The end of the high school and college track and field season and subsequent the beginning of international level competition usually comes around the time of the Penn relays. The Penn relays have always been one of the more exciting events for all Jamaican athletes who get to compete simply because of that fact. Its also been the grounds more or less for Champs teams who have been successful at our local event to prove that their victories and their athletes talents were no fluke, and it is one of the first places for our athletes to also compete against different athletes, and gain more of an understanding of how international events are done. The Penn relays have been so popular in fact that not only do high schools and colleges compete at this event, but it is also the place where annually there is a USA vs the world event ran where the US pits its strongest athletes in relay races against whatever countries are willing to take up the challenge, Jamaica as usual never backs down from a challenge.

Jamaican schools have always done remarkably well at the Penn relays, so much so that Jamaican schools do have the meet record for the high school girls 4x100, high school boys 4x100,  high school girls 4x400, high school girls 4x800, high school girls distance medley, 400m Hurdles Women, high school girls long jump, high school girls triple jump (am I the only one seeing a pattern here with the girls), and the high school boys long jump,  - some of these records we have held for in excess of 9 years, one record we have held since 1991! - and where we do not have the meet record for these events, we have the majority of times within the top 10, and this year we have continued to make a marvelous showing in the competition.

On the girls side we took the top 2 spots in the 4x800 with champions Holmwood taking first place with a time of 8:42.49 and edwin allen coming second. The 4x400 girls posted similar results with Holmwood taking first place (3:39.66), Edwin Allen second and Manchester and Vere Tech coming in 4th and 5th respectively. And Holmwood continued to show why they are the champions of girls champs by also taking the 4x100 girls  in a race where 5/8 schools were Jamaican, and the Jamaicans took all the top spots from 1st to 4th (Holmwood [45,41], Herbert Morrison, Edwin Allen and Queens), with Manchester pulling 7th. Ristanna Tracy also placed 2nd in the 400m hurdles.

The girls would not let their dominance on the track end there however, as they also took it to the field as well. The top 3 in the long jump championship were once again Jamaicans with Manchester, Camperdown, and Holmwood placing 1st 2nd and 3rd respectively. Top spot in the triple jump also came to Jamaica with Rochelle Farquharson taking first place with distance to spare, and the girls rounded off the competition taking the top 2 spots in the discuss throw with Candicea Bernard continuing on her form to come first (from St. Hughs), with Vanessa Levy from Vere Tech pulling 2nd.

Not to be left out the boys also made sure to stamp their class. Wolmer's in a Penn Relays record 39.78 (a time which would've come 2nd in college competition and 6th at usa vs world level) took the 4x100 race, with Camperdown, St. Georges, and Calabar coming 2nd to 4th respectively; and to add insult to injury also made sure to take the 4x400 race as well with a time of 3:14.59. KC managed to represent well by placing 2nd in the 4x800, and Kemoy Campbell continued to show why he can become a world beater by taking the 3000m competition as well for Bellefield. Patrick Campbell for Munroe also managed to pull 3rd place in the 400m Hurdles.

**Taken from jamaica Gleaner (what you didn't expect a picture of Wolmer's?)

Like the girls, the boys also made brilliant showings in field events, starting with the jumps Kamar Fuller of Wolmer's taking 1st place in the Long Jump competition; Johnathan Reid from KC taking 3rd place in the High Jump; and Campion's Damon McLean managed to pull 2nd place in the triple jump with Wolmerian Christopher Waugh pulling 4th place. Chad Wright of Calabar and Michael Cameron of JC are names one cannot attempt to throw out the window as Chad took the Discuss in a Penns record 58.50 metres while Michael came 3rd with 53.42.

**Taken from jamaica Observer

Our International stars probably got jealous of all the medals the high schools were winning and made sure to take gold in themens 4x100 USA vs the World race with a Penn relays record of 37.90. The team of Mario Forsythe, Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson, and Usain Bolt, seemed to have actually been under some competition from the USA blue and red teams... that was until the baton reached Bolt, who ran, no jogged an 8.79 split to easily take the event for Jamaica. The women were not so lucky however as they managed to take second in a close race but where the US team managed to beat our team (Simone Facey, Kerron Stewart, Sherone Simpson, and Shelly-Ann Fraser), by .20 seconds to take the gold.

**Taken from Jamaica Gleaner

In the mile relays the female team of Rosemarie Whyte, Novlene Williams, Kaliese Spencer, and Shericka Williams managed to pull off 2nd position but were no match for the blistering US who finished both 1st and 3rd. The male side was not so good however as Ricardo Chambers, Jermaine Gonzales, Lancford Davis and Dwayne Barrett could only manage to pull 4th position in yet another USA dominated race.

The Penn relays were definitely a good start to the International Season for Jamaica and a good ending of the high school season for us as well. Jamaican high schools continued to show their dominance and on more than one occasion embarassed the home team by taking the races easily. Wolmers continued to show their dominating form and Holmwood also managed to show why they were the queens of Jamaican high school track and field for 8 years running. I must say though, pretty soon if we keep taking all the Penn relays' medals to Jamaica... they will probably ban us from entering the competition. But good show nontheless Jamaica! and Congratulations to all who competed!

(Just as a small footnote, you may notice the lack of pictures of the female competitors, it was no fault of mine as I didnt get to actually go there to take pictures personally, I simply could not source any pictures of the women. As soon as pictures begin to show up I will try to add them to the article)