Akela Jones broke five records en route to taking the senior victrix ludorum title at the Powerade-sponsored Springer Memorial Inter-House Track and Field Championships yesterday at the National Stadium.
Jones, of Blue House, missed last year’s event through injury and suspension and seemed determined to make up for that lost year and finished with 87 points overall.
Despite her best efforts, however, it was Yellow House retaining the title with 667.5 points.
Blue were second with 589.5, Green third with 417.5, followed by Red (384.5) and Purple in the cellar with 355.
During the preliminaries, Jones set a new record in the open triple jump of 11.86 metres, raising the standard from 11.11m. Yellow House’s Tanice Watson was second in 11.80m, also surpassing the old mark.
When the long jump record of 5.46 metres was set by Shelly Holder back in 1998, Jones was only two-years-old. Yesterday, the 16-year-old got just one legal attempt, but it was a good one of 6.42m, a full metre better than the old mark.
On the track, she was without equal in the 200 metres, speeding away from the field to win in a record of 24.69 seconds, down from the 25.83 set by Sade-Mariah Greenidge last year.
She came home in 14.67 seconds, shattering the 100m hurdles time of 15.24, and her long strides ate up the track in the 100 metres, winning in 12.24 seconds to erase the 12.46 by Jeneice Clarke who was watching from the Louis Lynch Stand.
However, there wasn’t much to shout about in the high jump where she cleared 1.85m only two years ago. She managed a clearance of 1.55 metres.
Tristan Evelyn of Yellow was nursing the effects of influenza, but one would never have guessed judging from the way she performed. In the Division 2 girls’ 100m, she pulled away from Jalisa Burrowes (13.2) to win in 13 seconds flat (hand time).
Burrowes (25.72) stayed with her for the first half of the 200m, but Evelyn found another gear and smoothly accelerated to win in a record 25.25 seconds, replacing Greenidge’s 25.83.
A much stronger and taller Burrowes won the 400m in 1:04.33, pulling away from Vanessa Hyman (1:05.89) and Tanisha Stanford (1:08.20).
Burrowes treated the 100-metres hurdles race like a training run, hardly pushing herself, to win comfortably in 16.19 seconds.
She also won the long jump with a record leap of 5.32m.
Junior victrix ludorum, Rosette Hoyte is an invaluable addition for Springer in the Under-13 division. She won the 100m in 13.17 seconds, the 200 in 26.35 and the 400m, her pet event, in 1:07.55.
She has gone faster this season, and only had to work in the 4×100 where she received the baton in third place and ran a beautiful anchor leg to pull the team back into second after running out of room. She also won the 800m in a record 2:42.09.
Also standing out on the day was Danielle Pollard of Yellow House. Competing in Division 3, she won the 200m in 27.10 seconds without troubling Jones’ record and seemed to be locking up the double when Aaliyah Wilkinson-Clarke (13.68) and Kylia Smith (13.71) both passed her (13.72) in an almost blanket finish.
Sierra Coward won the Division 4 Girls’ 100m in a record 13.64, the 200 in 28.03 and was second in the 400m in 1:13.60 behind Alanis King (1:11.92) of Yellow House.
Ashanna Hodge also seems to be coming into her own after several seasons. She won the Under-20 Girls’ 400m in 60.29 seconds to erase Greenidge’s 62.03, but left the most lasting impression in the gruelling 400m hurdles which she attacked from start to finish, posting another record of 1:06.37.
Overall, 17 records fell. The other record breakers were Yellow’s Drew Ann Clarke (12:32.31 and 5:46.74) in the First Form 3 000m and 1 500m; Dominique Browne of Blue with 57.94 in the Division 3 Girls’ 800m; Red’s Jade Searles with 12:30.09 in the open 3 000m and Green’s Shekinah Tappin with 33.66m in Division One Girls’ javelin.
