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.

Usain Bolt and I

There is a big party homecoming planned for Usain Bolt this Saturday at his (and mine) Alma Mater, William Knibb Memorial High in Trelawny. The all-day, all night affair will culminate in a grand live stage show that should feature Jamaica’s leading Dancehall artistes. Usain has been in the island since last week, but with his unparalleled performance in the Beijing Olympics in China, he is an unofficial National Hero.

Usain has unintentionally stolen the spotlight from the other athletes and I feel sad for all of them. Crowds lined the streets for miles in Kingston to welcome him and he was appointed Ambassador-At-Large. Ambassador Bolt truly deserves all the accolades and it couldn’t happen to a finer person. I am honored to know him personally, seeing him grow and blossoming into the greatest of the great sprinters of all time. However, unlike a lot of people, I haven’t forgotten Veronica Campbell-Brown (like Usain, she’s from Trelawny), Shelly-Ann Fraser, Melainie Walker, Keron Stewart, Sherone Simpson, Asafa Powel, Michael Frater (can’t forget him, he’s also from my parish, Trelawny).

Speaking of Trelawny, my parish has produced arguably some of the finest track & field athletes from any comparable area in the entire world. These athletes are all from within a 30 mile radius and include Usain Bolt (the world’s fastest man), Michael Frater, Omar Brown (Commonwealth 200m Champion who was taught by my brother at Albert Town High School), Veronica Campbell (World 100m and Olympic 200m Champion who is now married to Omar Brown), Marvin Anderson, who also went to William Knibb, the infamous Ben Johnson (who was a year or two ahead of me at Falmouth All-Age School ), Debbi-Ann Paris (Olympics 400m fifth place), Steve Mullings, Michael Green (also a William knibb Old Boy), Inez & Yvette Turner (Olympic 800m)to name a few. Indeed, 3 out of 4 members of Jamaica’s male 4×100m relay team for this Olympics are from this parish. However Marvin Anderson got injured and the number fell to two (Usain Bolt and Michael Frater) as he had to withdraw. It is arguable that a fit Trelawny team comprised of Usain Bolt, Michael Frater, Marvin Anderson and Omar Brown could win the gold medal at the Olympics!

Now I am learning that Rosemarie Whyte, one of our 400 meters runner is also from Trelawny along with Ricardo Chambers. 200 meters runner Christopher Williams‘ mother is reportedly also from Trelawny. We have totally overshadowed the other 13 parishes. These athletes have forced the rest of the country to respect us and have them wondering what it is about Trelawny that makes our athletes so good. People are talking about the food (yams) which are a staple here. No one knows for sure, but I think it is genetically linked. No doubt, we are truly special!

Guess what? It is only going to get better! the track programs in the local schools are now filled to capacity as everyone has been motivated by the performance of our athletes. Parents will now give their children 100% support although they have supported them well in the past, instead now every parent more passionately wants their children to do track and that augurs well for Jamaica’s future.

Blog To The World sends congratulations to all the athletes who made the Jamaican team to the Olympics, not just those who won. You all made us proud! Yu zi mi!

With 10,708 athletes competing from 204 countries for 906 medals in 28 sports, two competitors will be propelled into immortality by their outstanding performance in Beijing 2008: Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.

photo credit: sagicel

Michael dominated the pool, breaking Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals set at the Munich Olympics in 1972, snatching 8; seven of them being World Records. This adds to the 6 he bagged in Athens in 2004 making him the closest human relative to a fish. The 6 ft 4 inches, 195 pounds, 23 year old native of Baltimore Maryland, confessed to doing nothing but eating, sleeping and swimming.  To be swimming in 8 events is no mean feat as each has its rigorous rounds. To win all including a 7 World Records is truly super-human. He swam 17 times over 9 days breaking the record in 4 out of 5 individual events in which he participated. His 3 relay teams also set world records.

Phelps who started swimming at age 7, made his Olympic debut in Sydney at age 15 when he qualified for the 200m fly by finishing second at U.S. Trials, but despite his age and lack of international experience, he made the final in Sydney and finished fifth. Five months after that race, Phelps became the sport’s youngest male world-record holder when he claimed the 200m fly mark. Now we will speak of him with the same reverence as Mark Spitz.

photo credit: rich115

Usain Bolt won three gold medals on the track, all in World Record times.  He won the 100 meters in 10.69, the 200 meters in 19.30 and ran the third leg on Jamaica’s 4×100 meters team that posted 37.10 seconds. Bolt will also be long remembered for his dancing and celebrations after winning the events, and people who don’t understand him have criticized him for everything from walking barefooted after the race, not shaking hands after the race, beating his chest after the race, lifting up his shirt, looking in the camera and saying “I am number one”, his mother running through the crowd to hug her son in the front row and sticking out his tongue are just a few that come to mind.

I have never heard a champion so criticized, yet his records will stand and we will soon forget the critics. The 21 year old from Coxheath, Sherwood Content in Trelawny has realized his true potential after winning the World Junior 200 meters title at 15 years old. What makes his performance more impressive is the fact that the 100 meters was never his race; he was originally a 200 and 400 meters runner and only ran a few competitive 100 meters races before this Olympic win.

There are other memorable results for me from Beijing 2008:

1. The dominance of the Jamaican sprinters on the track.
2. The brilliant performance of the British in hauling in 47 medals, including 19 golds, 13 silver  and 15 bronze coming from 9 golds, 9 silver and 12 bronze in 2004.
3. The Chinese surprisingly winning the overall medal standings over the USA and Russia with 51 golds to the USA 36 and Russia 23.
4. The Swedes having their worst Olympics since 1896, placing 56th in the medal table, winning only 4 silvers and a bronze down from 4 golds, two silver and a bronze in 2004.
5. The Jamaican team placing 13th out of 204 countries with 6 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals up from 2 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze in 2004.
6. The depth of the USA in winning the most silver, 38 and the most bronze, 36 to go along with 36 gold medals, winning in the total medal count 110 to China’s 100.
7. Jason Lezak posting the fastest relay split in history, 46.06, to catch Frenchman Alain Bernard for the win, by just .08 of a second in the 4×100 meters freestyle relay to keep Michael Phelp’s hopes of 8 gold medals alive.
8. Rebecca Lyn Hammon from Rapid City, South Dakota, USA, playing for Russia against her native USA in women’s basketball.
9. USA “Dream Team” re-claiming gold after losing in the last 2 Olympics.
10. Argentina re-claiming gold by defeating Brazil 3-0 in semi-final and Nigeria 1-0 in the final of men’s soccer.
11. The USA defeating Brazil in women’s soccer.
12. The performance of the Chinese “baby” girls in gymnastics.
13. The brilliant opening ceremony.
14. South Korea upsetting Cuba for baseball gold.
15. China sweeping the medals in table tennis (one of my favorite sports).
16. Ethiopian and Kenyan dominance of the long distance athletics races.
17. USA and Jamaica disastrous baton changes in sprint relays (USA in men and women’s 4×100 meters and Jamaica in women’s 4×100 meters).
18. The poor performance of South Africa in bagging only one medal, a silver and placing 71st in the medal table.
19. Matthew Mitcham of Australia winning the Men’s Platform, preventing a clean sweep of the diving medals by China.
20. Chris Hoy of Great Britain winning 3 gold medals in cycling.

It has been a wonderful, memorable olympic games. There are many more great moments and everyone will have their favorites, but these are the ones that will stick with me. Now on to London 2012.

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:

Usain Bolt

It was pandemonium and wild celebrations as Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won the Olympic 100m sprint in a World record time of 9.69 seconds (breaking his own record of 9.72. What was so surprising about this performance is that he started celebrating with about 20 meters to go. Second place went to Trinidadian Richard Thompson in 9.89 while Walter Diggs of the USA was third in 9.91. Official Results.

This is a sweet victory for me as I know Usain personally. He is from Sherwood Content in my parish of Trelawny. When he was at high school (William Knibb Memorial High) almost every evening he used to hang out in my video store before going home so I have always watched his progress over the years.

It was a bitter sweet event as his teamate Asafa Powell, who was expected to challenge Bolt for the gold medal, once again failed to perform to expectations in a final and finished a disappointing fourth in 9.95. Another Jamaican (also from Trelawny) finished fifth in 9.97 - going below 10.0 for the fist time in his career.

At the moment, there is a motorcade in progress in Falmouth, so I am going to celebrate.

photo credit: anton hazewinkel

photo credit: anton hazewinkel

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