Holmwood’s Russell continues to impress

Rickiann Russell, on Saturday, showed that her fast split on Holmwood Technical's 4x400m Open relay two weeks ago at Central Hurdles, Relays and Field Event at GC Foster College was no fluke, by clocking a personal best of 52.88 seconds.

At GC Foster, Russell had fans in awe after clocking a sub-52 seconds split in helping Holmwood clock a fantastic 3:38.12 seconds the fastest time by a schoolgirl quartet at a development meet, leading up to the annual Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships (Champs).

On Saturday at the Queen's/Grace Jackson meet at the National Stadium, Russell, the sixth-place finisher in the Class I girls' 400 metres at Champs last year, was in a no-nonsense mood, to top her rivals and put herself in pole position to go all the way in the event this year.

"I am not surprised on what Rickiann is doing now in the event, as she has shown this kind of form in training and based on what she has been doing in time trials, this is real.

"We are, however, not getting over the moon as it is still early days, but I will have to adjust her programme so she does not peak too early for Champs," said Dave Anderson, head coach of Holmwood.

On Saturday, the girls from Christiana continued their good early season form with another good showing.

Rosealee Gardner topped Class II girls' 400m for Holmwood after clocking 56.65 seconds as teammate Camio Whyte was second in 57.08 with St Jago High's Quane Walker third in 57.11.

It was also a first and second finish for Holmwood in Class II girls' 800 metres with Jodyann Mitchell capturing the event in 2:11.89 seconds, ahead of Cindy Rose who did 2:14.43.

Kiara Meikle closed a good show for Holmwood after winning the Class II girls' 100 metres hurdles in 13.55 seconds to finish ahead of the St Jago pair of Bryana Davidson, who did 13.67 and Briana Campbell in 13.79.

In field events, one of the best performances was in the Class I girls' shot put as Camperdown High's twin sisters took charge with Britannia Johnson throwing 14.15 metres to win ahead of Britannie, who did a personal best of 13.59 as Holmwood's Cedricka Williams had to settle for third with 11.86.

Meanwhile, in the boys' competition, Jamaica College (JC) led by thrower Racquil Broderick showed good form, as after playing second fiddle three times so far this season, he turned the table on the in-form Kobe Lawrence of Calabar to win the Class I boys' discus with 60.39 metres.

Lawrence, who was suffering his first defeat of the season, ended second with 59.61 metres, while it was third for Broderick's teammate Zachary Campbell with 53.18 metres.