Watch those JC jumpers

Last year at the ISSA-GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Championships, Jamaica College put on a horizontal jumping extravaganza.

The Old Hope Road school took all the long and triple jump gold medals. Ruel James, who coaches the JC boys in the long, triple, and high jumps, is quietly expecting a repeat performance.

James, a 1992 Boys Championships Class One high jump champion for Jamaica College, expects another big year for the jumps.

"This year is going to be a bomb, where the jumps are concerned," he predicted. In 2015, his Class One dynamic duo Clayton Brown and O'Brien Wasome became the first in Champs history to triple jump 16 metres, with marks of 16.04m and 16.00m. Wasome won the gold with a wind-aided leap of 16.24m.

Speaking of this pair of outgoing seniors, he said, "I think they can be able to become elite athletes in the future."

The soft spoken James has lofty targets. Asked if 16.50 metre jumps were in the offing, he hinted, "I don't want to say anything too early, but we are striving for even bigger than that."

Asked for specifics, he said he hoped ' ... to go 1-2 in the triple and break the record, and hopefully break the long jump record and the high jump Class One record'.

Wasome, a barrell chested speed merchant, did 7.71 metres to win the long jump. That's 16 centimetres off the record, the magnificent 1993 leap of 7.87m by Leon Gordon of Vere. The high jump mark of 2.24m belongs to wunderkind Christoff Bryan during his days at Wolmer's Boys.

BIGTARGET

A gold medal in the high jump is probably a big target for the lanky Brown who beat Bryan at the 2015 Carifta Games. His only Champs victory has come in the 2014 triple jump.

Since James joined the JC coaching staff, the school has won 12 gold medals in the long, high and triple jumps overall, with 4 1-2 finishes. While Brown and Wasome are outgoing seniors, the coach also has younger athletes who are on the radar. Malik Cunningham, winner of the Class Three high jump in 2014, and Micah Wellington, Class Three long jump victor, are among those.

However, his best prospect may be Paketo Dudley, winner of the Class Two triple-long double in 2015. James, who says his high school coach Michael Clarke taught him a lot, describes Dudley as a good talent.

"He is speedy and he's developing very, very, very fast," he observed.

James wouldn't be drawn on the question of JC regaining the title it last won in 2011. He simply said, "Hopefully, we can put together a good team for 2016". Most pundits think that is more than likely.

HUBERT LAWRENCE has been attending Champs since 1980.