The annual showcase of Jamaican high school track and field, the Boys and Girls Championships, begins tomorrow (April 5) and many of the nation’s best under 20 athletes will be on show. Jamaica College and Edwin Allen High School enter as defending boys and girls team champions but the spread of athletes to watch is island-wide.

The 5-day spectacle will feature 5 athletes who are number 1 on the World Athletics under 20 performance list in their respective disciplines. They are Jayden Hibbert of Kingston College in the triple jump, Edwin Allen’s Christopher Young in the shot put, Hydel High’s Brianna Lyston in the 100 and 200, Alexis James of Petersfield High School in the 100m hurdles and Sahfia Hinds of St Jago High School in the 400m hurdles.

Hibbert, silver medallist at last year’s World Under 20 Championship in Nairobi, Kenya, has bounced 16.56m. Young has put the ball 20.20m with Lyston shining in the sprints with times of 11.14 and 22.66 seconds. James, Oneka Wilson and Kerrica Hill of Hydel and Asharria Ulett from St Catherine High School are 1-2-3-5 in the 100 hurdles with times of 13.16, 13.22, 13.25 and 13.58 seconds respectively. Hinds leads the 400m hurdles at 58.06 seconds.

In the 100m hurdles at the Boys and Girls Championships, James and Wilson, who reached the final in Nairobi, will face off in class 1. Hill will seek to hold off a field that includes Ulett in class 2.

Young’s schoolmate Bryan Levell has run 20.53 seconds for 200m, to appear at number 2, just like Cedricka Williams of Holmwood in the discus with her personal best of 53.91 metres.

The World Athletics performance list suggests that the boys’ event of the highest quality will be the class 1 400 metre hurdles. Rayon Campbell of Kingston College, Roshawn Clarke of Camperdown High School and Campbell’s teammate Antonio Forbes ran 49.52, 49.85 and 50.48 seconds to go 1-2-3 at the recent Carifta Trials. Those times place them 3rd, 4th and 5th on the yearly world list.

Lyston, a Nairobi 200 metre finalist, will encounter no less than World Under 20 100m champion Tina Clayton and her informed sister Tia in the shorter sprint in class 1. At 11.14 seconds, Lyston is just 0.01 away from the Champs record held since 2001 by the great Veronica Campbell-Brown.

The class 1 boys 800m record has fallen at the last two renewals of Champs, first to Kimar Farquharson in 1 minute 48.67 seconds in 2019 and then to Chevonne Hall — 1.48.58 — last year. That mark is under fire this year as Jamaica College captain J’Voughnn Blake clocked 1 minute 47.62 seconds to win the Carifta Trials.

That time posts Blake at world number three.

More Info

The meet starts at 9.00 am on April 5 and ends at 9.10 pm on April 9.