PENN RELAYS 2010: A BITTERSWEET FAREWELL

Blackwood and McKenzie Move on
MCTF entered the 116th running of the Penn Relays with the focused intention of taking home the HSB 4x400m Championship. The sweet: the team of Rolando Reid, Jodi-rae Blackwood, Delano Williams and Dexter McKenzie qualified for the final with the fastest time of the seven hundred plus schools that competed in the event, 3:12.54. The bitter: all appeared well until anchor Dexter McKenzie (above left) revealed he had been suffereing muscle spasms from the last 200m of his carry in the heats. A fact that made his performance, that much more outstanding as he outran none other than 2009 World Championship 400mh fourth place finisher Jehue Gordon (above right). It has never been team practice to run an injured athlete and as such McKenzie was left out of the final line-up which still retained the potency for victory with the inclusion of the prodigous sprint hurdler Patrick Campbell. The bitter continued when team captain Jodi-rae Blackwood started cramping up on the backstretch during his second-leg carry in the final. The team faded to fourth and eventually finished in sixth with a time of 3:19.55. The team ran in the order of Reid-Blackwood-Campbell-Williams for the final.

The sweet: Patrick Campbell took the bronze in the HSB 400mh in a time of 54.27 and was the best performing Jamaican in the event. Sixteen year old, Emmanuel CA Onyia placed fourth in the HSB shot with a heave of 18.82m. Onyia had the best performance of the Jamaican entrants in the event. He had a controversial final throw that looked to be just over 19m. It was called a foot-foul after the head referee decided on the word of the official closest to the circle. Rajae Gayle placed sixth in the HSB discus with a throw of 52.34m. Chad Wright of Calabar won the event with a record throw of 58.50m. Incedentally there were four Jamaicans in the top six as 2nd place finisher Sam Mattis' father is Jamaican, and Michael Cameron of Jamaica College finished third. Myles Chingara finished 11th in the triple jump with a leap of 13.90m. Myles is in fifth form and should have a couple other shots at the title. Wendrico Seymour cleared 1.96m for 9th place and should have another year to set the record straight.

The team next competes at the Jamaica Invitational on Saturday May 1st in the 4x400m relays for High School Boys.

We thank all those who helped to make this possible, the coaching staff, the MC Track Moms, the teachers and administrators at the school and the friends and past students who put up strong financial support to get the team to, and house the team in Philadelphia.

Best regards,
B. Hayden ('87)
Team Manager
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