“Winning means you're willing to go longer, work harder, and
give more than anyone else.”
Vince Lombardi
Guest Blog by Laurie Foster:
Ever since their entry at the 1948 Olympics in
London Jamaica has been heralded as a producer of the highest calibre of
sprinting talent. Come Beijing and a year later, Berlin, this was taken to an
unprecedented level when a phenomenon called Bolt took world short sprint
records into an almost laughable dimension - 9.58 for 100m and 19.19 for the
200m sounded more fiction than fact. Matters were complicated, both-gender
supremacy signaled by a 1-2-2 finish for the island ladies in the Beijing 100m
and a history making second consecutive Olympic 200m gold for Veronica
Campbell-Brown, only one East German, Barbel Eckert-Wockel, could test. (pun
intended)
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| Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce |
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| Donald Quarrie |
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| Juliet Cuthbert |
Of 1952 to 1968 not much can be said as far as
enhancement of the sprinting product was concerned. It was as though the lion
had gone into slumber, resting for another attack. It came in the form of
Lennox ‘’Billy’’ Miller at the Mexico City Olympics, silver medal at 100m
behind the American speedster, Jim Hines, followed by bronze at the same
distance in Munich, 1972. At the two above mentioned Games, the next to
emerge speedster, Donald Quarrie, was present but hurt. Come Montreal in 1976,
this soon-to-become sprinting great pounced. He doubled the same as the great
Herb did twice (200/400 in 1948 and 100/400 in 1952) and scored silver at 100m
and Jamaica’s first 200m gold. Another 200m medal, this time, bronze, followed
in Moscow in 1980. Pick up from Moscow and it was the Grand Dame,
Merlene Ottey embarking on a journey that saw many mishaps and many medals
against opposition that included several East Germans of a self-confessed
regime and the fashion statement, eye-turner, Florence ‘’Flo Jo’’ Griffiths
Joyner.
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| Queen Merlene Ottey |
Who knows what these rivals to our eventual Sprint Queen had in common? Merlene struggled with close finishes that stressed the photo finish technology
to the limit, none so challenging as at the 100m last dip in Stuttgart at the
1993 World Championships where Gail Devers got the nod. It was indeed fitting
that the first sprint gold for the world’s favourite came a few days later in
the 200m, that accomplishment to be repeated at the event’s next staging in
Gothenburg over Gwen Torrence. Before all that though, in Seoul in 1988 and at
the following Olympics in Barcelona, 1992, Grace Jackson took 200m silver
trailing Flo Jo, almost said and company (Seoul) and Juliet Cuthbert in her
best year in the sport claimed double silver (Gail Devers and Gwen Torrence
taking the respective titles, that in Barcelona). During the period, Raymond
Stewart, also out of the Camperdown High School, by then accorded Sprint
Factory status, continued to make global sprint finals with amazing regularity,
a 100m silver at the 1987 Rome WC his only taste of metal, although the
following staging in Tokyo, 1991 he (confirming the Sprint Factory label) took
the national 100m record to 9.96 in the first ever top six places under 10secs.
race.
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| Asafa Powell |
Asafa Powell, as the pioneer that he
unquestionably is, deserves a paragraph all to himself. He is non pareil in
appearance and consistency, his over 70 sub 10 clockings speak eloquently to
this. He created world records over 100m and equaled them in style and panache.
Seemingly unbeatable on the circuit, in the mid part of the 2000’s decade, he
laid the foundation, rolled out the carpet on which the phenomenon, Usain Bolt
came out, as of 2008, and strutted his stuff. Powell’s inability to get that
elusive world gold continues to cloud an outstanding career.
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| Veronica Campbell-Brown |
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Kerron Stewart and Sherone
Simpson, the composite parts of that famous and unique 1-2-2 in Bejing have had
their say, the first named coming back in Berlin to cop the 100m title. They
told the Americans ‘’go chill and come back again, cause we rule now’’. Once again a paragraph must be devoted to one
who by now must have crowned herself as one of the greatest of all time and if
you bring in longevity as a determinant factor, only the tag ‘’the ultimate’’
would suffice. Veronica Campbell-Brown has won everything in sight, only
Olympics 100m gold is missing. Starting to be the victor at age 17 at the
inaugural World Youth Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland in 1999, on to the
World Juniors, Santiago, Chile, 2000 and the 2007 WC, Osaka. This sprinting
dynamo has won the 100m title at all age group levels the world offers. Annex
that outstanding set of efforts to back to back 200m gold medals at the
Olympics, 2004 and 2008, a historic one in the same event at the 2011 Daegu WC,
after 3 previous attempts at that level, plus two other consecutive WIC titles
over 60m and one need say nothing more than sheer, unadulterated class. Guess
what she ain’t done yet as London, 2012 and the prospect of that missing gold
looms. The tale of sprinting rushes into those waiting in the wings at the
junior levels to make their own statement. Part 2 of this piece will look at Yohan Blake in detail and the next generation of Jamaican speedsters.
Laurie Foster is a track and field journalist
who has covered a multitude of IAAF World Series events at Youth, Junior and
Senior levels, starting from 1988, both for radio and the written press. Find him on Facebook: Laurie Foster
Love & Respect!
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