Fantastic Friday at Intercol Championships

Photo: Rushell Clayton of UWI finishes in record time ahead of Janieve Russell of UTECH in the women’s 400m hurdles – Clayton set a new record of 56.41

Kingston, Jamaica; It was a fantastic first day on the track at the 53rd Intercol Track & Field and Cheerleading Championships at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Usain Bolt Track, with blistering performances from University of Technology’s (UTECH) Andrew Fisher and UWI’s Rushell Clayton in the men’s 100m and women’s 400m hurdles finals respectively.

Photo: Rushell Clayton of UWI finishes in record time ahead of Janieve Russell of UTECH in the women’s 400m hurdles – Clayton set a new record of 56.41

Kingston, Jamaica; It was a fantastic first day on the track at the 53rd Intercol Track & Field and Cheerleading Championships at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Usain Bolt Track, with blistering performances from University of Technology’s (UTECH) Andrew Fisher and UWI’s Rushell Clayton in the men’s 100m and women’s 400m hurdles finals respectively.

 Fisher dominated a quality field to post a personal best of 10.11 seconds, way ahead of Everton Clarke of GC Foster College in second with 10.30 and UWI’s Jason Young in 10.31 seconds. Delano Williams of UWI clocked a mere 10.40 seconds to finish fourth.

There were fireworks too, in the finals of the women’s 400m hurdles, with UWI’s Rushell Clayton setting a new Intercol record of 56.41 seconds ahead of UTECH’s Janieve Russell who also went under the previous record with 56.50. UTECH’s Jamie Demns captured the men’s equivalent in 52.12 seconds.

The other track results saw Ricardo Cunninghamof UTECH triumphing in the men’s 800m running a new record time of 1:48.65 while it was the outstanding Samantha James of UTECH who took the crown in the female equivalent with a time of 2:14 seconds. The women’s 3000m was won by Roxcine Salmon of GC Foster College who defended her title in 11:29 while her teammate Webster Chung won the men’s 3000m steeple chase running a time of 9:47 seconds.

In the field the men’s discus took center stage with current World Leader Fredrick Dacres of UWI continued his impressive form, throwing a winning mark of 61.71m. Dacres threw the world leading mark of 66.75 meters at the Texas Relays only a week ago.

“I wasn’t at my best today but under the circumstances I am just happy for the win and valuable points for UWI. Hopefully I will get closer to the national record next time,” Dacres said.

In other results from the field, Genneva Greaves captured the women’s shot put final with a throw of 15.13m while UWI’s captain Jelani Bogle took the men’s triple jump with an impressive leap of 15.60m. 

After 7 finals, UWI ended the day in first place after amassing 76 points, with GC Foster College in second on 74 points and UTECH in third on 67 in the male section. In the female section GC Foster holds the early advantage, leading the way with 65 points with UTECH lying second on 60 and UWI third after collecting 51 points on the opening day after 5 finals.

The championships will be decided tomorrow (Saturday April 5), with Great Britain sprinter Delano Williams, representing UWI set to compete in the 200m and teammate Hansle Parchment is ready to contest the 110m hurdles. The day’s action will also see action in the 400m finals for male and female with the sprint relays set aside to round out the action.

Saturday will also see the Cheerleading Competition getting underway, with action set to begin at 3:50pm. Exceptional displays are expected from the carefully choreographed routines filled with athleticism and skill.