A plan for sport success

I recall the performances of Arthur Wint, Herb McKenley, George Kerr, Malcolm Spence, George Rhoden, Don Quarry, Merlene Ottey and, more recently, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake, Nickel Ashmeade, Elaine Thompson, and the indomitable, never-to-be forgotten Usain Bolt.

Powell has broken ten seconds for the 100 metres on 95 occasions and Thompson won both the 100 and 200 metres events at the Rio Olympics, but these remarkable achievements were over-shadowed by the memorable performances of Bolt.

Young Jamaicans on the horizon include Christopher Taylor, who at the age of 15 years won the gold medal in the 400 metres event at the 2015 World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia, in the remarkable time of 45.27 seconds. That year he also became the Carifta Games record holder in the 400 metres with a time of 46.64 seconds.

Others are Jaheel Hyde, Tiffany James, Junelle Bronfield, Shannon Kalawan and Stacey-Ann Williams, who won a total of eight medals — two gold, three silver and three bronze — at the 2016 World Junior Championships. At that meeting, our Khalifa St Fort earned the bronze medal in the 100 metres.

The Jamaican “athlete factory” is producing quality athletes, both male and female, on a regular basis.

We see and read about these athletes and their excellent performances, but unseen in the background are the trained sport administrators, coaches, masseurs, nutritionists and other personnel who continuously give support to the athletes.

The GC Foster College of Physical Education & Sport, a gift from Cuba in 1980, offers courses in coaching, massage therapy, sports fitness, refereeing and umpiring in sport, and Bachelors and Masters degrees in physical education and sport.

Young Jamaican athletes are prepared from the primary school level, through secondary school, before the best qualify for international competition, a period of many years of coaching, competition, and hard work.

The Jamaican Government, recognising sport as a major contributor to national development, established the Jamaican Sports Development Foundation in 1955.

Then in 2013, the Office of the Prime Minister issued a White Paper establishing a framework for the development of sport in Jamaica over the next decade. The Jamaicans have a plan for success.

Unfortunately, we Trinis continue to send inexperienced youngsters to be humiliated at women soccer and women hockey tournaments, and boxers to be knocked out in the first round.

I recall our inexperienced heavyweight representative, one of the Baker brothers from Tobago, being knocked out by Theofilo Stephenson of Cuba in seconds of the first round. At the Rio Olympics it was the turn of our super heavyweight Nigel Paul to be sent to “dreamland” in the first round by the African champion, Efe Ajagba of Nigeria.

Nevertheless, we have produced a few excellent performers in international competitions — Hasely Crawford, Wendell Mottley, Ato Boldon, George Bovell, Keshorn Walcott and members of our relay teams, and our 1979 world champion netball team.

Not to be forgotten are our weightlifters Rodney Wilkes, Lennox Kilgour, Carl de Souza, Brandon Bailey and Hugo Gittens; in cricket the indomitable Brian Lara; footballers Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy and Shaka Hislop; cyclists Compton Gonsalves and Roger Gibbon; our lone world boxing champion Claude Noel and our “lightweight” Cleopatra Borel- Brown, competing in the shot put event against some heavyweight six-footers.

Jamaica can already identify prospective new talent for the 2020 Olympics and beyond. Can we? Where are our replacement s for George Bovell, Richard Thompson and Cleopatra Borel- Brown?