TJB recognises outstanding performances at Penn Relays

Hydel High and Kingston College’s winning 4x400m relay teams, as well as high school triple jump championship winners Jade Ann Dawkins of St Jago High and Michael Andre Edwards of Jamaica College, were recognised by Team Jamaica Bickle (TJB) for outstanding performances during the 129th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

TJB, a charity organisation that provides food and discounted accommodation for the Jamaican teams that participate at the Relays Carnival, donated US$12,000 (approximately J$1.9 million) in rewards to the top Jamaican teams at the Penns, which ran from April 24 to 26. The TJB rewards were expanded to include field events this year.

Jamaican teams that won the 4x100m, 4x400m and 4x800m Championships of America relays, each received US$1,200. Calabar High boys and Edwin Allen High girls won their respective sprint relays last weekend.

There were special awards for Shema Dunkley and Shanice Catnott of Oberlin High School.

On Saturday afternoon in the final race of the three day championships the Hydel High 4x400m team ran an incredible 3:30.42 minutes to win the High School Girls’ 4x400m title, taking an unbelievable 2.35 seconds off the previous record. It was the fifth-fastest time by an Under-20 female team in the history of track and field was the school’s to a fourth-straight title in the event at Penns.

The team of Natassia Fletcher, Abigail Campbell, Sashana Johnson and Jody-Ann Daley smashed the championship record 3:32.77 set by another Hydel quartet in 2022. It bettered the Franklin Field and American High school record 3:31.68 set in 2024 by Mt Verde Academy of Florida.

Only five national Under-20 teams have ever run faster, including a Jamaican Under-20 quartet of Kerron Stewart, Sheryl Morgan, Melaine Walker and Patricia Hall who ran 3:29.66 at the same venue in 2001.

On Friday, the Kingston College team of Jabulani McLeod, Markel Smith, Roshawn Lee and Marcinho Rose, ran 3:05.93, the second-fastest time by a high school team at the Penn Relays. They equalled the record of four-straight titles set between 1907 and 1910 by Manual of Brooklyn, New York.

Kingston College’s time is the second fastest behind Calabar High’s 3:03.79 set in 2018 and faster than their previous best of 3:09.52 in 2022.

St Jago’s Dawkins ended her Penn Relays high school career on a high on Friday after she became only the second athlete to win a third-straight High School Girls’ Triple Jump Championships when she produced 13.18m (-0.m/s), the second-longest jump in the history of the event.

Dawkins, who also won a third-straight ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships triple jump Open title in March, joins former Vere Technical jumper Kimberly Williams in winning three straight. Williams won from 2005-2007, setting the championship record 15.36m in her final year.

On Thursday’s opening day, Jamaica College’s Edwards won the High School Boys triple jump with a personal best 15.95m (1.9m/s), the second-best-ever at the event.

Edwards, who won the Class One event at the ISSA Championships, and was second to his teammate Chavez Penn at last weekend’s 52nd Carifta Championships in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Edwards trails only former Jamaica College jumper O’Brien Wasome, who set the championship record 16.01m in 2016.

Edwards surpassed his previous best 15.66m set at the Carifta Championships, and is joint sixth best in the world at the Under-20 level. He is also the fourth-straight Jamaican to win the event.

— Paul A Reid