What a difference a year makes, or so it seems for the thousands of patriotic Jamaicans who braved the inclement weather to watch all or portions of the 113th Running of the Penn Relays Carnival (PRC) in Track & Field Athletics at the Franklin Field Stadium, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA.

Watched by a cumulative three day total of just over 109,525 spectators, the mood was noticeably subdued as many left the sports village with unfulfilled expectations as the highly favored Jamaicans matched strides with the opposition in both sections – seniors and juniors – of the competition’s marquee events.

Their performance was not helped by the inclement weather which gripped sections of the Northeast USA, making conditions underfoot wet and slippery and chilly even in the best body armor available.

Compared to last year’s (2006) outing in the High Schools section, Jamaica’s winning percentage was exactly halved – 50% - as the ‘schoolers’ managed to win only three of the six relay Championship of America (CoA) events, not including the Medley Relays.

The ‘outlook’ depended on who you ask, of course.

“I look at it from a different perspective, I’d say the performances this year were quite good. Yes we won three less championship races, however we won in areas that normally we would not have won,” opined Irwin Clare, President of Team Jamaica Bickle (TJB), the volunteer Jamaican outfit that provides for the welfare of the athletes at the relays.

Edwin Allen High School ‘saved face’ with a victory in the 4 x 100 meters relay CoA and deservedly won the TJB award for most outstanding female team, edging out ‘Champs’ champions Holmwood Technical which failed, though narrowly, to defend any of their three titles from last year, beaten on two occasions – 4 x 400 m and 4 x 800 m – by an impressive Eleanor Roosevelt HS of Maryland, USA.

Watching from track side, Consul General, Dr. Basil K. Bryan was optimistic of the overall performance even if a bit cautious.

“One year can and does make a (big) difference and Holmwood was not the better team this year. Last year we won handily with Holmwood and Camperdown but with graduation and injuries to some key athletes, this year the fortunes were different from what our Jamaican spectators have become accustomed to.”

According to Dr. Bryan, “if we factor in some of the individual results – field events – we did well and the future looks secure”, sentiments shared by Mr. Clare who noted that, “even the races that we lost, we lost to some very well managed and coached teams that were at their peak while we are approaching the end of our season”.

Speaking with JIS News at the TJB location just after the presentation of awards to the local contingent, Dr. Bryan said that what the overall results will show is that, “when we do well, we inspire others to do even better”, a pointed reference to two of the PRC epic duel between Holmwood Technical and Eleanor Roosevelt in the HSG 4 x 800 meters CoA and St. Jago and Long Beach Polytechnic (California) in the HSB 4 x 400 meters CoA, the latter rewriting several pages of the Games’ history.

St. Jago, winners of the 4 x 100 m. HSB CoA, were the outstanding Boys team, ahead of Kingston College, winners of the 4 x 800 meters relay CoA.

“I’m not disappointed, neither in the performance of our up and coming, young athletes or our Olympians. The camaraderie experienced at Penn transcends everything else. We are one big happy Jamaican family in an endless sea of green and yellow. It’s fun and always exciting, according to Cathy Kleinhanns, head of Jamroppo, Inc., a pr/marketing unit involved with the Reebok Classic, NY.

Awards (gift packages from VMBS, Western Union Financial, Digicel, Union of Jamaican Alumni Asociations (UJAA) and Caribbean Food Delights) were also presented to the coaches Danny Haughton (St. Jago) and Michael Dyke (Edwin Allen), Jumpers Tarik Batchelor (KC) and Kimberley Williams (Vere) and Sprinter/HurdlerKaliese Spencer (UTech) for outstanding performances.

“When you look at all those peripheral achievements (field events) and the fact that we went under 40 seconds for the schoolboys sprint relay – the first in the history of the PRC – I think we did considerably well,” was how Clare, Sr. summed up the 2007 festival which saw participation from more than 300 Jamaican athletes including first timers UWI-Mona.