|
When I wrote last month about
Jamaica assembling another Track and Field Dream Team
how could I or anyone else have guessed that this would be the most
amazing Dream Team ever!
We sent a mere 57
athletes to the Games and brought home 11 medals. The US sent 596
athletes and won 110 medals, China's 804 won 100 medals. The New
York Times goes even further with a graph showing
countries' per capita Gold Medals. On a
pro-rated basis we beat them all! How do we do it? There's a humourous email doing the circuits supposedly coming from the World
Anti-Doping Agency stating that yam, dasheen, cornmeal porridge,
Supligen, etc. have been added to the list of banned substances. Is
it in our food, our water, the air we breathe? Or is it something in
the very soul of each athlete? The je ne sais quoi in Arthur
Wint, in Don Quarrie, Merlene Ottey, Deon Hemmings and, by the
bucket full, in Usain Bolt and our current crop of Super Achievers?
Or might it actually be
in our very genes?
The air has changed in our small country
within the last few weeks, the poorest beggar walks tall with pride,
road rage has turned to tolerance, gunfire in the troubled
inner city is almost quiet, little boys in the playground no longer
play "Police and Thief" but rather "Usain and Asafa." Everyone wears a
yellow shirt and flies our flag on their car. The local press
reported that In the depressed and gang ridden Maxfield Avenue
community where violence reigns, one slightly built woman tearing
across the finish line has achieved what the police and politicians
could not: rival gangs celebrating together, their hatred of each
other forgotten. Is this overwhelming feeling of National Pride
something we can bottle and dose out over time as needed?
Some Highlights:
 |
Lightning Strikes
Jamaicans have
long known that within the
Cockpit Country we find rare and amazing things to
be found nowhere else on Earth. In the foothills of the
Cockpit Country lies a tiny village called Sherwood
Content. It is here that the Bolt family make their home
and it is from here that the
Bolt of Lightning which struck the Beijing Olympics
originated. By the time he was fifteen, our local press
had given him the name the world now knows. He
celebrated his twenty second birthday in between
breaking records and for his birthday gave his homeland
a greater gift than could be imagined. Though many who
had followed his Junior career expected no less!
Usain broke
three world records in his three events:
100m: 9.69sec
200m: 19.30sec
4x100m Relay: 37.10sec (with Asafa Powell,
Michael Frater, Dwight Thomas & Nesta Carter) |
Girls
Rule
Who can forget the excitement we all felt in the Women's
100m I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I
saw not one, not two, but three flashes of green and
gold crossing the finish line! Even modern high-tech
equipment could find no third place! How often do you
see the pure wide-eyed joy that appeared on Shelly-Ann's
face when she realised she'd won!
From lt to rt: Gold Medalist
Shelly-Ann Fraser, joint Silver Medalists
Kerron Stewart (who also took Bronze in the 200m)
and
Sherone Simpson (who won Gold in 2004 in the Relay) |
Getty Images |
 |
Veronica Repeats
Veronica Campbell Brown is one of the few veterans
among our 2008 winners. She had won Silver in Sydney in
2000 and two Golds in Athens in 2004 as well as a
Bronze. But, said some people, she's not as fast as she
used to be. What did they mean? well, she barely won
Gold in the World Championships last year and she came
fourth in our local 100m trials. How critical can you
get! The fact is she did win the Gold last year and her
fourth place in the trials was 10.8, a lot faster than
the first of many other countries.
And
Veronica did not disappoint; she went flying down the
track like a thoroughbred race horse and won yet another
Olympic Gold Medal in the 200m. |
Hurdling to Glory
Not many people knew the name
Melaine Walker before the Olympics but she has been
competing in Junior Championships since the age of
fifteen. Melaine comes from one of the poorest most
crime-ridden areas of Kingston and is living proof that
Gold can be found anywhere; a child growing up in
underprivileged surroundings can succeed and succeed
brilliantly. From underprivileged surroundings to won of
the most privileged circles in the world! Melaine broke
the twelve year old Olympics 400m Hurdles record of
countrywoman Deon Hemmings, who grinned with pride on
TVJ that her record had been broken by another Jamaican. |
Caribbean Net News |
 |
Still
on Top
Asafa Powell flew across the finish line as we hoped
he would in the Men's 4x100m Relay. Asafa has shone like
a star for several years but was not exceptional in
Athens. He went on however to take the World Record and
hold it for three years. In Beijing he came fourth in
the 100m semifinal. We had feared that Asafa
suffered from the "Ottey syndrome" and could perform
brilliantly everywhere but at the Olympics. He proved us
wrong! |
|
sporting-heroes.net
A
Blast from the Past
Does anyone recognise this picture? The technical
leader of the Athletics Team to Beijing was none other
than
Don Quarrie, now fifty seven, winner of Olympic
Gold, Silver and Bronze in 1976, 1980 and 1984. |
The
Forgotten Champ
Michael Frater has been running in International
meets from 2000 and has won several World class medals
including Gold at the Pan American Games in 2003. Had he
been born and competed at another time he may well have
been the next Quarrie. He ran his leg of the Gold Medal
4x199m with amazing speed. He placed third in the
local trials and unfortunately that could be the story
of his life as fate has decided that
this excellent sprinter who performs so well was born at
a time when not one, but two, supermen rule the tracks. |
|
The
Complete Olympian
In ancient Greece athletes gathered from all over to
compete. They did not come as sprinters or long distance
runners, as pole-vaulters or javelin throwers. The
athletes at the Ancient Games competed in all events. In
modern times we have the Decathlon, a harsh trial in
which competitors take part in ten events.
Maurice Smith has taken part in decathlons since
1999. In Athens in 2004 he placed fourteenth. More
recently in 2006 he placed second in the Commonwealth
Games and in 2007 he won in the Pan American Games and
placed second in the World Championship.
Despite
being plagued by injury, Maurice performed admirably and
placed ninth overall in this brutal set of events in
which, of the forty competitors who started, only twenty
eight actually finished. |
Eurosport |
samanthaalbert.com |
Reaching New Heights
Samantha Albert is the first Jamaican to enter the
Equestrian Events at the Olympic Games. Samantha has the
choice of competing for any of four countries: Canada
(where she was born), Sweden (her husband's birthplace),
Great Britain (father's birthplace) or Jamaica (where
her mother was born). She has always represented
Jamaica, where she grew up.
Though
there is usually no shortage of funding for our Track &
Field Superstars, other events take a lot of work to
attract sponsorship. Plus with horse events you also
have to send two horses! While big-money sponsors fight
over Usain, Asafa and Veronica; Samantha has a very hard
time raising funds but she still insists on riding for
Jamaica. |
|
NBC has
done a great slideshow of our champion athletes over the
years, from Arthur Wint and Herb McKenley to Usain,
Asafa, Veronica, Shelly-Ann, etc.
NBC Jamaican Track Stars |
How Everyone Did
And we're already
preparing for 2016!
World Junior Championships |
