A HEAVY MORNING SHOWER almost threatened the start of the afternoon session.
Blue House were just happy their reign didn’t come down as well.
Make it two in a row for Alleyne School’s champion house as Alleyne (Blue) held off a serious challenge from Haynes (Red) before successfully retaining their sports title at the Belleplaine grounds yesterday.
Despite holding a slim 18-point advantage at the start of the day, Alleyne never trailed after benefiting from strong performances in a rain-interrupted 100 metres, 200 and 800s to open up a sizeable 50-point cushion at the start of the relays.
Alleyne eventually finished with a meet-best 919 points, beating the upstart Haynes (859) by 60 points, while Read (Yellow) and Cumberbatch (Green) pulled up the rear with 717 and 543 points, respectively.
Haynes did have the consolation of taking both the victor and victrix ludorum titles behind spectacular individual efforts from Tre Alleyne and Ka-Neil Gale – the only athletes to break the 70-point barrier.
Competing as a first-year student in the Division 5 boys, Alleyne proved simply dominant while winning the 100 (13.16 seconds), 200 (29.14), 400 (1:10.03), 800 (3:19.13) to go with prior victories in the discus, shot put and long jump.
Yet, his 70 overall points were still some nine shy of the tally put up by Gale, who took the Division 3 Girls’ 100 (13.55), 200 (29.44), 400 (1:10.59), 800 (2:55.66), 1500 and shot put after placing second in the long jump and third in the discus.
But their combined efforts were just never enough to topple the Blue battalion, which had four division champions of their own led by Division 3 king Renaldo Trim.
Posting a category-high 53 points, Trim lorded over his division with victories in the 800, 1 500 and discus after finishing third in the 400 and long jump.
His Division 2 teammate Romario Yarde Steed also won the 1500 as well as the javelin to go with silver medal showings in both the 200 and 800 and a third place finish in the discus.
Alleyne’s Tawnisha Clarke did the Division 3 girls’ sprint double and captured the long jump before placing second in the 400 on her way to taking the division with 44 points.
Division 1 queen Ashley Marshall then capped the house’s title-winning effort with victories in the long jump, javelin and shot put to go along with silver and bronze medal showings in the discus and 200 metres, respectively.
Read’s Wade Garner took the boys’ equivalent in a spectacular performance that saw him sweep the long jump, 100 (11.50), 200 (24.44), 400 (2:11.56), 800 (53.28) and 1500 titles. And none were as stunning as his effort in the 800, where he came from behind to blow past favourite Pius Emilien in the final 150 metres.
Read had more to cheer for via the performances of Division 4 champ Shaquon Glasgow, who also won the 100 (13.42) and the 200 (30.03) after finishing second in the long jump and 800, and third in the 400.
Chloe Lucas, of Haynes, ran unbeaten all day in the Division 4 girls after winning the 100 (14.31), 200 (30.83), 400 (1:13.75), 800 (3:08.19), while Cumberbatch’s Meshunda Graham did likewise while taking the Division 2 girls’ 100 (13.12), 200 (28.80), 400 (1:09.86) and long jump (4.79).
