Hydel set to dominate 4x100, 4x400 at Penn Relays

Jamaica's high schools are ready once again to make their presence felt at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America (USA), at the 118th staging of the annual Penn Relays, which begins on Thursday.

The country's most successful high school at the carnival last year was the Corey Bennett-conditioned Hydel High girls, as the Ferry-based institution walked away with the High School Girls' Championships of America 4x100 and 4x400 metres titles after posting impressive wins.

Hydel, despite not retaining their girls' title at last month's ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships (Champs), after a close 9.5-point loss to champions Edwin Allen, in terms of quality they had the most impressive all-round performances.

Come next weekend in Philadelphia, they are expected to continue this trend as they look set to defend their two titles.

PIVOTAL ROLES

Hydel, a year ago, had stellar performances from athletes such as Alana Reid and Oneika McAnuff, who both played pivotal roles in them winning both relays, and their absence this time around will hardly be missed.

Alliah Baker, Shemonique Hazle, Shania Myers, Jody-Ann Daley, Sushana Johnson, Nastassia Fletcher and the multi-talented Abigail Campbell look well set to pave the way for another double success for Hydel.

Their win in the 4x100 metres last year was the first for them in that event at Penn Relays, and were the only high school girls to have gone sub-45 seconds this season, when their Class One quartet, led by Baker and Myers, clocked 44.71 seconds to win at Champs. They look well set to go faster and retain their title at Penn Relays.

UNBEATABLE

Undoubtedly, led by Baker, Daley and Campbell, Hydel's 4x400 metres quartet looks unbeatable and is set to make it three wins in a row at Penn Relays, and could go faster than their season best of 3:33.80 minutes when winning at Champs in March, and much faster than their winning time of 3:35.63 done at the Penn Relays last year.

The Jamaican teams, led by former champions Edwin Allen, will have their hands full in winning the 4x800 metres title, as defending champions Union Catholic of New Jersey, who destroyed Edwin Allen on the third and anchor legs last year, will start as favourites to win back the title.

A few weeks ago, Union Catholic, who retained two members from last year's successful foursome, recorded 8:53.48 minutes to win the Arcadia Invitational meet in the USA to eclipse a 22-year-old record, which was the second fastest-ever time by high school girls in that country.

None of the Jamaican teams have gone sub-9 minutes so far this season, where Edwin Allen won at the Western Milo Relays in 9:02.34, ahead of Holmwood in 9:02.58. Alphansus Davis won at the Gibson/McCook Relays in 9:02.83, ahead of Edwin Allen in 9:02.96.