Kimberley Williams of Vere Technical with her commemorative watch after she won the triple jump at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia yesterday. - Anthony Foster

By Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

Pennsylvania

A blunder by officials on yesterday's opening day of the 2006 Penn Relays being held at Franklin Field Stadium denied Vere's triple jumper Kimberly Williams what would have been an impressive record.

Williams who won at Girls Championships and Carifta Games, had jumps of 13.36m, and 13.33m on her second and third attempts respectively, but was not credited because of errors by the officials.

"They said that I cannot get the 13.36m, and I wanted it," said a disappointed Williams.

"I wasn't credited with the distances because they used the laser to measure it and the steel tape was not used," she added.

The excuse the officials gave was that the record wasn't written clearly on the paper and that why they did not realise at the time.

However, Williams said she is unhappy with 12.91m, it's too close to the previous record of 12.87m . "The 13.36m would have lasted for years, so that's why I wanted the mark," she continued.

Williams, who got up to a record 13.53m at Girls Championships said she was prepared to break the record and being credited with under 13 metres is not good.

"I thought using the laser was okay, though I was wondering why they did not go for the steel tape, but I still did not say anything," she continued.

"I was aware of the record from in Jamaica, because you have to be prepared. You have to prepare early and think about it and that's why I am so disappointed," she added.

Meanwhile, Kaliese Spencer of University of Technology (UTech) won the college women's 400m hurdles for the second straight year. She clocked 56.33 seconds.

Manchester High's Shana-Gaye Tracey was second in the high schoolgirls event in 59.49 seconds behind Ryann Krais of Methacton ( 58.93).

Dethroned champion Taneisha Blair threw 44.64m for second in the girls' javelin. In the 4x800 preliminaries for girls, Holmwood ran 9: 05.11 to win heat one and Edwin Allen (9:05.02) for second in heat two behind Pope John XXIII (9:03.56). Both Jamaican schools advanced.

In the 4x100m, Edwin Allen (46.16) led rivals into today's final. St. Jago (46.52), Holmwood ( 46.69), Manchester (46.94), and Vere (47.14) also qualified for the Championship final.

In the small schools final, Alpha (48.17) and St. Elizabeth Technical (48.67) qualified. G. C. Foster College ( 45.51) qualified for the final of the college women's 4x100m relay.