Sport

Bad luck again for Pinnock

By PAUL A. REID, Staff Reporter

PHILADELPHIA

THE BAD LUCK that struck Edwin Allen's World Junior Championships bronze medallist Sherene Pinnock followed her to the Penn Relays yesterday after she was disqualified from the 400m hurdles at the 111th staging of the meet that got under way yesterday at Franklin Field, Pennsylvania.

Pinnock who pulled up in the finals at Girls Champs due to a higher than normal hurdle and then fell in the re-run, was expected to challenge her American rival and defending champion Nicole Leach but was taken out of the race before it started after she appeared to roll out of the starting blocks.

The Edwin Allen athlete returned to her blocks and was preparing for the second start when she was approached by two officials who informed her she was out. Pinnock was inconsolable for the next 30 minutes and was comforted by a number of persons including Leach.

Champs winner Nickiesha Wilson was second in 58.44 seconds, exactly one second behind Leach who broke her own one year-old Carnival record of 57.84 seconds.

Personal disappointments

There was better news, however, as Jamaican high school girls' teams fought through personal disappointments and fickle weather to dominate the relays with a strong presence going into today's finals.

Led by VMBS girls' champions, Holmwood Technical who qualified in all three events, the 4x100m, 4x400m and 4x800m, the Jamaicans look set to re-establish their dominance.

In the 4x800m Holmwood who are unbeaten this year and have a season best 7:50.06 done at Gibson Relays, will come up against strong New York schools led by Syosset High that ran an American national high school indoor record 7:42.22 earlier this season.

Yesterday St Jago's girls team of Kaydene Mason, Latoya King, Sudian Davis and Natasha Ruddock ran the fastest qualifying time of 46.41 in the 4x100m and led another five Jamaican schools to the finals - Holmwood- 46.58 seconds, Edwin Allen-46.65, Queens- 46.79 Manchester- 46.92 and St Andrew High 47.76.

Fastest time

Holmwood led all qualifiers in the Mile Relay with a smart 3:45.79 beating Long Beach Poly into second place and St Jago- 3:55.07 into third. Queen's ran a surprising 3:46.75 to win their heat while Edwin Allen also won their heat in 3:47.62 ahead of Manchester High- 3:53.11 and St Andrew High well back in seventh place - 4:04.58.

Holmwood Technical who had three of the fastest splits of the day had the second fastest qualifying time for today's 4x800m finals after clocking an easy 9:10.54, the last two runners, running all by themselves.

Vere Technical were sixth in the Distance Medley relay in 12:12.92 as anchor leg runner Stacy Bell faded badly after leading with two laps to go.

Gwynedd Mercy of Pennsylvania had the fastest time of 9:08.76 seconds but Holmwood have run 9:01.26 this season already.

Vere Technical's Kimberly Williams won the triple jump with a leap of 12.47m.

In the College section, the UTech team of Marcia Woolery, Sherika Williams, Davita Prendergast and Olympian Sherone Simpson were second in their 4x100m heat in 44.85 seconds and have advanced to today's finals.