Jamaica’s athletes made their presence felt with an exclamation point over the weekend as the Caribbean country returned to the Penn Relays, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Edwin Allen High and Hydel High broke the 4×100-m and 4×400-m high school relays competition, respectively, at the 126th staging of the Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Edwin Allen won two relays, adding the 4×800-m, and just missed their first sweep after they were second in the 4×400-m. It was the fourth staging in a row during which Jamaican schools had swept the high school girls relays.

The Michael Dyke-coached Edwin Allen team ran 43.18 seconds to break the 4x100m record, while Hydel clocked 3:32.77 minutes in the mile relay about an hour later.

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Jamaica College won the high school boys Championships of Americas 4×800-m to complete Jamaica’s sweep of the relays on Saturday’s final day of the 126th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

Camperdown High won the 4×100-m and Kingston College took the 4×400-m to match the sweep by the girls.

The team of Omarion Davis, Handal Roban, Kemarrio Bygrave and J’Voughnn Blake was unchallenged as they beat Ridge High of New Jersey – 7:41.59 seconds and West Springfield of Virginia – 7:45.14 seconds. It was their second win in the 4x800m and first since 1999 and comes after a second place in the 4x100m and sixth in the 4x400m.

Meanwhile, despite competing with an injured ankle, Kingston College’s (KC) Jaydon Hibbert still managed to outclass his rivals to win the Championship of America triple jump event at the 2022 Penn Relays at the Franklin Field Stadium.

Hibbert, had a best of 15.94 metres to win the event. Ryan John from Valley Stream North High School in New York was second with a mark of 15.05m while Brandon Hutchinson of St Augustine’s College, Bahamas finished third with 14.39m.