Hydel High will enter Saturday’s High School Girls Championship of America 4x100m as clear favourites after advancing fastest from Friday’s heats at the Penn Relays at Franklin Field.

Hydel produced a sizzling 44.96 to win heat 14 and advance fastest ahead of heat 17 winners Bullis School (46.05) and heat six winners, Edwin Allen (46.64).

Nassau’s St. Augustine’s finished second in heat 17 in 46.80 to advance while St. Jago ran the same time to win heat five. Wolmer’s Girls advanced eighth fastest with 47.35 to finish second in heat 15, won by McDonough School (46.95).

The field is completed by Heritage (47.23) and South County (47.37).

The race is set for Saturday.

The qualifiers for the High School Girls International final, also set for Saturday, are Jamaica’s St. Catherine High (47.53), Holmwood Technical (47.61), St. Mary High (47.78), Manchester High (47.82), Excelsior High (48.00), Mount Alvernia (48.83) and Holy Childhood (49.00) as well as the Bahamas’ Queens College (48.32) and Puerto Rico’s Academia Interamericana (48.76).

Edwin Allen will be the Caribbean’s lone representative in the High School Girls Championship of America 4x800m final after running 9:17.28 to win their heat.

In the field, Jamaica secured the top three spots in the High School Girls discus. Holmwood’s Cedricka Williams took first with 57.32m ahead of St. Jago’s Abigail Martin (54.54m) and Camperdown’s Britannie Johnson (47.33).

Camperdown’s Britannia Johnson, twin sister of Britannie, took the shot put in 14.04m. Livingston’s Jessica Oji was second with 13.86m while Edwin Allen’s Rochele Solomon was third with 13.57m.

Mount Alvernia’s Aaliyah Foster jumped 5.78m for third in the long jump behind James River’s Lilly Ver Beek (5.92m) and Friend’s Central’s Avery Lewis (6.21m).

St. Jago’s Jade-Ann Dawkins produced 13.02m for victory in the triple jump ahead of Ocean City’s Sophia Curtis (12.45m) and Western Branch’s Llyric Driscoll (12.38m).

Three girls cleared 1.70m in the high jump with Howell’s Samantha Strydesky winning ahead of Shanniqua Williams of Wolmer’s Girls and Edwin Allen’s Deijanae Bruce.

Jamaica’s top mixed-doubles pair of Samuel Ricketts and Tahlia Richardson bowed out at the quarter-final stage of the XXVI Yonex Pan Am Individual Championships which in its penultimate day at the GC Foster College in Spanish Town, St Catherine on Friday.

The Jamaican pair lost 21-11, 21-15 to Canadian pair of Joshua Hulburt-Yu and Rachel Honderich in a match that lasted 26 minutes.

Ricketts and Richardson were the second Jamaican pair the Canadians have beaten in the tournament having eliminated Bradley Evans and Rihanna Rust 21-2, 21-4 during the round of 32 on Wednesday.

The Canadians will face the Brazilian duo of Davi Silva and Sania Lima who defeated the USA’s Vinson Chiu and Jennie Gai 21-16, 26-24 in their quarter-final match up.

Another Canadian pair, Alexander Lindeman and Josephine Wu also advanced to the Mixed Doubles semi-finals after they defeated Mexico’s Luis Armando Montoya Navarro and Miriam Jacqueline Rodriquez Perez 21-12, 21-19.

It will be a Canada vs Brazil semi-final after Fabricio Farias and Jacqueline Lima bested Perus’ Jose Guevara and Ines Lucia Castillo Salazar 21-14, 21-10 in their quarter-final encounter.

Seventy-three of the Caribbean’s best shooters are set to battle for honours at the Spectrum Handgun Championship set for the Jamaica Rifle Association’s shooting range on Mountain View Avenue in Kingston, Jamaica on Saturday, April 29.

Shooters from Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and the Cayman Islands will be competing at the Level III IPSC event, Jamaica’s first major international pistol match and highest-ranked competition to be staged since the Covid-19 pandemic emerged in 2020.

"Everyone is looking forward with great anticipation to the upcoming Spectrum Handgun Championship 2023 at the JRA,” said Match Director Paul Shoucair.

“We'll have all of Jamaica's top shooters versus top shooters from other islands in the Caribbean and the Ladies Division is looking pretty hot so looking forward to it and expecting some great stages."

The top gunners will compete in four divisions - Open, Standard, Production Optics and Production, which features the use of unmodified guns. The breakdown of the entry list shows eight overseas based shooters, eight female shooters and 57 local based male shooters are down to compete.

Among them is top-ranked master class shooter Ryan Bramwell.

"This match will in effect be a Caribbean championship and I am looking forward to competing against the best local and regional talent,” he said.

“The match itself promises to be a great event and I am really looking forward to doing my best on Saturday."

Among the other shooters vying for honours across the various divisions are Master Shooter Andy Yap and Darin Richards, and among the women, Alpha Angels Yeonie Campbell, Shayon Francis and Renee Rickhi.

 Competition on the twelve-stage range will get underway at 10:00 am.

Orlando City forward Facundo Torres is targeting a turnaround in the Lions’ home fortunes, starting against LA Galaxy on Saturday.

Since beating the New York Red Bulls in the opening game of the season, Orlando have failed to win at home in 2023.

That run of five games has included three straight losses, with road wins over Philadelphia Union and Minnesota United wedged between those defeats.

Torres scored the winner against the Red Bulls back in February, and knows the time is now for Orlando to correct their home form.

"It's been difficult losses. Not just this week, but so far the ones that we've had on the season," he said.

"We know that we have to be a little bit more. It's not what we'd hoped for at this point in the season, but we continue working with the whole team to continue finding those details that we've been missing recently.

"In the final third, we've gotten good plays where we've been in and around the ball, but we haven't been able to finish those chances yet. And on the defensive side, we've given up some easy ones that have cost us as a team. So we work together to try and solidify those areas.

"We all know what [head coach] Oscar [Pareja] has been asking of us in the plan that he's laid out for us, whether it's guys that have been here or guys that just got here this year.

"The plan that Oscar has laid out has been very clear, and we're all integrated into that. I think what we're missing right now is the chemistry in between the new players and the old players and executing that idea. Like I said, the plan is very clear so now we just need to work together to bring that idea to the field in reality."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Orlando City – Duncan McGuire

McGuire has scored three goals in his first six MLS appearances, including scoring Orlando's last two goals. McGuire has hit the target with all seven shots he's attempted in MLS, the only player to attempt more than three shots with a 100 per cent shooting accuracy this season.

LA Galaxy – Javier Hernandez

Hernandez scored his first goal of the season in the Galaxy's 2-0 win over Austin on Saturday, and will be eager to keep up his form. It was his 38th regular season MLS goal, surpassing Erick Torres to become the second-highest-scoring Mexican international in MLS history, behind only Carlos Vela (72).

MATCH PREDICTION: DRAW

Each side have three wins in their six previous MLS meetings. The last two matches ended 1-0 to the visiting team (one win each) after there were a total of 20 goals scored in the first four games between the Lions and Galaxy.

Orlando have lost 11 regular season home matches since the start of 2022 (W10 D1) after losing a total of 12 home matches over the previous three regular seasons combined (W20 D14 from 2019—21).

The Galaxy have just two points from four away matches this season, though they're unbeaten in their last five away matches against Eastern Conference opposition.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Orlando City – 48.2 per cent

LA Galaxy – 25.1 per cent

Draw – 26.7 per cent

Kirk McKenzie scored an unbeaten half-century for West Indies Academy, who are 89-2 at stumps on a rain-shortened second day of their four-day match against Weekes XI at Coolidge Cricket Ground on Thursday.

Chasing Weekes XI’s 401 all out, McKenzie and Keagan Simmons put on 27 in their opening stand before the latter was bowled by Jair McAllister for seven. The bowler would later dismiss Ackeem Auguste in similar fashion for 21 as West Indies Academy slipped to 57-2.

However, McKenzie and Kevlon Anderson, who scored 153 for West Indies Academy in the seven-wicket victory over Headley XI last week, added 30 without further loss when play ended. McKenzie has so far struck eight fours in his even 50 while Anderson is not out on seven.

McAllister has so far taken 2-21.

Earlier, Weekes XI resuming from their overnight score of 365-7 with Kevin Sinclair on 52 and Veerasammy Permaul on nought, lost Permaul for duck to make it 365-8. Realizing he was running out of partners, Sinclair attacked the bowling smashing 11 fours and three sixes in his score of 86 before he was bowled by Ramon Simmonds.

Simmonds bowled McAllister for a duck next ball to wrap up the innings leaving Nail Smith not out on two.

Edwin Allen standout sprinter Serena Cole has signed a professional contract with Nike, well-placed sources have confirmed to Sportsmax.TV.  According to other sources, she will train under the guidance of world-renowned coach Stephen Francis at the MVP Track Club in Kingston.

A talented long jumper, Cole, who turns 19 in June, is the latest Jamaican female sprinter to join the professional ranks straight out of high school following on the heels of World U20 100m champion Tina Clayton, her twin sister Tia and Kerrica Hill, the World U20 100m hurdles champion.

Several calls to Edwin Allen Head Coach Michael Dyke and a call to MVP President Bruce James went unanswered on Thursday.

The two-time World U20 champion was a member of Jamaica’s 4x100m team that set three World U20 records in the Women U20 4x100m relay. She was the lead-off runner when the team ran 42.94 at the World U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in 2021.

Cole was also the lead-off runner in April 2022 on a team that also included the Clayton twins and Brianna Lyston that established a new record of 42.58 at the 49^th edition of the Carifta Games in Kingston, Jamaica. Unfortunately, that record was not ratified by World Athletics because one member of the team, Tina Clayton, was not drug tested.

However, at the World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia in August last year, Cole, the Claytons, and Kerrica Hill ran 42.59, which was later ratified as the new world record.

With personal best in the 100m of 11.13, Cole was heading towards an epic showdown with Hydel High School’s Alana Reid at the 2023 ISSA GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Championships in March but suffered a hamstring injury while cruising to victory in her semi-final heat in 11.17.

Reid won would go to win the final in a new ‘Champs’ record of 10.92, becoming the first Jamaican high school girl to break the 11-second barrier. Reid is reportedly matriculating to the University of Oregon in the fall.

Cole is currently with the Edwin Allen team at the Penn Relays in the United States.

Jamaica Football Federation President Michael Ricketts has hinted that Everton winger Demarai Gray is inching ever closer to becoming a Reggae Boy citing that Head Coach Heimir Hallgrimsson is fond of the player, who has been on the federation’s radar for the past few years.

It was in March 2021, that Ricketts in an interview indicated that the now 26-year-old Gray was among several English players who were in the process of acquiring their Jamaican passports. The federation had hoped that the player would have been able to join the national programme in time for the qualification matches for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar but that did not happen.

However, while responding to questions at a JFF press conference on Wednesday to announce new and returning sponsors and the launch of the federation’s new website, Ricketts, while coy, indicated that with regards to Gray, things were moving in a positive direction.

“I don’t want to speak too much on it because his parents really don’t want us to but we are making some progress,” he said. “What I can say is that the coach is very optimistic, the coach likes him and the coach is working hard to ensure that he gets him in his programme.”

Ricketts revealed that if all goes according to plan, Gray could be suited in Jamaican colours in time for the CONCACAF Gold Cup set to get underway in June. Jamaica opens its campaign against defending champions, the United States of America on June 24.

However, Gray is not the only player being targeted by the JFF. According to Ricketts, the Jamaican head coach already has an idea of what players will make up his squad for the Gold Cup, which might include some new players based overseas.

“Based on discussions that I would have had with Coach Hallgrimsson, he is very excited. In fact, he has some young players on his radar that he is very excited about and, of course, he said to me after the Mexico game (in March) he was convinced about what the nucleus of his team will be,” Ricketts revealed.

“But there are some overseas-based players and we have asked Simon (Preston) to work closely with Coach Hallgrimsson to identify some of these young players.” Preston, a former sports anchor at Television Jamaica (TVJ), is working with the JFF in the capacity of media liaison and analyst.

Hallgrimsson is currently in England meeting with a number of players whom he would like to be part of the rebuilding of the Reggae Boyz squad. The head coach reportedly made trips to the USA and then to his home country of Iceland before travelling to England.

St. Elizabeth Technical, Kingston College, Wolmer’s Boys and Jamaica College were among the fastest qualifiers to the High School Boys Championship of America 4x100m final on Thursday’s day one of the 2023 Penn Relays at the Franklin Field.

STETHS with 41.32 were joint fastest qualifiers alongside Florida’s IMG Academy. Kingston College was next fastest with a 41.72 clocking to win their heat. Wolmer’s Boys (41.79) and Jamaica College (41.85) also advanced as heat winners. Camperdown (42.03) and St. Jago (42.03) will also be in the Championship of America final scheduled for Friday.

The High School Boys International final, also scheduled for Friday, will feature seven Jamaican schools as well as one each from the Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago.

St. George’s College, Calabar, Excelsior, Herbert Morrison, St. Catherine High, Edwin Allen and William Knibb all advanced as well as Queen’s Royal College from Port-of-Spain and St. Augustine’s from Nassau.

In the 4x800m, Kingston College and STETHS both advanced to the final set for Friday.

KC won their heat in 7:54.79 while STETHS recorded 7:55.96 to finish second in their heat behind Charlotte Catholic (7:54.44).

Defending champions Jamaica College originally ran 7:49.29 to comfortably win their heat but were subsequently disqualified after it was revealed that they used an ineligible runner.

In the field, Calabar’s Kobe Lawrence won the High School Boys shot put with 20.43m ahead of St. Rose’s Joshua Huisman (19.40m) and St. Jago’s Shaiquan Dunn (18.07m).

JC’s Raquil Broderick was third in the discus with 61.92m behind University Garden’s Nathan Villegas -Reyes (62.49m) and Southern Regional’s Fabian Gonzalez (61.94m).

St. Jago’s Demario Prince jumped out to 7.42m to win the long jump ahead of Archbishop John Carroll’s Camren Williams (7.32m) and KC’s Nathan Wade (7.22m).

Three men cleared 1.98m in the high jump with the KC pair of Isaiah Patrick and Aaron McKenzie finishing second and third, respectively, behind Bloomfield’s Ja’Mari Manson.

JC’s Gabriel Lim won the javelin with 61.24m ahead od Danville’s Bronson Krinak (60.31) and Riverside’s Joseph Reed (59.26).

15.17m was the winning mark in the triple jump by JC’s Trevon Hammer. Potomac’s Ty’heak Buie produced 14.88m for second while KC’s Javar Thomas was third with 14.81m.

West Indies white ball opener Brandon King was a significant contributor as Team Weekes ended day one of their Headley-Weekes four-day series fixture in a strong position against the West Indies Academy at Coolidge on Wednesday.

King made a 148-ball 92, supporting Zachary McCaskie’s 147-ball 93, as Team Weekes ended the day 365-7 off 90 overs. Jahmar Hamilton (57) and Kevin Sinclair (52*) also got fifties on day one.

Entering this contest, King had an average of 34.84 in 32 First-Class games including three hundreds and 12 fifties.

King's last four-day appearance came in March last year when he made an unbeaten 119 for the Jamaica Scorpions against the Windward Islands Volcanoes at the Brian Lara Stadium.

He spoke about his return to red-ball cricket after the day’s play.

“Very happy to be back playing red ball cricket. It’s been a little while. It was great fun batting out there with no time restrictions,” King said.

The West Indies batsman opener got to the crease with his side 82-3 having lost the wickets of Keacy Carty for 12 and captain Alick Athanaze for a two-ball duck.

He then formed a crucial 136-run fourth wicket partnership with McCaskie.

“It’s 4-day cricket so you have time on your side and you want to try and build a partnership to put the team in a better position,” King said.

“We kept it simple. The pitch wasn’t doing a great deal so we just tried to take as little risk as possible while still putting the bowlers under pressure and it worked out for us,” he added.

Regarding the team’s plan going into the innings, King said it was simple.

“We know that the pitch is generally good for batting and that in the first session the bowlers would get something out of it. Our plan was always to try and bat through the first session with as little wickets as possible then bat the rest of the day,” King said.

“We weren’t too focussed on the number of runs but we knew that if we batted the whole day we’ll get a good score,” King added.

Day two takes place on Thursday.

Half-centuries Zachary McCaskie, Brandon King, Jahmar Hamilton and Kevin Sinclair have put Weekes XI in a strong position of 365-7 against West Indies Academy on the opening day of their Headley Weekes Tri-Series match at Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua on Wednesday.

West Indies Academy fresh off their seven-wicket victory over Headley XI last week, won the toss and asked Weekes XI to bat. Tagenarine Chanderpaul and McCaskie laid a solid platform with an opening stand of 55.

However, Chanderpaul was then trapped leg before by Nyeem Young for 25, triggering a minor slide during which Kacey Carty was caught behind by Tevin Imlach for 12 off McKenny Clarke, who dismissed Alick Athanaze in similar fashion for a duck in his next over as Weekes XI slipped from 55 without loss to 82-3.

However, McCaskie and Brandon King put an end to the bloodletting with a fourth-wicket partnership of 136 in 35 overs that resurrected the innings. McCaskie would fall short of a deserved 100 when Kirk McKenzie had him caught by Ackeem Auguste for 93.

King continued on to 92 during a partnership of 39 with Jahmar Hamilton but then he became the third victim of the Imlach/Clarke combination to miss out on his century.

Hamilton than stitched together a stand of 74 with Kevin Sinclair but then was dismissed by Nyeem Young for 57. Sinclair soldiered on putting on 23 with Dominic Drakes who made 13 before he lost his wicket to Kevin Wickham for 13.

Sinclair will resume on 52 on Thursday with Veerasammy Permaul at the other end with the intention of taking Weekes XI past 400.

Clarke was the best bowler on the day with 3-91 while Young took 2-75.

Brian Pengelley General Manager of Jameco Equipment, a subsidiary of the Stewarts’s Automotive Group on Wednesday implored fellow corporate entities to throw their support behind the Jamaica Football Federation’s football progammes citing that national teams bring exposure from which the country benefits.

He was speaking at the JFF Headquarters where new and returning sponsors were announced as well as the revealing of the association’s new website.

Adidas, Courts Jamaica, Irie FM, First Choice Pharmacy, Wisynco, GraceKennedy Ltd, Sports Development Foundation, First Choice Pharmacy and Stewart’s Automotive were introduced as new or returning sponsors along with the Bob Marley Foundation, the Jamaica Pegasus and Holiday Inn.

“What’s missing is the full participation of Corporate Jamaica. This journey we are on with the JFF is a critical one for the overall growth of our country,” Pengelley said, speaking on behalf of the sponsors’ representatives in attendance.

“We talk about businesses coming back, business is strong, tourism is strong. I am not seeing where people appreciate what value the advertising, promotion and the teams being abroad is bringing to Jamaica.

“People that sell in Jamaica, companies that sell their manufactured goods should be on board because when people come here they are buying our products and that benefits everyone.

“My appeal to Corporate Jamaica is recognize that the publicity that our teams are generating around the world is bringing people to Jamaica. They put Jamaica on the map every time they do something.”

Meantime, JFF President Michael Ricketts said it took a lot of hard work to get sponsors back board to support several campaigns that the national teams are involved in. The Reggae Boyz are about to begin their campaign in the Concacaf Gold Cup in June while the Reggae Girlz will begin theirs at the FIFA Women’s World Cup later this year.

A number of the junior teams are also competing at the international level, most notably the U20 Girls who recently won their group to advance to the final round of the Concacaf U20 Championships qualifiers.

“In these times of austerity it is not easy to get sponsors on board but I think we have a product that is marketable,” he said. “We have a brand that people want to be a part of.”

To emphasize his point, he revealed that during a recent meeting with Adidas, they expressed their elation with what was happening with the Jamaica kit.

“Every single piece of kit in the United Kingdom was sold,” he said. “We met with (former Reggae Boy) Deon Burton, one of our celebrated from the ’98 campaign. He wanted a shirt and could not get one to buy. The product is marketable. Jamaica’s football is going places. The girls are doing very well; the boys will test their true mettle at the Gold Cup.”

Ray Harvey, the co-founder and organizer of the MILO Western Relays on Monday pleaded with authorities to expedite repairs to the track at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, the traditional home of the relays. The track has been out of commission for the past five years.

“I am one of hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people who want Western Relays to go back home. I have been waiting patiently for five years for the track to be repaired, it just hasn't happened and we just have to keep our fingers crossed that it will happen sometime soon," Harvey said during a ceremony at GC Foster College in St Catherine on Monday when cash prizes were handed over to the schools who participated in this year’s meet at the sports college that has hosted the meet for the past few years.

Harvey noted that having a working track in Montego Bay is integral to the development of track and field in western Jamaica. In addition to the Milo Western Relays and other athletics meets, the Montego Bay Sports Complex also used to host a number of other events leading up to the relays.

They include seminars for coaches and athletes regarding drugs in sports, physical fitness and nutrition and baton-passing clinics for 10 and 11 year olds as well as training sessions for meet officials.

Those activities have ceased for the past five years.

“It is kind of a tragedy what is going on in Western Jamaica regarding the track and everything that is happening and what has been in the news recently,” said Harvey while making reference to a revelation that racing cars were being driven on the worn-out running surface.

“I would like to take this opportunity to call on the government to restore that track, get it back up because it is a pride for the Western teams and they have always been consistent and I think not having access to that facility is kinds robbing Western Jamaica of their true and full potential," Harvey continued.

"We are looking forward to going back to Montego Bay because we are also robbing the spectators or the ardent track and field supporters that opportunity to see their home grown talent performing with the best in the country."

The meet organizer also revealed that he would be subsidizing the travel expenses of the teams that had to travel from western Jamaica to St Catherine to collect their prize money.

"We have a special programme to support the teams from the West. We recognize that they are not able to be at home in Montego Bay. They have to travel. It is expensive to travel so we are offering six teams a subsidy towards their travel here coming to GC Foster College. They are getting two touches. One, this prize money and two the transportation money so the teams from the West, several of them will get two cheques.

Edwin Allen were big winners as they collected a cheque for JMD$210,000 having won five of six relays at the last meet. Coach Abna Stoner and athletes Jounee Armstrong and Dylan Logan, were on hand to receive the prize money.

The Clarendon-based track power’s girls won the Class I 4x100m, 4x400m and the 4x800m relays while the boys won the Class I 4x100m, 4x400m and placed third in the 4x800m.

Edwin Allen bagged the largest cash bounty of the 10 schools that benefited financially. The other winners included Kingston College (JMD $50,000), Holmwood Technical (JMD $50,000), Excelsior High School (JMD $40,000), St. Jago High School (JMD $20,000), Vere Techincal JMD ($20,000), Mt. Alvernia High School (JMD $15,000), Bellfield High School (JMD $5,000) and Green Island High School (JMD $5,000).

"I am happy to come all the way from the West to GC Foster College to present Edwin Allen a decent cheque. Its $210,000. They have supported Western Relays from (the) beginning and one of the schools we can always count on at Western Relays to put on a show and to make our product into something special," said Harvey

Coach Stoner of Edwin Allen was gracious in his reply.

"We are so grateful for (this) presentation because I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it and looked at the figure. This is really a shot in the arm and it will go a long way in contributing to the programme,” he said.

“This week we will be departing for Penn Relays and with all the logistics - airfare, pocket money for students, it is a pretty penny and this money that we got, it really can help to develop the programme." Edwin Allen departed the island for the Penn Relays on Tuesday.