by Raymond Graham, Freelance Writer

( L - R ) Yohan Blake ... St Jago's ace sprinter. Calabar's Ramone McKenzie. - FILE PHOTOS

The 114th Penn Relays will get under way at Franklin Field, Philadelphia, on April 24. Several of the island's top high schools will compete at the prestigious meet. Starting today, Star Sports presents previews of the high school relays.

FOLLOWING their record 39.96 seconds run in the 4x100 metres last year, St Jago High will lead a strong line-up of Jamaican high school boys teams to the 114th Penn Relays in Franklin Field, Philadelphia, April 24-26.

Based on their performances so far this season, St Jago High, who came very close to the double last year, will be the favourites for both relays. At the Boys' and Girls' Championships, they broke the Class One 4x100m record, clocking 39.78, while a few weeks earlier they went under the Gibson Relays 4x400m mark with 3:08.32. Last year at the Penn Relays, they lost the 4x400m in a close finish to Long Beach Poly out of California.

St Jago will be even stronger in the sprint relay this year as they have included former Wolmer's Boys athlete Akeem Smith in their squad. Smith, the lead-off man in their record run at Champs. With Andre Walsh, Rikert Hylton, Adolphus Nevers, Yohan Blake and the vastly improved Nickel Ashmeade in their squad, it is going to take a brave man to bet against St Jago taking the double.

With Long Beach Poly losing their top man Bershawn Nelloms, who held off Blake on the anchor leg in the 4x400m last year, St Jago's main challenge will come from Calabar in the 4x100m, and Calabar and Kingston College in the 4x400m.

Calabar's quartet of Andrew Riley, Ramone McKenzie, Warren Weir and Oshane Bailey have lost narrowly to St Jago twice at the Camperdown Classics and the Gibson Relays before winning at Boys' Championships when St Jago failed to get the baton around. On that occasion, Calabar recorded 40.28 and there are many who are of the opinion that they would have broken St Jago's record if anchorman Bailey had not eased up in the final 50m.

Coach Michael Clarke is very confident that his Penn Relays jinx will be broken and he thinks that his unit is now ready to put the brakes on the Danny Hawthorne-coached St Jago. Coach Hawthorne could go back to his original starter Walsh but may be tempted to go for Smith, the faster man. While the St Jago team looks extremely solid, Calabar with their smooth baton changing could force the Spanish Town-based team into making mistakes again.

Tomorrow: Boys' 4x400m and 4x800m.