Michael Clarke, the head coach of six-time defending ISSA Boys’ Championships winners Calabar High School, has denied reports that the team will not take part in this Saturday’s staging of the 42nd Gibson/McCook Relays.

Reports have been circulating sometime last week that Calabar High would not participate, but yesterday Clarke denied that there were any plans to stay away from the one-day relay carnival.

“I have been hearing these stories as well and I don’t know where they are coming from,” Clarke said. “All being well, we will be there.”

It was heard that the team could be held out of the meet as punishment to some of the team members due to an incident that took place at their training camp in December, while another rumour is that they are staying away after arch-rivals Kingston College failed to attend the McKenley/Wint Classic staged by Calabar last month.

One of the races that a lot of track and field fans would be anticipating on Saturday is the high school boys’ 4x400m race after the Calabar team ran a high school world record three minutes, 5.04 seconds at the Corporate Area Championships held at the National Stadium in Kingston last Friday.

The team of Anthony Carpenter (47.1) Christopher Taylor (44.9) Shamar Chambers (46.9) and Malik King-James (46.1) blew away the rest of the field, but Clarke told the Jamaica Observer he was not surprised at how fast the team ran.

Asked whether the team could repeat or beat that performance on Saturday, Clarke said he would not want to speculate. Calabar High failed to win any of the boys’ high school relays at the Gibson/McCook Relays last year as Kingston College won six relays, while Excelsior High and St Jago won two each.