Photos by Anthony Foster
LEFT: Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Marvin Anderson and Dwight Thomas pose (from left) after Jamaica's 4x100m victory in the USA vs the World clash at the 114th Penn Relays at Franklin Field yesterday.
RIGHT: Jamaica's medley team of (from left) Sonita Sutherland, Aleen Bailey, Kenia Sinclair and Nadine Palmer pose after their victory in the USA against The World clash yesterday.

Raymond Graham, Gleaner Writer

PHILADELPHIA::

AFTER DISAPPOINTING their fans for many years, Jamaica's senior athletes finally gave them something to cheer about as they captured two relay events at the Penn Relays yesterday.

Jamaica claimed the women's sprint medley and the men's 4x100 metres titles in the USA versus the World series.

The quartet of Nadine Palmer, Aleen Bailey, Sonita Sutherland and Kenia Sinclair gave the Jamaicans a flying start in the first event of the series as they captured the sprint medley in 3:37.61. The Caribbean All Star team took the runners-up spot in 3:39.15.

After a fairly good opening 200m start by Palmer, Bailey, running the second 200m, put Jamaica in the lead with a good run. Sutherland held her own on the 400m leg, giving national 800m champion Sinclair a slight lead on the anchor leg. Sinclair split 1:59.8 to pull away from Marion Burnett of the All Stars team.

Osaka disappointment

Following the country disappointment at the World Championships in Osaka last year in the men's 4x100m relay where they lost to the United States, Jamaica captured their first victory in this event at the Penns as they won in 39.04 seconds with the United States Blue team finishing second in 39.14.

The winning quartet, in running order, was Marvin Anderson, Michael Frater, Nesta Carter and Dwight Thomas.

The fancied US Red team, which had Tyson Gay on the anchor leg, found itself in serious trouble on the opening leg as Wallace Spearmon, on the second leg, went out too fast and when he stopped, lead off man Leroy Dixon ran past him. Although Spearmon tried hard to get back into the race, it was too much for him and the rest of the team.

Jamaica picked up second in the women's 4x400 metres as the US's Allison Felix opened up on Novlene Williams on the second leg to give her team a commanding lead. They won in a world -leading time of 3:22.16. Sanya Richards anchored for the United States. Members of Jamaica team were Sherika Williams, Novlene Williams, Sherone Simpson and Kaliese Spencer. Jamaica's second-place time was 3:27.96.

Jamaica also had two third-place finishes, in the women's 4x100 and the men's 4x400 events.