Edwin Allen's Nikita Tracey (left) and Manchester High's Natoya Goule (right) compete for their schools in the girls' 4x400m at the Penn Relays last year. Both athletes are expected to contribute significantly to their schools' performance at this year's 115th staging. - File
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania:
EDWIN Allen High School's Nikita Tracey is set to give the Jamaican contingent a flying start, when she competes in the girls' 400 metres hurdles on today's opening day of the 115th Penn Relays, at the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field, Philadelphia.
One of the most popular relay events in the world, which pits top high-school teams in Jamaica and the United States, along with college athletes in the United States and several of the leading athletes in the world, this year's staging is expected to be one of the best ever, following last summers Beijing Olympics where the track and field world was set on fire by the Jamaicans.
Mostly female athletes
Today's first of the three-day meet will involve mostly female athletes and Tracey, along with Wolmer's Girls' Danielle Dowie, will be the first Jamaicans in action as they compete at 8:20 a.m. (9:20 a.m. Jamaica time).
Tracey, the Champs and Carifta Games Under-20 gold medallist, is the favourite for the one-lap obstacle event following her 57.41-second run at Champs, the fastest time done by a female in her age group.
A finalist at last year's World Junior Championships, Tracey is expected to get good competition from Dowie and the United States' Turquoise Thompson. Dowie was the silver medallist at Carifta where she clocked a personal best 57.88 seconds, while Thompson from California was the winner at last summer's Junior Olympics, where she clocked 57.67 seconds.
Jamaican high-school athletes should give strong performances in other individual events today as Peta-Gaye Reid and Rochelle Farquharson, both of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), could give their school two gold medals when they compete in the respective high and triple jump events.
Reid, who had a record jump of 1.80 metres in the Under-17 category at Carifta, is the defending champion here, following her victory jump of 1.76 metres last year. Her teammate Farquharson, who had a record-breaking performance at Carifta to win the Under-17 triple jump with a leap of 12.61 metres, is also the leading competitor here.
Several other Jamaicans will take the field today in individual events, including Vere Technical's Shaneika Francis and Wolmer's Girls' Samantha Francis in the triple jump, St Hugh's High's Micarah Vassel in the shot put, STETHS' Opal James in the long jump and Jhanelle Facey of Wolmer's.
As usual, most attention will be centred around the relays and today's opening day will see the preliminary rounds in the 4x100, 4x400 and 4x800 metres events, beginning at 8:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. Jamaica time).
Jamaica will be well represented in the heats of the girls' 4x800 metres as favourites Manchester High, led by Natoya Goule, Edwin Allen and defending champions Holmwood Technical are expected to advance to tomorrow's final.
A host of Jamaican teams will be in action (starting at 10:10 a.m. Jamaica time) when the first round of the girls' 4x100 metres get going. Jamaican high schools, which swept the top three places in last year's final, will be led by the outstanding Vere Technical, which produced the fastest time ever by a high school female quartet, when they clocked an amazing 44.13 seconds at the UTech Classic on Saturday.
Defending champions
Other Jamaican teams entered are defending champions Edwin Allen, Holmwood Technical, The Queen's School, St Andrew High, St Jago High, Herbert Morrison Comprehensive, Convent of Mercy Academy (Alpha) and Bellefield High. The Championship final, which could see at least seven Jamaican teams vying for top spot, is set for 1:30 p.m. (Jamaica time).
The final event involving Jamaican teams today will be the heats of the girls' 4x400 metres, which will start at 12:25 p.m. (Jamaica time).
Here, Jamaica will once again be well represented as top team Holmwood Technical, following their record-breaking performance at Champs, will lead the charge. Other local teams expected to compete are Edwin Allen, Manchester High, St Andrew High, Wolmer's, The Queen's School, Herbert Morrison and Vere Technical.