By Michelle Kaufman / McClatchy Newspapers
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Asafa Powell, until recently the World’s Fastest Man, isn’t even the fastest man on his island now. That’s what happens when you’re a Jamaican sprinter: No matter how fast you are, there’s some kid running uphill in the Blue Mountains, training on the spectacular beaches, hungry to replace you as the next national hero.
Usain Bolt, a 21-year-old who stands 6-foot-5, last month ran 100 meters in 9.72 seconds, breaking Powell’s world record of 9.74 set in September 2007. Powell and Bolt hold seven of the 10 fastest recognized times for the 100 meters. This weekend, they go head-to-head for the first time at that distance at the Jamaican Olympic Track and Field Trials in Kingston. It promises to be a sizzling showdown, one that has drawn media credential requests from England, the United States, Japan, Italy, France and all over the Caribbean.
It’s almost as if the Beijing Olympic organizers ought to cancel the 100-meter men’s final, pay for the United States’ Tyson Gay to fly to Jamaica, and award the Olympic gold medal there this weekend.
Powell added a spark to the race when he said on Sunday: “Bolt is my main rival. It’s great how all the Caribbean runners are doing – Darrel Brown and Marc Burns of Trinidad, and Usain Bolt. Tyson Gay is the only person outside the Caribbean who can challenge us right now.”
Jamaica, with a population of fewer than 3 million, has produced a remarkable number of Olympic track medals – seven golds, 24 silvers and 19 bronzes. In the 100-meter final at the 1984 Olympics, five of the eight finalists were Jamaican by birth or descent.
The Jamaican medalist list reads like a track-and-field Who’s Who: Arthur Wint; Herbert McKenley; Lennox Miller; Donald Quarrie; George Rhoden; Merlene Ottey; Sanya Richards and Veronica Campbell-Brown, who recently ran the world’s fastest time in the women’s 100 meters.
Then there’s Donovan Bailey and Ben Johnson, who were born in Jamaica but raced for Canada. And Linford Christie, who left Jamaica for England at age 7.
“We have a tremendous sprinting tradition, dating back 100 years, and kids who grow up here develop a deep passion for the sport,” said Bolt’s coach, Glen Mills. “Soccer is probably our most popular sport, but track and field is right behind it, and from an international achievement standpoint, it’s No. 1. I’d guess we win more Olympic track medals per capita than any other country.”
Jamaica’s success in the sport is no accident. It is the product of a well-oiled national track federation that begins to groom sprinters from the time they are in elementary school. Children as young as six compete in relay races and mini-Olympics.
Surely, there is no high school track meet in the world as competitive as CHAMPS, the Jamaican interscholastic championship, which was founded in 1910. More than 2,000 athletes compete in the annual spring event, and it attracts a sellout crowd of 35,000. Coaches from most of the top U.S. colleges show up to recruit.
“It’s a wild atmosphere at CHAMPS,” said Davian Clarke, a former University of Miami runner and Olympian from Jamaica. “For three days the stadium is packed, standing room only. All the fans and journalists go because they want to see who the next young track and field star is going to be. Sometimes, the fastest high school kid doesn’t make it to the Olympics because he doesn’t keep up the sport. It’s amazing how many really fast sprinters we’ve had who never went to the Olympics.”
In 1911, the 100-yards CHAMPS winner was a young man named Norman Manley, who won the race in 10 seconds. He also won at 220 yards in 23 seconds, which would have been good enough to have made the Olympic finals in the 1908 and 1912 Olympics. But Manley chose not to pursue track. Instead, he became a Rhodes Scholar and a statesman. The Kingston airport is named after him.
The tradition continued, and Jamaica got the world’s attention in the late 1940s. In 1948 and 1952, while still a British colony, Jamaica won three Olympic gold medals and five silvers in track and field. The Jamaican 4×400 relay team in 1952 not only won, but shattered the world record by 4.3 seconds. McKenley ran the third leg in 44.6 seconds, still one of the fastest legs of all time.
They celebrated in their dorm room that night by drinking whiskey out of a toothbrush tumbler with the Duke of Edinburgh, according to Olympic historian David Wallechinsky. The next day was declared a national holiday in Jamaica, and fans celebrated in the streets.
Jamaican track champions are still revered on the island. When Bolt flew back last month after breaking the world record, he was met at the airport by a throng of screaming fans and television camera crews. The Prime Minister was on hand to congratulate him.
Jamaica’s young sprinters are also celebrated every year at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, where the Jamaican team has dominated since the 1960s. The top Jamaican high school and amateur runners show up at the meet every year and fans fly up from Jamaica to wave black, yellow and green flags from the stands. Jamaican-Americans drive in from all over the northeast to support the young athletes.
“In our country, the top athletes typically leave track early and go to football or basketball, but in Jamaica, they stick with track and become huge stars,” said University of Miami track and field coach Mike Ward. “Every year at the Penn Relays, there are thousands of Jamaican spectators going nuts. It seems like half their country flies up to watch those kids. I went to an event for Asafa Powell at Miami art gallery last winter, and you’d have thought the King had arrived. They take their track seriously.”
Clarke said Jamaica’s terrain makes it the perfect training ground for sprinters. He said kids run barefoot on the beaches of Bull Bay to strengthen their legs and then train in the mountains to work on endurance. Many of the best sprinters there train on grass tracks, which are not as hard on the knees and legs.
“We don’t need fancy weight rooms or expensive tracks,” he said. “The goal of every kid I knew in Jamaica was to become an Olympic track champion. We love our cricket and soccer, but there is something very special about Jamaican track and field. I think there are six high school kids there now who ran the 100 meters 10-flat last year. I can’t imagine that’s happening anywhere else in the world.”
