DARREL BROWN, Trinidad and Tobago’s new junior world record holder, produced a remarkable burst of speed and awesome finishing power yesterday to grab the silver medal in the men’s 100 metres at the 9th IAAF World Champion-ships at the Stade de France, Paris. It was an historic and memorable performance by the teenager who has firmly established himself as the world’s second best senior 100-metre sprinter for the year. And at 18 years and 318 days, Brown becomes the youngest athlete to ever win an individual medal at the World Senior Outdoor Championships. He clocked 10.08 secs and was pipped by one-hundredth of a second by Kittitian Common-wealth champion Kim Collins who made it a Caribbean one-two by clocking 10.07. It was a blanket finish with Englishmen Darren Campbell, the new bronze-medallist, and Dwain Chambers (fourth) also timed at 10.08 secs. No other 100-metre final at the World Championships  was as close as yesterday’s and it took the photo-finish camera to separate the medallists.

Running in lane four and with the second slowest start of the eight finalists, Brown recovered admirably and give it his all to catch the fast advancing pack at about the 85-metre mark. He held his nerve and momentum in the final three strides but was narrowly edged out by Collins for the coveted gold medal as they leaned over the finishing line. The Trinidadian “Golden Boy” proved his world-class sprinting ability and yesterday he finally announced to the world that he is now ready for another slice of history at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He whipped the reigning European champion Chambers (10.08) who placed fourth and the current American world 100-metre record holder Tim Montgomery who finished fifth with a 10.11 secs timing and the reigning American champion Bernard Williams (10.13) who occupied sixth spot. Three hours earlier he raced to second spot behind European champion Chambers (10.06) in the second semi-final in 10.11 for a place in the final. He became the youngest athlete to qualify for the showpiece event of these biennial competition.

Brown also eliminated two of the most dominant world-rated sprinters of the 90s. Former world record holder and reigning Olympic champion Maurice Greene (10.30) placed seventh in his semi-final race while compatriot Ato Boldon clocked 10.22 and was sixth. Greene was dethroned and with Boldon, became spectators in the final. Brown was elated and proud with his victory but has his eyes set at astride the medal podium once again in the 4×100 metres relay. “I am happy and proud. I wanted to be in the final and I achieved my goal,” he said after the race. On Sunday, he clocked 10.01, which erased Chambers’ previous world junior record of 10.06 secs set in 1997 at the European Junior Championships. His parents, Winston Brown (father) and Tobago-born Marilyn Jack Brown (mother), were in the stands at the impressive 71,000-seater Stade de France (55,000 for athletics) sharing the history-making events of their immensely-talented son who once again brought glory to Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean peoples.

100 Metres Final Results.
1Kim Collins (SKN)- 10.07 secs ; 2  DARREL BROWN (TT)- 10.08; 2 Darren Campbell (GB)- 10.08; 3 Dwain Chambers (GB)- 10.08; 4 Tim Montgomery (USA)- 10.11; 5 Bernard Williams (USA)- 10.13; 6 Deji Aliu (NGR)- 10.21; 7 Uchenna Emodulu (NGR)- 10.22.

A BODY believed to be that of a Venezuelan or Colombian man was fished out of the Ortoire River near Manzanilla, and more cocaine suspected to be remnants of a large consignment was discovered yesterday between Manzanilla and Mayaro. Senior police officers told Newsday yesterday they believe there is a link between the discovery of the body and the large cocaine haul, which was found between Sunday morning and late yesterday evening. Senior officers of the Organised Crime and Narcotic Unit (OCNU) yesterday estimated the two-day drug haul to be in the vicinity of $10 million. OCNU officers have also put the amount of cocaine seized to over 200 kilogrammes.  They said one kilogramme of cocaine is sold for approximately $400,000. Up to late evening, the man believed to be about 50, remained unidentified, and police also believe there is connection between the drug seizure and a “community leader” who abandoned a vehicle in the Manzanilla area on Sunday after the initial bags of cocaine was seized.

Reports are that around 9.45am three fishermen including Nigel Ramnanan and two others identified only as “Darmon” and “Blowie” went to the Ortoire Basin in the vicinity of the Manzanilla Beach, to raise fish pots in the sea. The three fishermen observed a body floating and police said Ramnanan used his cellphone to contact the Emergency-999, after which he and his two companions came back to shore on board their boat, “Touchdown”. A party of police officers headed by Sr Supt Randolph Protain and including ASP Maraj, Sgt Rampersad and other officers of the Eastern Division visited the scene. Heavily-armed OCNU officers as well as members of the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard (TTCG) also visited the scene. The national helicopter surveyed the area since there were reports that several bodies were seen floating in the sea off Manzanilla/Mayaro. However, only one body was found. With the assistance of residents, the officers then used the boat and a net to fish out the man’s body, which was clad in blue track pants, grey jersey and red underwear.  There also was a tattoo on his right bicep, and a necklace with two beads around his neck. His face, fingers and toes were partially decomposed.  There were no outward visible signs of violence on the body and District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr Clare estimated that the man could have been dead about five days.  In an Allen’s Funeral Home van, the man’s body was first taken to the Mayaro Police Station then to the Forensic Science Centre. At the scene yesterday, Bhim Ramnanan, brother of Nigel Ramnanan, and owner of the boat, Touchdown, said he is of the opinion that the cocaine seizure and the discovery of the man’s body were connected. “This was expected.  Once you see drugs, you will see a body after.  Something went really wrong at sea,” Bhim Ramnanan, a registered fisherman, said. 

He added that the Manzanilla/Mayaro coastline is not carefully guarded and therefore is exposed to several illegal activities.  “It (coastline) is never checked by the authorities. They need to clamp down on the area,” Bhim said, pointing out that in his 13 years fishing in the area, he has never been checked, as a registered fisherman. Before the man’s body was discovered yesterday, three packets of cocaine was found in the Gran Lagoon area around 9am, while at 3.30pm another crocus bag containing about 15 packets of cocaine was found in the Cocal area. On Sunday, officers of the Eastern Division had four separate finds along the Manzanilla Beach.  Those seizures comprised five bags amounting to over 50 packets.  Officers of the Anti Kidnapping Squad (AKS) also seized one bag of cocaine between Manzanilla and Mayaro.  It was later handed over to the OCNU department. After Sunday’s cocaine seizure, roadblocks were set up in the area.  Police sources said a vehicle with a community leader ran through the roadblock on the Manzanilla Road, and later abandoned the vehicle at a dirt road in Caigual.  Sgt Rampersad of the Mayaro Police Station is continuing investigations.

TWO men claiming to be police officers but not dressed in police garb yesterday morning shot and killed a retired prisons welfare officer, in what senior officers of the Northern Division believe was robbery-related. The dead man has been identified as Goodraj Jagernath, 54. He is  the father of four.  Jagernath joined the Prisons Service as a Prisons Officer I on April 18, 1970, and retired sometime last year. Police sources said he left his Waterloo Road, Arouca, home sometime ago, and went to live with one Angela Boodoo at La Horquetta Trace, off Tumpuna Road. However, Jagernath’s wife, Somatie, told investigators from the Forensic Science Centre that her husband never left their home. Instead, she said, her husband used to sleep at Boodoo’s home, but usually came back home whenever he had an argument with the woman. Reports on the killing are that around 1am yesterday, two men pounded on the shack at La Horquetta Trace, where Jagernath and Boodoo were asleep.

Police sources said the men, dressed in black and masked, shouted that they were police officers, and subsequently broke down the door. Senior police officers told Newsday that Jagernath went for a cutlass, and was subsequently shot in the chest region.  He died on the spot.   The men then stole a small quantity of jewelry and $30 from the couple, then drove off in Jagernath’s grey Mitsubishi Lancer vehicle, which had not been found up to late evening. A report was made and a party of officers headed by acting Supt Fitzroy Frederick and including ASP Leon Anthony, Insp Wesley Moore and Cpl Parks visited the scene and conducted investigations. District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr Paul Bissessar also visited the scene and ordered the body removed to the Forensic Science Centre, where a post mortem performed yesterday revealed he died from internal haemorrhage consistent with a gunshot wound. Somatie Jagernath did not want to say anymore to members of the media, but another female relative said Jagernath used to “take care of bandits”.  She also said that there might be a robbery link to his killing.

FORMER Attorney-General Kamla Persad-Bissessar confirmed that the former UNC government gave former President Noor Hassanali a tax break to purchase a motor vehicle after he demitted office, contradicting reports that reported tax breaks given to Hassanali’s successor, Arthur NR Robinson, were either “unprecedented” or some form of political payback for putting the PNM in government in 2001. In an interview with Newsday yesterday, Persad Bissessar confirmed the existence of Cabinet note 558 of March 6, 1997 in which Hassanali was granted approval by the Basdeo Panday Cabinet to purchase a motor vehicle “exempt from customs duty, motor vehicle tax and value added tax.” According to a newspaper report, Government granted tax waivers to Robinson regarding the purchase of two vehicles and “other matters” which referred to medical treatment for both the former President and his wife Patricia who suffers from Alzheimer’s.

Persad-Bissessar said the exemptions given to Robinson and Hassanali “seem to be the same thing” with the only difference being that the former requested waivers on two vehicles while the latter asked for a waiver on one. Persad-Bissessar then stated that former Heads of State “should be given some benefits”. “You can’t be a Head of State and then have nothing tomorrow,” she said. A recent Newsday story also revealed that the former UNC government had approved lifetime medical treatment for all former Presidents, Prime Ministers and spouses. Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh could not recall the exact circumstances surrounding the March 6,1997 exemption to Hassanali. On the issue of health care for the Robinsons, former Health Minister Dr Hamza Rafeeq said there was nothing strange about this since the UNC approved legislation in 1997 for the State to pay the bills of former Prime Ministers should they require medical treatment overseas. Rafeeq recalled that the State paid for Manning to undergo heart surgery in Cuba on April 21, 1997 and then PM Basdeo Panday was another beneficiary of the legislation when he underwent a cardiac bypass in England. 

Dr Rafeeq however said the legislation did not cater for former Presidents and their spouses, or the wives of former Prime Ministers. Robinson was also Prime Minister of TT from 1986 to 1991. Rafeeq said while the State would still cover Panday’s medical expenses now if necessary, his wife Oma could not be afforded similar treatment now, and the State never covered her medical bills when Panday was PM. He said all the terms and conditions for Ministers, Prime Ministers and Presidents were defined by the Salaries Review Commission (SRC) and should any of these individuals have special requests, they either went back to the SRC or approached Cabinet for “special dispensation”. Prime Minister Patrick Manning is expected to make a statement on the issue this week.