The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) men’s sprint relay team created a massive upset at yesterday’s 39th staging of the Gibson/McCook Relays at the National Stadium as they held off a powerful Racers Lions team, led by Usain Bolt, to win in a world-leading 38.23 seconds.
Tyquendo Tracey, who anchored the UTech team, got the baton about seven metres in front, and despite Bolt finishing like a runaway train, closing the gap with each massive stride, he held on to cross the finish line first to avenge last year’s loss. “I told myself to just relax and run,” Tracey told the Jamaica Observer.
“Last year I got the lead but tightened up and Blake (Yohan) caught me, and I told myself I was not going to let lightning strike twice.” Tracey said he felt Bolt closing in on him, but once again reminded himself to “relax”. UTech’s Julian Forte, whose brilliant second leg contributed greatly to the victory, said he knew he had to run fast.
“Bolt was on the anchor and I knew we had to get a big lead if we were to win.” Bolt told the Observer he was disappointed with the defeat. “You want to win every time you go on the track, but this was a good race and I am feeling OK.”
The treble world record holder, who missed most of last year, said he had some work to do in the gym before he reaches where he wants to be, and that he is down to run a 400m race “some time soon; in the next two of three weeks”.
Andrew Fisher started and handed off to Forte who relayed to Kamarley Brown on the third leg, while the Racers Lions team made one change from the team that ran the preliminaries, Commonwealth Games 100m champion Kemar Bailey-Cole replaced Michael Frater on the second leg, taking the baton from Mario Forsythe and handing off to Warren Weir, the World Championships, Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games 200m medallist.
Meanwhile, up to press time last night, two records were broken and one equalled, all in the 4x100m. The Calabar Class One boys smashed the record they set last year, the UTech women also broke the sprint relay record, while Edwin Allen girls’ Class Two team equalled their record. Calabar High and Kingston College shared the high school boys’ 4x100m races, Calabar taking Class One and Class Two, while Kingston College, who withdrew from several events yesterday, won the Class Three and Class Four races.
The Class One team ran under 40.00 seconds as the Calabar team of Edward Clarke, Michael O’Hara, Jelani Walker, and Seanie Selvin ran 39.32 seconds to break the 39.61 seconds set just last year. St Jago High were second in 39.80 seconds with St Elizabeth Technical third in 40.30 seconds. Calabar’s Daniel Bogle, Anthony Carpenter, Alex Robinson, and Tyreek Wilson ran 40.86 seconds to win Class Two ahead of Kingston College (41.42 secs) and Jamaica College (41.76 secs).
Kingston College won Class Three in 43.09 seconds, just holding off St Jago (43.12 secs) with Jamaica College third in 45.51 seconds. The ‘Purples’ also won Class Four in 44.44 seconds, with St Jago second in 46.12 seconds and Calabar third in 46.21 seconds.
The UTech women broke the record 43.28 seconds set in 2007 by an MVP squad, running 43.13 seconds, beating Racers TC (43.75 secs) and Sprint Tech (44.24 secs). Edwin Allen High and St Jago shared the high school girls’ 4x100m races, with St Jago winning Class One and Class Three, while Edwin Allen won Class Two and Class Four.
The St Jago High Class One team ran 45.24 seconds to hold off last year’s winners Edwin Allen (45.57 secs) and Wolmer’s Girls’ (46.27 secs). Edwin Allen equalled the 45.01 seconds record for Class Two, set in 2001 by Holmwood Technical with Green Island High second in 46.11 seconds after Hydel High were disqualified, with St Jago getting third with 46.40 seconds.
St Jago won Class Three with 45.87 seconds, ahead of Hydel High (47.17 secs), with Vere Technical third in 47.44 seconds. Edwin Allen won back-to-back Class Four titles, running 47.74 seconds ahead of St Jago (47.98 secs) and Wolmer’s Girls’ (48.49 secs).
Source-Jamaica Observer
