Sprinting in the blood of Jamaica's champions

Be it the school races, the yams or the reggae, the island hasalways punched above its weight. By David Usborne

AS Jamaica celebrates the historic second gold medal Usain Boltwon yesterday and the country's other track medals in Beijing,including Shelly-Ann Fraser's gold in the women's 100 metres, therest of the world had a question: how has the little island, with apopulation of three million, done it?

There is a history of producing medal winners in track eventsgoing as far back as the London Games of 1948. Each of those winnersinspired young people in Jamaica, for whom the paths out of povertywere few. It has also engendered a culture where excelling atrunning is as important to Jamaicans as being good at baseball is toCubans and football to Brazilians.

Yet the foundations for this fast show were laid as long ago as1910, when Champs, an event designed to discover and develop thebest school sprinters, was launched. Now it is the island's flagshipsporting occasion and attracts crowds upwards of 30,000. Children asyoung as five start sprinting and all Jamaica's fastest athleteshave been through this system.

Scholars of the Jamaican sports industry also point to DennisJohnson for having done more than anyone to integrate sports -particularly track and field - into the university curricula and toimpose structure and discipline into the training of the island'sbest hopes. Much of Jamaica's success might not have happened butfor Johnson, a Jamaican who attended university nearly 50 years agoat San Jose State, in southern California, where he strived on thetrack under legendary American coach Bud Winter.

Johnson took what he learned back to Kingston and introducedsports into the curriculum of University of Technology for the firsttime. Offering would-be runners the chance to train and learn at thesame time is what made all the difference, he says now. "You need aneducation," Johnson said this week. "You need to get help. Ireceived all those things at San Jose."

It meant also that runners who saw the chance of success on theworld stage did not feel compelled to leave the island and competeon behalf of other nations. They used to go to the US mostly, whileLinford Christie headed for England and Donovan Bailey left forCanada. "Everybody went to the States," Johnson said. "We don't needto go to the States any more. We can do it right here. We're doingthat as we speak."

There have been other theories for Jamaica's success. Among thosecelebrating Fraser's extraordinary win - two more Jamaicans tied toshare the silver medal, Sherone Simpson and Keron Stewart - was hermother, Maxine Simpson, who stayed at home. Her joy was even greaterbecause as a young woman she was an athlete too, running 100m and200m. So it goes in Jamaica.

Wellesley Bolt, father of Usain, cites a more unusual reason forthe gold rush: the Trelawny yam. A kind of sweet potato, the yamshave been cultivated for decades by Jamaicans in the fertile andmineral-rich lowlands of Trelawny. It has long been assigned specialnutritious qualities. Fraser, who will be feted alongside Bolt whenthey return home, has a different thought. "The secret of team'ssuccess?" she asked this week. "Reggae power." She might havedirected us to the website of the Jamaica Athletic Association toback up her point. It features the following lines from a reggaesong: "We've been running ever since we came here, many years ago.Now the whole world wanna know how we running so. They say theremust be something in the air, down there in Jamaica, that makeJamaicans run like the wind."

Of the 43 medals Jamaica has won in its Olympic history, 42 havebeen in track and field, and nearly all of those have gone tosprinters.

Medal Power

*JAMAICAN SUCCESS AT BEIJING 2008

Men's 100m Usain Bolt Gold

Men's 200m Usain Bolt Gold

Women's 100m Sally-Ann Fraser Gold

Sherone Simpson Silver (share)

Kerron Stewart Silver (share)

Women's 400m Hurdles Melaine Walker Gold

Women's 400m Shericka Williams Silver

All of Jamaica's medals at these games have come in the sprints

Sprinting in the blood of Jamaica's champions

Be it the school races, the yams or the reggae, the island hasalways punched above its weight. By David Usborne

AS Jamaica celebrates the historic second gold medal Usain Boltwon yesterday and the country's other track medals in Beijing,including Shelly-Ann Fraser's gold in the women's 100 metres, therest of the world had a question: how has the little island, with apopulation of three million, done it?

There is a history of producing medal winners in track eventsgoing as far back as the London Games of 1948. Each of those winnersinspired young people in Jamaica, for whom the paths out of povertywere few. It has also engendered a culture where excelling atrunning is as important to Jamaicans as being good at baseball is toCubans and football to Brazilians.

Yet the foundations for this fast show were laid as long ago as1910, when Champs, an event designed to discover and develop thebest school sprinters, was launched. Now it is the island's flagshipsporting occasion and attracts crowds upwards of 30,000. Children asyoung as five start sprinting and all Jamaica's fastest athleteshave been through this system.

Scholars of the Jamaican sports industry also point to DennisJohnson for having done more than anyone to integrate sports -particularly track and field - into the university curricula and toimpose structure and discipline into the training of the island'sbest hopes. Much of Jamaica's success might not have happened butfor Johnson, a Jamaican who attended university nearly 50 years agoat San Jose State, in southern California, where he strived on thetrack under legendary American coach Bud Winter.

Johnson took what he learned back to Kingston and introducedsports into the curriculum of University of Technology for the firsttime. Offering would-be runners the chance to train and learn at thesame time is what made all the difference, he says now. "You need aneducation," Johnson said this week. "You need to get help. Ireceived all those things at San Jose."

It meant also that runners who saw the chance of success on theworld stage did not feel compelled to leave the island and competeon behalf of other nations. They used to go to the US mostly, whileLinford Christie headed for England and Donovan Bailey left forCanada. "Everybody went to the States," Johnson said. "We don't needto go to the States any more. We can do it right here. We're doingthat as we speak."

There have been other theories for Jamaica's success. Among thosecelebrating Fraser's extraordinary win - two more Jamaicans tied toshare the silver medal, Sherone Simpson and Keron Stewart - was hermother, Maxine Simpson, who stayed at home. Her joy was even greaterbecause as a young woman she was an athlete too, running 100m and200m. So it goes in Jamaica.

Wellesley Bolt, father of Usain, cites a more unusual reason forthe gold rush: the Trelawny yam. A kind of sweet potato, the yamshave been cultivated for decades by Jamaicans in the fertile andmineral-rich lowlands of Trelawny. It has long been assigned specialnutritious qualities. Fraser, who will be feted alongside Bolt whenthey return home, has a different thought. "The secret of team'ssuccess?" she asked this week. "Reggae power." She might havedirected us to the website of the Jamaica Athletic Association toback up her point. It features the following lines from a reggaesong: "We've been running ever since we came here, many years ago.Now the whole world wanna know how we running so. They say theremust be something in the air, down there in Jamaica, that makeJamaicans run like the wind."

Of the 43 medals Jamaica has won in its Olympic history, 42 havebeen in track and field, and nearly all of those have gone tosprinters.

Medal Power

*JAMAICAN SUCCESS AT BEIJING 2008

Men's 100m Usain Bolt Gold

Men's 200m Usain Bolt Gold

Women's 100m Sally-Ann Fraser Gold

Sherone Simpson Silver (share)

Kerron Stewart Silver (share)

Women's 400m Hurdles Melaine Walker Gold

Women's 400m Shericka Williams Silver

All of Jamaica's medals at these games have come in the sprints