This should have been posted from last month, but I can’t find any time to mess around with my photography hobby. Actually, that was not my only problem. I have bad memories of that day; while I was busy taking photos with my Nikon D40, a pick pocket was taking advantage of the thick crowd and stealing my new Sony Ericsson cellphone, a gift from my brother.

Anyway, the Jamaican athletes were treated to a massive welcome in Falmouth, Trelawny on October 7, 2008. Trelawny was chosen as we had by far the most representatives of any parish. Trelawnyites Usain Bolt, Marvin Anderson, Michael Frater, Ricardo Chambers, Veronica Campbell and Rosemarie Whyte were all present. Some elder residents of Falmouth remarked that it was the first time they were seeing the Falmouth square full to capacity. Asafa Powell, Melanie Walker, Shelly Ann Frasier, Kerone Stewart and the rest of the team were all also there.

Usain Bolt returned to his home parish as a king and reveled in the attention and adoration. The tie of his alma mater William Knibb Memorial High School (which was just a mile and a half away), was wrapped around his head and another was around his neck. The athletes spent about an hour signing autographs until they were ready to leave. Here are photos from this memorable occasion.

The gold medal winning, world record breaking run of Usain Bolt in the 200 meters men at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, China (19.30 seconds) further strengthened by the Olympic record breaking run of Melanie Walker in the 400 meters hurdles final (54.62), sparked off wild celebrations starting in Usain’s hometown of Sherwood Content, near Falmouth in Trelawny. There was a massive motorcade and partying throughout the day and night.

Productivity was at its lowest in history as almost everyone took to the streets in wild celebrations that end with a street dance in Sherwood. I was too tired to make it to Sherwood in the night but here are some photos taken during the day, The full photo set can be found here on my photo blog.

photo credit: rich115

What a day it was for Jamaican athletics, as the increased dominance of the world by the tiny 4,411 square miles island continued. The twelve year old 200 meter record seemed so impregnable, but Usain turned the doubters into believers today as he broke the 19.32 seconds record previously held by Michael Johnson in easily winning the event in 19.30 seconds ahead of Churandy Martina of the Netherland Antilles and Wallace Spearmon of the USA. Martin and Spearmon were both disqualified for running out of lane and the Americans Shane Crawford and Dix Walter were handed silver and bronze in 19.96 and 19.98 respectively.

This has been the single greatest sprinting achievement in the history of the sport as he became the first person to set World Records in the two events (having previously done 9.69 in the 100m) at the Olympic games and the first person since Karl Lewis in 1984 to win the double (100m and 200m). Not even the great Jesse Owens accomplished that double world record feat. after the race Bolt did his version of the popular Jamaican dance, “Gully Creeper”. After the 100 meters record, he did the dance called “No Linger”, which means “don’t waste any time”.

Melanie Walker

Fifteen minutes later, Melanie Walker continued in the footsteps of fellow countrywoman Deon Hemmings by taking the 400 meters hurdles in a National and Olympic Record of 52.64 seconds. Walker, unbeaten in the event this year, executed her race perfectly by accelerating in the last 100 meters to win by over a second over Tosta Sheena of the USA in 53.70 and Tasha Danvers of Great Britain in 53.84.

Melanie, is from Gordon Lane off Maxfield Avenue, located in a tough, violent, gang plagued area in East Central St. Andrew. Like 100 meters silver medallist Kerron Stewart, she went to  high school at St.Jago High where at various times in her school career she ran 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters and 110 meters hurdles. That made her a rounded athlete and her considerable sprinting speed helped her in the last 100 meters when she won moving away from the field.

Melanie’s victory was very special to Jamaicans as Usain was expected to win, but people were wondering if she would fold under the pressure. she did not disapoint and had the entire nation in a frenzy. Before the race she gave a small demo of the Jamaican dance called “Dutty Wine”, thereby underlying the importance of dancehall reggae to the athletes.

Coach Stephen Francis

Her winning performance underlined the success of Coach Stephen Francis and the MVP club located at the High Performance center in Kingston. Coach Francis needs to be given his credit as the greatest coach in the entire world today, having his athletes cop the following medals:

1. Shelly-Ann Fraser - 100 meters women: gold.
2. Sherone Simpson - 100 meters women: silver.
3. Sherika Williams - 400 meters women: silver.
4. Melanie Walker - 400m hurdles women: gold.
5. Jerome Mason (Great Britain) - High Jump men: silver.

He is also the coach of 100 meter 5th placed finalists Asafa Powell (former world record holder) and 6th place Michael Frater; Markino Buckley (7th place in 400 meters hurdles men final)  along with seven other top class athletes.

Melanie Walker

Coach Francis started the MVP track club after being tired of seeing Jamaica lose talent in the tough collegiate system in the USA. Many of our most talented athletes over the years gave up the sport due to various problems caused by the relocation. It is now reaping rich benefits as more and more of our athletes are staying or coming back home, thereby realizing their true potential.

The double victory sparked wild celebrations and a huge green, gold and black motorcade in Trelawny.

Jamaican Lips -celebrating Jamaica's Olympic victories in Falmouth ,Trelawny on Wednesday

Little Jamaica, the poor developing country of less than 2.7 million people is now leading the athletics medal table with strong medal contending performances expected to come in the women’s 200 meters in which we have 3 ladies who have the potential to win (Veronica Campbell, Kerone Stewart and Sherone Simpson) , men’s decathlon (Maurice Smith), men and women’s 4×100 meters relay and to a lesser extent, women’s 4×400 meters relay.

Scorpion disco will be playing in Sherwood Content tonight to celebrate Usain’s 22nd birthday after Jamaica plays Canada in World Cup Football qualifying against Canada in Canada. Photos of the motorcade and celebration in his hometown can be found here and the full set is available on my photo blog.

photo credit: Lim CK

When 21 year old Shelly-Ann Fraser won the Women’s 100 meter title at the Olympic Games in Beijing on Sunday morning (Jamaica time), it was a huge slap in the face of many Jamaicans who were advocating bumping her from the 100 meters to make space for (as they said) the more experienced Veronica Campbell-Brown, the reigning World Championship gold medalist in the event.

They conveniently chose to ignore the fact that Campbell-Brown was beaten into fourth place at the qualifying National Trials by Kerone Stewart (the winner), Sherone Simpson (second placed) and Shelly-Ann (third). They also chose to ignore the rules of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) that stated that the first three will qualify for the event and the fourth placed runner will be an alternate (in case one of the others cannot compete). Fourth placed will also be the 4th person to make the relay team.

There were debates all over the country and the sports talk shows were abuzz with the topic. It was a dreadful flashback to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when public pressure was brought to bear on the JAAA to replace Peter Gaye Dowdie with Merlene Ottey for the 100 meters event. Peter Gaye placed third at the National championship in Kingston and Merlene placed fourth, They bowed to the pressure and Ottey was brought in for the Olympics and this of course devastated Peter Gaye Dowdie. What was the result? Merlene placed 4th (now third with the subsequent disqualification of Marion Jones on the grounds of using performance enhancing drugs). Not long after, Merlene complained bitterly about her treatment by the JAAA and switched nationality to Slovenia.

We are a Third World country with aspirations of moving up to first world status in the next 2-3 decades.This is a fleeting dream and it is our mentality which will force us to remain in the Third World for a long time. There are some extremely selfish people among us who generally think wherever they go, someone must pull out all the stops to make way for them. This has gotten progressively worse over the last 20 years and works hand in hand with the increasing corruption. Jamaicans call it a “bligh” which literally means “give me a break even though I have a deficiency, fault or am not qualified.” All rules, systems and order are ignored to get this bligh and they have progressed to a level of severe indiscipline with the thinking that anywhere they go, anything they do, provision must be made to get a break, no matter at whose or what expense.  Jamaicans were asking the JAAA to give Veronica a “bligh” at the expense of Shelly Ann and even Sherone who placed second at the trials. These girls booked their places through discipline, hard work, dedication and performance when it mattered most; all pre-requsite traits of a champion.

Another problem which relates to this victory is our propensity to think with our hearts and not our brains. Many  of us tend make decisions based on what or who we like; rationale, performance and ability take a really distant back burner. We have gotten to love Veronica as she gave us a gold in the 200m and anchored the 4×100m team to victory at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She is the darling of women’s track & field in Jamaica. This should not form the basis of our judgment. The fact that we love her for what she did in 2004, does not give us reason to break all the rules and destroy another person’s career and dreams to include her.

There are several lessons to be learnt from this victory:

1. Respect rules and regulations and stop trying to find your way around them for your own selfish reasons.
2. No one person is bigger than the system that governs it.
3. Do not stifle our young talents.
4. Do not make decisions based on sentimental feelings, rather make decisions on reasoning and rationale.
5. With discipline and hard work, you can achieve anything.
6. No matter what the odds against us, never give up.
7. Don’t let the negatives that people say get you down, rather use it as motivation to attain higher goals.
8. It is more important if you have confidence in yourself than if someone has confidence in you.

“Big up” Shelly-Ann. Your victory to me is more than a gold medal. It is the lessons learnt from your hard work, tenacity, dedication, focus, dilligence and strength of character. You are only 21 and i only heard of you in April, but I have nothing but respect for you, having proved your detractors wrong and hopefully taught your nation a lesson.

Although he was not the first person to execute the Fosbury flop (Bruce Quande from Montana was photographed using the technique in 1963), Dick Fosbury’s introduction of the style in the Olympic competition in Mexico City 1968 and his ultimate victory in the event, has totally revolutionized the high jump event.

Prior to this, most jumpers used the Straddle technique, Western Roll, Eastern cut-off or even Scissors-Jump to clear the bar.
photo credit: Ambrosio Photography

Given that landing surfaces had previously been sandpits or low piles of matting, high jumpers of earlier years had to land on their feet or at least land carefully to prevent injury. With the advent of deep foam matting high jumpers were able to be more adventurous in their landing styles and hence experiment with styles of jumping.

The method used is to sprint diagonally towards the bar, jump off the outside foot, then curve and leap head-first, back-downwards over the bar in a rolling motion keeping as much of the body as possible below the bar. When high jumpers perform this jump, they bend their body in such a way that it is possible for the athlete to clear the bar while his or her center of mass does not. In fact, the body’s center of mass can be kept as much as 20 cm under the pole.

By 1980, 13 of the 16 Olympic finalists were using the Fosbury flop. Watching the Beijing Olympics competition yesterday, all the high jumpers use the technique. I cannot recall seeing someone in major competition use any other technique in recent memory. The high jump is my favorite field event as I competed in it at high school using the Fosbury flop, after experimenting with other styles. I jumped much higher than I could with the other styles and it just looked cooler.

The high jump event has come a long way from 1968 when Dick Fosbury of the United States jumped 2.24 meters (7 feet 4 and 1/4 inches) and broke the old Olympic record of 2.18 meters (7 feet 1 and 3/4 inches) held by Valery Brumel of Russia. The WR at the time was 2.28 meters (7 feet 5 and 3/4 inches) set Brumel in 1963. The fosbury flop has taken the record all the way to 2.45m (8 feet 1/2 inch) held by Javier Sotomayor of Cuba.

In honor of this great technical revolution in the sport and in keeping with the Olympic spirit, here is the video of that momentous high jump event at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City along with a collection of other interesting jumping videos.

Jamaica has created history by placing 1,2,3 in the Women’s 100m Final at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing. It was the first time in the history of this particular event at the Olympics that one country was sweeping all the medals. It was also the first time since 1988 that one country was sweeping both men (Usain Bolt) and women’s 100meters.

Shelly-Ann Fraser from the troubled Kingston inner city community of Waterhouse, won the event easily in a time of 10.78, the joint fastest time for the year and the second fastest time ever by a Jamaican woman (Merlene Ottey was fastest with 10.74). It was the best medal haul a country could hope for as the other 2 athletes, Sherone Simpson and Kerone Stewart were in a dead heat in 10.98 and will both receive the silver medal.

The 21 year old Fraser, prior to this season, was previously unknown even to Jamaicans. She burst on the scene at the Jamaican National trials earlier this year, defeating reigning 100 meters World Champion, Veronica Campbell-Brown into fourth place to eliminate her from the 100meters event at the Olympics.

Campbell-Brown will run in the 200 meters (in which she has the fastest time in the world this year) along with the 4×100m relay. Incidentally, Jamaicans have the 4 fastest times in the world this year by Veronica Campbell-Brown, Kerone Stewart, Sherone Simpson and Shelly-Ann Fraser in that order. Fraser failed to qualify for the Olympics in this event so another 1,2,3 placing is not impossible, though American Allison Felix will strongly disagree.

It is quite ironic that many Jamaicans were suggesting that Shelly_Ann Fraser should have been scratched to make way for Veronica Campbell-Brown, as they said Fraser had no experience. Now, the in-experienced Fraser is  Olympic Champion! I hope those doubters have learnt their lesson. She was a winner at the local Boys and Girls Championship for High Schools several years ago, but got complacent, stopped training and faded from memory. Like so many athletes, she was given a life-line, training at the local MVP club under coach Stephen Francis. Now, she is the first Jamaican woman to win a gold medal in the 100 meters event.

The Americans lodged a protest after the race, claiming that their own runner Tori Edwards false started and it was not called, causing her to finish last. This is quite unlike the US and seems quite unsportsmanlike. This appeal was rightly rejected and resulted in the Jamaicans having to wait until Monday to fill the flagpoles with the black, green and gold at the medal presentation.

Thanks to the IAAF for its rigid drug policy that has somewhat leveled the playing field allowing the athletes from the Caribbean region to rise, at least that’s what they are saying in Jamaica!

Here is a Jamaicanized video of pictures from both men and women’s 100 meter finals:

Dancehall Divas in Concert, a live reggae dancehall event at Club Naz in Falmouth, Jamaica took place last night.It showcased the leading female artistes in Jamaican dancehall. Miss Thing, Diva, Sasha, Spice and D’Angel were there, but missing were Macka Diamond, Patra and Lady G. The undisputed Queen of dancehall Marion Hall, aka Lady Saw was not billed, but gave a surprise appearance and as expected, stole the show and made us forget about the two absentees. Here are a few of the photos I took, but the full photoset can be viewed here on my photoblog, amateurphotoblogger.com.

The rest of the photo set can be viewed here

It just dawned on me that I have a relatively unused Panasonic GS-90 in my drawer. I bought it 2 years ago at Abe’s of Maine with an extended life battery, all the accessories anyone could need and hardly ever use it. I’m so in love with still photography and my Nikon D40, that I sometimes forget I have this camcorder. Yesterday (Independence Day), there was a wonderful civic ceremony that included a marching band made up of teenagers.

Drummers perform at Independence Day Ceremony in Falmouth

The band did a really good job, especially playing the National Anthem and there was no video camera there to preserve that exceptional rendition. I took still photos and they will be uploaded to Amateur Photoblogger.

The importance of the camcorder became more evident to me today when going over some old DV tapes used last year, I saw a brief but absolutely priceless clip of a close friend who was killed earlier this year. It was really touching and made me realize that if I  had not used it that day, I would not have such a precious memory preserved.

I will have to start using my camcorder again and upload videos to YouTube as a motivator so that I can preserve and share all those memories. Learning YouTube stuff like editing, outputting and uploading video to the web should be fun.

The day in Falmouth was a memorable one, starting with a civic ceremony (that was poorly attended as usual) and then a Street Dance and concert featuring L.U.S.T. (Tony Curtis, Singing Melody, Thriller U and the 4th member that I can’t recall right now ) and Turbulance. I finished the night at the local hot spot, Club Nazz, ending up at Donna’s till daylight. Incidentally, there will be a live concert inside Club Naz on Friday called Divas of Dancehall featuring Macka Diamond, D’Angel, Patra, Lady G and Sasha. I should be there taking some photos which I will post to Amateur Photoblogger. Well, got to go catch some well needed sleep!

Jamaicans continue to do well in international sprinting leading up to the Olympics in Beijing when Melanie Walker posted a world-leading and personal best time of 53.48 seconds at the Herculis Grand Prix in Monaco on Tuesday, making her the favorite for the event at the Olympics.

Her closest rivals are Americans Tiffany Williams (53.54) and Sheena Tosta (53.58), and the field is wide open as several ‘big-guns’ in the event will not compete. these include two of the 3 medalists from last year’s World Championships (Australia’s Jana Rawlinson and Russia’s Yulia Petchenkina), along with China’s Huang Xiaoxia and American Lashanda Demus (who was the world leader until Melanie’s performance on Tuesday).

Walker has silver and bronze at the World Junior level in this event but failed to advance to the final of the event at last year’s World Championship. She has been steadily improving ever since and seems to be peaking at the right time.

Jamaicans are optimistic that this Olympics will be their best with our best chances expected to be in the 100m men (Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell) , Men’s 200m (Usain Bolt), Womens 100m (Kerion Stewart, Sherone Simpson, Shelly Ann Fraser, Womens 200m (Veronica Campbell), Melanie in the 400m Hurdles. They are also expected to do well in the relays, especially the 4×100m for both men and women.

Jamaica Olympic committee chairman Mike Fennell today disclosed that a Jamaican athlete has tested positive for a banned substance. Neither the athlete nor the substance was named but Mr. Fennel went as far saying it was not one of the popular athletes.

Notwithstanding, i am extremely disappointed with this result as I don’t want others to think that we are this good because we are cheats. Anyway, it is better the athlete is caught now, rather than to embarrass the country in the Olympics.

Olympic Stadium Under Construction

photo credit: Theo W L Jones

A CVM television news report aired tonight pointed to the men’s 100 meters due to the fact that on the Olympice committee’s website, only one name has been ommitted from the original team and it was an alternate runner; not one of the top 4. The top 4 was Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Michael Frater and Marvin Anderson. CVM reported that only Julian Dunkley’s name was missing but also stressed that it could be an error on the part of the committee.

Let’s hope that no more bad news hits us before or during the Olympics.