Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
Vere Technical's Marsielle McBean, winner of the Class Three discus, in action on the opening day of the GraceKennedy/ISSA Boys' and Girls' Championships at the National Stadium. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
VERE TECHNICAL High, helped by a one-two finish in the Class Three discus final, took a narrow lead after three girls' finals on day one of the GraceKennedy/ISSA Boys' and Girls' Championships at the Natio-nal Stadium, yesterday.
Clarendon-based Vere lead with 25 points, one ahead of defending champions Holmwood Technical High. St Hugh's High, St Jago High and St Andrew High are locked on 11 points in third and they are followed by Immaculate High, eight, Morant Bay High, five, and Wolmer's Girls, five.
Kingston College were on top after one boys' final. They lead with 13 points after an impressive victory in the Class One long jump by Tarik Batchelor. Batchelor won with a leap of 7.60m.
Morant Bay's Dean Swimmer, 7.27m, was second and Akeem Elliott of Wolmer's (7.10m) third.
KC lead the way with 13 points ahead of Wolmer's, 11, Morant Bay, seven, and Jamaica College, three. Defending champions Calabar are yet to score. The meet continues today at 8.30 a.m.
Top the class
Vere's Marsielle McBean threw 32.55m to top the Class Three discus ahead of teammate, Tamika Frater, 31.67m.
St Jago High filled the next two spots. Kellion Knibb placing third with 31.15m and Fayon Gonzales fourth with 30.24m.
Salcia Slack, the girls' captain of Holmwood Technical, is leading from the front. She struck gold twice. She first captured the triple jump Open title with a best of 13.23m then returned to win the Class One girls' discus with a record throw of 45.13m.
Slack, who will also compete in the heptathlon and Class One long jump, said things were going according to plan.
"I feel extremely proud of myself. I had planned to start leading from early to show the rest of the team that as captain I am ready and I am also ready for them to follow," she said after the discus final.
Breaking record
Slack said she has her sights set on breaking both the heptathlon record, 5,282 points, held since 2004 by St Jago's Nadina Marsh and the Class One long jump mark of 6.47m, set 10 years ago by many-time national champion Elva Goulbourne.
"Last year, I missed the hep-tathlon record by 200 points and this year I plan to break it," she said.
Todea-Kay Willis of St Andrew High, 12.61m, bagged second, while third went to Jhanelle McLeod of Immaculate High, 12.10m.
Micara Vassell of St Hugh's High, 40.18m, was second in the Class One discus with Vere's Kaymarie Jones, 39.47m, third.
Edwin Allen's Nikita Tracey clocked a personal best 58.75 seconds in the girls' 400m hurdles Open heats to advance to tomorrow's final with the fastest time.
