Monday, February 23, 2009

MUNRO REPEATS AS WESTERN CHAMPIONS !!!

SWEEPS CLASS III TRACK EVENTS. Munro College dropped the sledge hammer on Western Champs for the second year running defeating its nearest competitor by over 100 points. MCTF student-athletes also had their fair share of records capturing five of the nine that were broken at the 2009 Championship Meet. While full results should arrive later today we can offer a few highlights. Munro won every single track event in class III with two triple winners. Levar Dunchie took the 800, 1500 and 3000 with the latter two being records. Kaneil Harrison took the 100, 200 and 400m titles with the first and last being records. In Class II Rolando Reid and Delano Williams took the quinella by exchanging places in both short sprints, Reid won the 100m and Williams the 200m. Munro also took the quinella in the Class I discus and the Class II shot put.



The highlight of the final day must have been the Class III 4x100m relay final. The team of Rosean Maxwell, Kaneil Harrison, Tyrone Mollison and Mathew Walcott would have entered the final as joint favourites with host St. Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS). Earlier that morning Maxwell (below) won the 100mH in a record time of 14.28. He followed that up with point generating performances in the 200m and 400m. Kaneil Harrison (above) had already won the sprint treble.

At the sound of the gun Maxwell exploded out of the blocks and had an early step on the field. After 5m he, along with everyone at the STETHS Green, realised that he had left the baton in the blocks. Maxwell proceeds to turn back, pick up the baton and attempt to chase the field now 30m ahead (many 14yr olds would have given up right there). Maxwell did well and closed the margin by almost 10m to hand over 20m behind. The Boltian Harrison, at 6' 2" and blazing, grabbed the baton and tore through the field like hellacious knife through scared butter. He closed the gap to 5m and handed over in 3rd place behind STETHS and William Knibb. The diminutive and now clearly inspired Tyron Mollison takes the baton and runs a scorching turn and executes a seamless change in 2nd place with anchorman Mathew Walcott. Walcott just under 5m behind STETHS is, like Mollison, inspired beyond any expectation and also has the run of his life. At 50m to go the STETHS lead is 4m, at 30 it's 3m and 20m it's 1m and then Walcott blasts by STETHS to win by a lean in what had to be the race of the meet. At Munro we have an expression, "Instant Legend"; a term that embodies the lore of the great Munro v Cornwall football matches of the 40s and 50s, blanketed in dense fog and littered with broken bones. An expression reminiscent of feats like Lindy Delapenha's, winning Champs on his own by medaling in eight events. Munro's 2009 Class III 4x100m team created an Instant Legend at Western Champs 2009. They pulled off a miracle, they "never gave up". Credit to all these young men for their heroic feat, but special mention to Maxwell for in the face of shock, surprise and eminent defeat he turned back and picked up the baton.

Regards,
B.C. Hayden
Team Manager

FINAL POINT STANDING (Full Results to Come)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

WEST CHAMPS DAY 1: MONSTER MUNRO LEAD

Munro College leads the 2009 Western Championships by 67 points after day one of the two-day annual championship meet. Munro sits on 188 points ahead of Herbert Morrison's 121 points after a number of field event finals.

Preliminary reports have Emmanuel Oniya (far left) taking the Class II weight double with a record throw of 48.55m in the discus. The other double winner on the day was Class III middle distance man Levorr Dunchie (near left), who took first place in the 1500m and 3000m, both in record times. Dunchie will enter the Class III 800m final with the fastest qualifying time.

MCTF also has at least one finalist in every event, except two, to be contested on the final day.

A more comprehensive report will come when official results arrive.

RESULTS FROM WESTERN RELAYS

CHANGES CHANGES CHANGES
Western Relays revealed that there is still work to be done with the stick in the weeks going forward. All 4x100 teams suffered from faulty changes and recorded sub-standard performances. However, the Open Medley and 4x400m events revealed significant positives. The medley highlighted performances from each leg with Clifton Lee and Weynell Williams splitting 23.low on their respective legs. In the 4x400m Rolando Reid and Class III sprinter Kaneil Harrison had PB splits of 48.34 and 51.00 respectively.

The highlight for MCTF must have been Dexter McKenzie's win in the Open Long Jump with a leap of 7.26m on his final jump in the preliminary round (his two previous jumps were fouls).

A comprehensive list of results can be found in the "2009 results" list to the right

MCTF Results - 2009 Western Relays
4x100m

Class I 5th 42.60
Class II 6th 43.98
Class III 6th 46.89
Class IV 6th 50.23

4x200m
Class I DQ
Class II 5th 1:32:19

Class I&II Medley 10th 3:42:85

4x400m Open 3rd 3:20:00
R. Reid (48.34), J. Blackwood (48.21), K. Harrison (51.70), E. Davis (51.75)

Long Jump Open
Dexter McKenzie 1st 7.26m
Khriswayne Wallace 9th 6.04m

PEARMAN CALDER WINS SPORTS DAY 2009 !!!

PC BREAKS 7-YR DROUGHT
Pearman Calder won Sports Day 2009 with stellar performances across classes and event categories. In so doing they broke a seven year curse for the title position.

Tevin Wilson (Class IV Champion Athlete), Kaneil Harrison (Overall and Class III Champion Athlete), Rolando Reid (Class II Champion Athlete), Dexter McKenzie (Class I Champion Athlete), Levar Dunchie, Delano Williams, Javauri Mitchell, Emmanuel Oniya, Jevaughn Shaw, Omar Bryan and Razzack White had multiple medal winning performances.

Final House Positions
  1. Pearman Calder
  2. Dickenson
  3. Sangster
  4. Coke Farquaharson
  5. Harrison

***Official event results to come***

Thursday, February 5, 2009

MIDNIGHT TAKES A DOUBLE AT STETHS

When you have a green carpet for a track, like STETHS does, you're going to attract a few athletes. Last Saturday STETHS hosted a "Champs-like" crowd of participants for its Invitational. Perenially one of the best multi-diciplinary meets for the year, the Invitational suffered from an over population of athletes. The accommodating virtue paid a high price when all the 100m heats finished in just under five hours and resulted in the removal of the 1500m from the schedule.

The surge of interest in the sport has been compounded by a banner Olympic year in 2008. The demand for meets by schools and athletes now far outstrip supply. Most meets this season have attempted to host in a single day the same amount of students and events that Champs hosts over a four day period and Champs is among the largest annual High School Championship meets in the world. At some point the powers that be must realize the math just doesn't work. The development schedule needs more meets and better technology to accommodate the quantum size increases that have occurred over the last four years. With that said, I must commend Keith Wellington and Eldemire Smith of STETHS for weathering the flood.

It is a rare year when a MCTF thrower doesn't have a breakout performance at STETHS. This year Emanuel Onyia and Jevaughn Shaw had personal bests in the Class II Discus. Onyia won with 46.98m and Shaw was 4th with 39.07m. Other highlights on the field came from Dexter McKenzie's 6.98m leap in the Class I Long Jump for the win followed up by a 11.06 clocking in the 100m for 7th place overall. Other MCTF wins came from Kaneil Harrison in the Class III 100m (11.47) and Patrick Campbell in the U-17 400mH (58.47).

However, it was Rolando "Mignight" Reid's performances that stole the meet by winning the Class II 100m in 11.07 and coming back to win the Class I&II Grand Prix 100 in 10.90.

A preliminary draft of the meet's results can be found in the "2009 Results" section to the right.

Regards,
B.C. Hayden
Team Manager

BIG SHOTSKY MEETS THE BIG YORUBA

The Big Shot Invitational, like all "Throwers R Us" meets, was a well-run and enjoyable family affair. MCTF rolled in with a four man strong delegation that saw the return of Nigerian born Emmanuel Onyia (pronounced "un-yah" at Munro). Onyia (left) opened up his final Class II season with a win in the Shot (14.82m) and a 2nd place finish in the Discus (43.70m). He was joined by first year Class II man Jevaughn Shaw who finished 5th in the Discus (38.53m) and 10th in the Shot (11.47m).

In Class I, Razzack White and Rajae Gayle had notable performances in the Discus with 7th (41.58) and 8th (40.88m) place finishes respectively.

A complete list of results can be found in the "2009 Results" section to the right.