ANGELS, St Catherine — Seventeen records were broken two Saturdays ago as Montego Bay Community College (MBCC) won the overall title for the first time at the fourth staging of the Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica (CCCJ) track and field and cheerleading championships held at G C Foster Sports College in Angels, St Catherine.
Four athletes broke two records each — MBCC’s Mickaell Moodie set new marks in the women’s 100m and 200m; Safiya Clennon from the College of Arts, Science and Education (CASE) broke the records in the women’s long and high jumps, while Exed Community College’s Paketo Dudley broke the men’s 100m and long jump mark and his teammate Danule Daley broke the men’s shot put and discus throw marks.
MBCC retained their female team title and totalled 215 points to take the overall title to dethrone Knox Community College, who were second with 201 with Moneague College third with 162.
Exed Community College won the men’s section, ahead of Knox CC and MBCC.
Meet director Aldene Crew was pleased with the number of records that were broken in the meet, one more than last year when it was held at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.
“We had a number of records broken again this year, and it shows that the athletes and coaches are putting in a lot of work and it is showing in the performances. As the years go by and more records fall it shows that the meet is growing in quality,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
Overall, he gave the meet a high grade. “It was a good meet, first time away from Montego Bay Sports Complex and the first time at G C Foster and it seems to work for Montego Bay Community College, so maybe at least it was good for them to leave home.”
Delano Smith, coach of the winning team, said he was “overwhelmed” with the victory. “It was tremendous effort, there were a lot of challenges but we overcame them and that made it even sweeter.”
Smith had high praises for the women’s team. “We had 11 females, same number as last year but they are true warriors, and hats off to them.”
Seventeen-year-old Moodie upstaged her teammate Hodecia Housen, who took the double last year, with times of 11.80 seconds in the 100m and 25.21 seconds in the 200m.
Moodie and Housen ran identical 12.22 seconds to win their respective semi-final heats but with medals on the line, Moodie took almost an entire second off both records, lowering the previous 100m mark of 12.71 second set in 2017 by Shanique McKenzie and smashed the 26.11 seconds set by Housen last year.
Dudley, a former ISSA Boys’ Champs Class Two long jump gold medallist while at Jamaica College, won the 100m in a smart 10.42 seconds, beating the old 10.91 seconds held by Delano Bailey a year ago.
Earlier, he had won the long jump with an impressive 7.05m, to surpass the 6.88m set last year by Jonathon Smith, also of Exed, needing only three jumps to secure the title.
Clennon, who won three events last year, jumped 5.04m to win the long jump, extending the record of 5.00m set in 2017 by Tamoya Walters.
She not only retained her high jump title but cleared 1.62m to beat the 1.60m she set last year.
Daley threw the discus 44.70m, more than three metres past the old mark if 41.45m set in 2017 by Maurice Harrison.
Later, he smashed the old shot put mark of 12.73m set last year by Jovan Smith.
Knox CC’s Bailey retained his 200m title, running 21.57 seconds to break the 21.79 seconds he set last year in the process.
Both 800m records were broken — Demoyah Bonner of Moneague College clocked two minutes 33.79 seconds to break the mark of 2:39.02 minutes set last year by CASE’s Anniesha Walker, who was second in 2:36.47 minutes, also under the old mark.
Knox CC’s Dwayne Moore outclassed the men’s field in a smart one minute 53.82 seconds, just under the 1:53.93 set last year by Chadoye Dawson, also of Knox CC.
Exed CC’s Shavaun Dawson improved on his second place in the men’s high jump last year, winning the gold medal and setting a new record 1.91m, higher than the 1.90m, which was the previous best.
Another Exed CC athlete Choy Jones threw the javelin 52.33m, well over the 48.48m set last year by Knox CC’s Jovan Smith when he won back-to-back titles.
All three women’s relays records were broken with MBCC accounting for the 4x100m in 50.41 seconds and the 4x400m in four minutes 23.62 seconds, while Moneague College won the sprint medley in one minute 58.51 seconds.
The Exed men’s 4x100m team ran 42.02 seconds under the old mark of 43.30 seconds, set by another Exed team last year.
Combined scores
Montego Bay Community College 215
Knox Community College 201
Moneague College 162
Excelsior Community College 160
CASE 152
Brown’s Town Community College 95
Men’s points
Excelsior Community College 160
Knox Community College 148
Montego Bay Community College 68
Brown’s Town Community College 58
CASE 46
Moneague College 30
Women’s points
Montego Bay Community College 147
Moneague College 132
CASE 106
Knox Community College 53
Brown’s Town Community College 37