 points over the two-day competition, which saw 52 finals contested. The top five is rounded off by Portland (270), St Elizabeth (247), Kingston (184) and St Catherine (179).

Stephan Brown, sports coordinator for St Andrew, confessed being surprised by the margin of victory, but expected to win.

"To be honest, I am only surprised with the margin of victory, I expected to win but not by this large margin," said Brown. "The momentum was set from day one and it could have been more as we were suspended from three relays," he added.

Records fall

Six records were broken on the final day of the championship, to go with the two that were broken on the opening day.

St Andrew was responsible for four of the six records to fall. The first of these came in the girls Under-15 200m as Brittany Matthews clocked 25.74 seconds to eclipse the previous mark of 25.99 seconds set by Lanice Hall in 2004. Tiffaney Higgins of Portland (26.56) took second, with St Elizabeth's Christina Gayle (26.57) copping the bronze.

St Andrew were also in record-breaking mood in the boys' equivalent, as Raje Fearon posted a time of 23.78, bettering the 23.82 set by Jevaughn Spencer of St James in 2005. Spencer's teammate, Odane Watt (24.35), took second, with Romaine Mullings (24.94) of St Elizabeth taking third.

The 12-year-old Spencer was named overall Champion Boy, having also captured the 100m in a time of 12.12. He also anchored his team to gold in the 4x100m.

"I had to cope with the older boys but I came out as Champion Boy," said Spencer. I did not expect to do so well because I did not get to train over the past few weeks."

Fourteen-year-old Ranique Gray of St Andrew was crowned overall Champion Girl for the second consecutive year. She followed up on her record-breaking jump, which landed her the gold medal on the opening day in the girls' long jump open, with another gold medal in the girls Under-17 200m and silver in the 400m.

She viewed her success as mission accomplished.

"I call this mission accomplished. I trained very hard for it and hard work does bring success."

She was, however, disappointed that her team did not get to compete in the 4x100m, as they were disqualified.

"I am very disappointed because we were going for the record but they disqualified us," said Gray.

Michael Stewart, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), had nothing but praise for all involved in the running of the meet.

"As president of the JTA, I am very satisfied with the meet. It was quite efficiently ran and I want to commend the coordinators and the directors; and thanks to Sagicor for coming on board and assisting so well," said Stewart.