Just in case you missed it, you can watch the replay of the brilliant anchor leg of Christopher Taylor, who led Calabar to a stunning victory over Kingston College in the boys’ 4x400m relay on Saturday night.
The clash everyone wanted to see in the boys’ 4x400m relay happened. Taylor of Calabar versus Akeem Bloomfield of Kingston College.
Heading into the contest, they head-to-head matchup, it was well hyped up, following the remarkable CV of both young sprinters during and even before Champs 2016.
Taylor, it seemed was well prepared for such a battle.
He skipped the 2016 Jamaica Carifta Games Trials to “rest up a slight niggle” I was told, while his coach’s decision to have Taylor lowered targeted Champs 2016 records in the early rounds was a very smart move because the youngster had enough time to recover between races.
He was also rested properly to just go out and win races on Saturday’s final day.
And what about Bloomfield?
Well, he too was well prepared for the possible matchup with Taylor in the 4x400m.
The quarter-miler was pulled from the 200m to keep him fresh during the championships and he also revealed that he was instructed by his coach to take it easy and not chase his Class One 400m record of 44.93 secs, set at last year’s meet.
“I got instructions from my coach not to break the record,” Bloomfield told the Jamaica Observer after his event, admitting that the coaches told him that “they are going to need me in the relays later.”
Besides the three rounds of 400m, Bloomfield also ran three rounds of relays.
This was compared to Taylor, who had a very busy Champs 2016 leading up to the final race.
The 16-year-old had featured in nine races already, including a brilliant anchor leg to push Calabar to victory in the 4x400m heats on Thursday night.
With Calabar already crowned Champs 2016 Boys champion before the final event, the focus was now on having fun and closing the championships the same way they did in 2015.
We fast forward quickly to the anchor leg because that is where the excitement was, since you can watch the video for the rest of the detail.
Taylor grabbed a five-metre lead ahead of Bloomfield on the last leg, but the KC man quickly erased that gap when moving from third to first in the opening 150m of the anchor leg.
And with a superior personal best, fresher legs and even a height advantage, just to throw that part in — we all thought Bloomfield was well placed to turn on the burners in the last stretch after building a three-metre lead of his own.
But little did we know that we were about to see the total opposite.
Watch the video below and you will see what I am talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=robdKk0Ue6o
