Posts by Neil O. Clayton
An Olympic Crossroads for Jamaica?
NEW YORK – Jamaicans have excelled in everything globally, from the academia to business to entertainment to sports. Although it is next to impossible to comfortably select a discipline in which the country has been most singularly dominant, fans of track and field will point out that although the modern Games had their inaugural beginnings…
Read MoreThose Jamaicans Who Sometimes Shun the Press in Defeat
NEW YORK: Success is hard to manage if one is not strong enough to hold onto it. The Jamaican contingent to the June 14 Adidas track and field meet at Randall’s Island confirmed that statement. Some magnificent performances stood out at this championship, highlighted by a sterling three-way high jump competition, LaShawn Merritt’s 400m fastest-of-the-season…
Read MoreShould Bailey-Cole Run The 400m?
He has often been described as the carbon copy of his training partner, the storied Usain Bolt, but aside from long, gangly limbs, there is no comparison between the two. Bolt is an inch taller at 6′ 5″ and a whopping 24 pounds heavier. Bolt hails from northwest Jamaica, Falmouth, Trelawny. The protagonist is from…
Read MoreWho’s Ready to Take up the Mantle of Men’s Sprinting in Jamaica
NEW YORK— It is a given that Jamaicans are blessed with great sprint speed. Therefore international success should not necessarily be surprising. Our track regimen is Jamaica-specific. It is perhaps not unlike what is found in parts of the Motherland. Africa is known for impressing in middle and long distance races. I am not entirely…
Read MoreThe Magical Evelyn Ashford
NEW YORK – American Evelyn Ashford carried the mantle as the world’s best female sprinter, starting in her early 20s, just after notching a place in the women’s 100m final, in 1976, at the Montreal Olympics. Evelyn Ashford-Washington was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on 15 April 1957. Louisiana is hardly a hotbed for track superstars…
Read MoreThe Genius of Fraser-Pryce
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is a genius – pure and simple. Fraser-Pryce darted from the shadows of obscurity in 2008 at the Jamaica Nationals, and followed up that result with heart-stopping runs at the Beijing, China Olympics that same year. Her performances over the last five years have singled her out as the most successful female 100m…
Read MoreLet Your Speed Do the Running, Asafa
There is no question that Asafa Powell is one of the greats of modern day sprinting. In fact, he has to be credited for inspiring a new generation of sprinters. Powell famously burst on the scene back in 2003 winning the Jamaican National title in his specialty, the 100m. At the 2003 World Championships, he…
Read More’30 for 30: 9.79*’ Clocks Ben Johnson’s Fall from Grace
New York – The Olympics are big business. The Games, as they are called, are the greatest spectacle on earth. The men’s 100 meters is the glamour event of the Games, and the world’s fastest man, the 100 meter gold medalist, assumes a kind of fame or notoriety, depending on what might occur after his…
Read MoreWhat Bert Cameron’s Exit Means for Coach Mills and Bolt
Glen Mills, 62 and arguably the world’s best sprint coach, is branching out to include the 400m to his repertoire. With the departure of 1983 World champion Bertland Cameron as coach of the quarter-mile program at Racers Track Club, where Mills is president, the head honcho seems destined to take his band of male quarter-milers…
Read MoreThe Beijing Breakout Party Continued in London
When the Olympic Games opened in the English capital two weeks ago, fans expected a treat; and they got many. The highlight was the reemergence or reintroduction of the Caribbean to the Games, as if one were needed. Jamaica had its breakout party in Beijing, China in 2008, stealing the spotlight from track powerhouse, the…
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