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Bolt ready and recharged

RSS — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:18:25 +0000

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AFP) – Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man, is working hard to regain his peak form ahead of a 150-metre street race Sunday at Manchester.

Only four days after stitches were removed from his left foot following injuries from a car crash, Bolt was declared fit and ready to race in England by manager Norman Peart yesterday even as Bolt continued his intense workouts.

“Right now I’m trying to get back in shape because I missed a lot of training days,” Bolt said. “I am doing a lot of work by myself … just trying to do every little thing to get back my edge to go out and compete.”

Bolt, who won Beijing Olympic 100 and 200 gold in world record times last August, crashed his car in a ditch along a rain-slick road on April 29 and later had surgery on his left foot to remove thorns he stepped upon.

“He is OK. He is training pain-free and is on target to run in Manchester next Sunday,” Peart said. “He will leave either Wednesday or Thursday.”

His status for Manchester was uncertain until Bolt’s training sessions and condition were evaluated, although Bolt did not want to miss out on a chance to see Manchester United star forward Ronaldo as well as test himself in the race.

“I’m looking forward to it because I will be going there to compete and not as a spectator in the street race,” Bolt said.

Bolt made himself a world target with world records of 9.60 seconds in the 100 and 19.30 at 200. He knows his top rivals are training hard and have not had to deal with the auto accident setback.

“A lot of these guys out there are really working hard and training to beat me, so I have to get myself back into shape,” Bolt said.

“I don’t worry about any athlete…. I just go out there to compete at my best at all times and that is what I am going to do this season. I’m just trying to get back in shape and try to execute my races as best as possible.”

Campbell Brown thoughts : JA vs USA meet

RSS — Fri, 08 May 2009 05:23:04 +0000

FIVE-time Olympic medallist Veronica Campbell Brown believes that a cash incentive will be one of the deciding factors if the proposed USA vs Jamaica dual meet is to be realised next year.

Two months ago on March 7, Doug Logan, the CEO of USA Track and Field (USATF), hand-delivered an initial letter to NACAC president Neville ‘Teddy’ McCook inviting Jamaica to engage in a home-and-away series in 2009 that would pit the two nations’ sprinters and hurdlers against each other in head-to-head, team-scored competition.

However, that clash has been pushed back to at least 2010, because of a clash of dates on the IAAF calendar of events.

Campbell Brown, who was recently in Jamaica as part of the IAAF’s Day in the Life programme told the Observer that athletes would have to be compensated to guarantee the dual meets’ success.

“It will come down to how it fits in each athlete’s schedule, because if there is no money involved and there is a meet on the same weekend where people will be getting paid, a lot of athletes are going to choose to run where they’re getting paid as opposed to running for free,” Campbell Brown said.

“I don’t really know much about the USA versus Jamaica competition, but it would have to fit into my schedule… we’ll have to just wait and see when the time comes how that will work,” she added.

Meanwhile, Campbell Brown, who amassed five medals – one gold and four silver – at the 2005 Helsinki and 2007 Osaka World Championships, believes that: “If certain (elite) athletes are running, then it may motivate others to want to join in.”

At the time of the proposal, president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) Howard Aris re-affirmed that Jamaica remains committed to any event that will ultimately help in the development of the country’s athletics.

“We must be satisfied that we will also benefit from such an event both in terms of the costs to us as well as the type of athletes that we’ll be able to provide to this competition,” Aris said.

With all the logistics still to be finalised between the JAAA and USATF, Campbell Brown thinks the dual meet would not carry the same importance as the Jamaican athletes going up against Americans at the Olympics.

“If it’s not going to be all the USA’s top athletes and all of Jamaica’s top athletes running, I don’t think it will make much sense, because it’s not going to be a true reflection of say, ‘if Jamaica win or USA win’, it has to be a real competition,” the three-time national Sportswoman of the Year said.

Last month, former world 100m record holder Asafa Powell poured cold water on the USA/Jamaica Challenge, saying it was not important. “I don’t really see the importance of it,” Powell was quoted as saying. “There are many Grand Prix and Golden League meets out there that we are going to be competing against each other in, so it doesn’t make any sense to me,” added the Jamaican sprinter, who has produced 48 sub-10 clockings in his career.

Bolt healing well – Update

RSS — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:31:45 +0000

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Usain Bolt had stitches removed from his left foot today after his auto crash last week and the Beijing Olympic hero and sprint world record-holder is set to resume training next week.

Norman Peart, manager for the Jamaican sprint star, said he expects to keep Bolt out the remainder of the week to be certain he is rested and fully healed before resuming workouts.

“He is healing well,” Peart said. “He could be back in training in a couple of days. I think he will allow the week to run off though and start afresh next week.” Bolt had minor surgery to remove thorns that pierced his foot when he exited from the wreckage of his BMW M3 after it skidded off the highway and overturned in a ditch last Wednesday.

Bolt missed last Saturday’s Jamaica International Invitational track meet, but could be ready for a planned street race in Manchester, England on May 17.

Jamaica International Invitational meet in full motion

RSS — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:19:19 +0000

ALTHOUGH missing injury stricken Olympic champions Usain Bolt and Veronica Campbell-Brown, organizers are insisting that today’s sixth staging of the Jamaica International Invitational meet will still produce many top-class performances.

Chairman of the organizing committee for the IAAF Area Permit meet, Howard Aris, told Sporting World that track and field fans will have a treat inside Kingston’s National Stadium, starting at 6:30 pm.
Jamaican 100m Olympic silver medallist Kerron Stewart (right) and USA’s leading 400m women’s runner Jamaican-born Sanya Richards go through their paces at the National Stadium yesterday in preparation for today’s Jamaica International Invitational meet.

“We have an excellent field of athletes and very competitive events and we look forward to another outstanding evening of entertainment in track and field, as we have been witnessing for the past five years,” Aris said.

Athletes’ liaison and 1976 200m Olympic champion Donald Quarrie noted that even with the absence of Bolt and Campbell-Brown, “the overall quality of the competitors” will lead to excellent times.

The optimism from Aris and Quarrie for quality performances, is easily justified given the high calibre of athletes, listed to face the starter in more than 20 events.

The women’s 100m and 400m, as well as the men’s 400m hurdles, 100m and Shot Put should be among the hotly contested races on the three-hour programme.
Jamaican 100m hurdler Deloreen Ennis-London works out at the National Stadium yesterday as she prepares for today’s Jamaica International Invitational meet. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

Shelly-Ann Fraser, who posted a mind-boggling 10.78secs to win the 100m in Beijing and silver medallist Kerron Stewart with a personal best of 10.80secs, will square off against the American pair of Marshevet Hooker and Bianka Knight.

Fraser told Sporting World that she will be using the race to fix her technique flaws, even as she faces some tough competitors.

“I’m just looking to accomplish a good time and to execute a proper race because right now it’s all about my start and technique that I’m focusing on at training,” Fraser said.

Kelly-Ann Baptiste of Trinidad and Tobago as well as Jamaicans Aleen Bailey and Schillonie Calvert completes the crack 100m field.

The men’s equivalent will feature Olympic silver medallist Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, American Darvis Patton, Jamaican junior record holder Yohan Blake and Dwight Thomas, as well as the 2003 World champion Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis.

Melaine Walker, the Olympic 400m hurdles record holder and gold medallist, will step down to the flat 400m to face-off against the current world number one, American Sanya Richards.

They will be joined by Rosemarie White, the seventh-placed finisher in Beijing, as well as 2007 World Championship bronze medallist Novlene Williams, along with rising stars Sonita Sutherland, Bobby-Gaye Wilkins and Moya Thompson.

The men’s 400m hurdles will pit Jamaica’s Danny McFarlane, the fourth-placed finisher in Beijing, against the silver medallist and current world number one Kerron Clement of the USA.

McFarlane, the Olympic silver medallist from Athens 2004, says despite a niggling calf problem, he is close to full fitness and will put on a good show today.

“I’m not a hundred per cent right now… I’m about 85 to 90 per cent, so I’ll go out there and see what can happen,” McFarlane said, noting that it will be his second race of the season after posting 49.96secs one week ago.

Clement, who posted 47.79secs to win here last year, told Sporting World he’s aiming to run a similar time today.

“It is my first 400 hurdle race (of the season) and I’m just looking forward to run an even race and winning in a similar time like last year,” Clement said. Olympic semi-finalist Isa Phillips will also face the starter in the one-lap obstacle race. The men’s Shot Put with world number two Christian Cantwell of the USA and Jamaica’s national record holder Dorian Scott should produce some big throws.

Campbell-Brown missing out on today’s meet – Update

RSS — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:11:46 +0000

Two-time Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown returned to the track on Thursday after a five-week lay-off due to a “severe inflammation of a toe on her left foot”.

Jamaica’s 200m Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown works out at the National Stadium yesterday. (Photo: Collin Reid)

Campbell-Brown, who retained her Olympic 200m title at the Beijing Olympic Games last August with a personal best 21.74 seconds, was due to open her season today at the sixth Jamaica International Invitational meet at the National Stadium, but was forced to miss it due to the injury.

News broke last week when her agent Claude Bryan told the Observer she had been off the track for five weeks, but “was recovering satisfactorily”.

In her on-line diary for the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), Campbell-Brown said she was given clearance to resume training, but is disappointed to be missing today’s meet.

“I really enjoy this meet and I always pencil it in on my schedule, so obviously I am very disappointed. Although I will be absent, I expect that the competition there will be very fierce, and like everyone else, I will be looking at the results.”

Campbell-Brown will now open her season at the Adidas Track Classic in California on May 17, then run the 100m at Reebok Grand Prix in New York before the Jamaican Trials in June.

Last week Bryan had said the inflammation flared up after a photo shoot in Santa Monica, California, but insisted the injury was not a stress fracture as had been reported.

Bryan said Campbell Brown was “devastated” by the injury, but said she was as “gritty as they come and will want to come back strongly”.

The agent had told the Observer her coach Lance Braumann had decided to “side with precaution and not rush her back”, but was expecting her to be fully recovered later in the month.

Campbell Brown has been Jamaica’s most outstanding female sprinter, winning the 100m gold in 11.01 seconds at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan in 2007.

On the next three days, starting today, Campbell-Brown will be the subject of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF’s) Day in the Life programme, where as many as eight foreign journalists will spend time with her as she trains, relaxes and entertains at home.

Journalists are here from countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The Bahamas and Great Britain.

USAIN BOLT SUSTAINS MINOR INJURY IN CAR ACCIDENT!!!

RSS — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:11:31 +0000

WORLD 100 and 200-metre record holder Usain Bolt has been admitted to hospital, reportedly in good condition, following a motor car accident along the Vineyard Toll section of Highway 2000, St Catherine today at about 1:30 pm. Bolt’s manager Norman Peart said that based upon advice from accident and emergency doctors at Spanish Town Hospital, where the athlete is being treated, his only injury are three thorns that became stuck in his feet after he exited the vehicle. Photo: Bryan Cummings Photo: Bryan Cummings Peart said that Bolt is due to be released shortly. He could not say how long the injury might prevent Bolt from competing. He was confirmed to compete in this Saturday’s Jamaica Invitational at the National Stadium in Kingston. Bolt’s car had been travelling into Kingston from Clarendon the accident occurred. The road was slippery from afternoon showers. When this reporter arrived upon the scene at approximately 2:30 pm the BMW car was being towed from the ditch. Examination of the car by this reporter revealed no blood inside the car and no airbags had been visibly deployed. Both front tyres were punctured and the left-front wheel was almost torn off. The front windscreen was shattered while the back windscreen was totally removed. A member of a Highway 2000 wrecker crew said that there were tyre marks for about 50 metres before the car came off the road.

Two Jamaican junior records established at Penns on final day

RSS — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:41:14 +0000

PHILADELPHIA, USA – Two Jamaican National Junior Records (NJR) were set yesterday as
the curtains came down on the 115th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jamaica College’s K’Don Samuels cleared 4.80m for a massive new personal record and NJR in the pole vault as he became the first Jamaican to win the event here.

IAAF World Junior Championships silver medallist Shermaine Williams a sophomore at Johnson C Smith University ran 13.06 seconds for second place in the College Women’s 100m hurdles setting a new national standard.

The former Alpha Academy runner eclipsed the previous record 13.07 seconds set by Gillian Russell in July 1992 and said she was surprised when her coach Lennox Graham told her about the new record moments after the end of the race.

Former St Jago High runner Natasha Ruddock, competing for Essex Community College of New Jersey was third in 13.39 seconds.

Samuels, who is in his final year as a junior, took over the record by himself after sharing 4.60m with Jabari Ennis who cleared it in 1998.

Samuels said that his new mark atoned for not doing so well at the CARIFTA Games two weeks ago and blamed that on the organisers who he said used the American high school rules instead of the IAAF rules used in Jamaica.

Nontheless, he was ecstatic for the new mark as battled cramps in his right calf as he cleared 4.80m on his final attempt after two previous misses.

Samuels, who is also the CARIFTA record holder and who was sixth here last year, first matched his previous personal best on his second attempt at the height, then cleared 4.70m on the second attempt.

Orville Brown who has coached Samuels for seven years fought with his emotions when he spoke to the Observer yesterday, saying he had longed dreamt of taking a vaulter to this level.

“He was small when he first started, maybe only about 80lbs but he was technically sound and is a hard worker,” Brown said.

Calabar’s Devon Dobson who finished 11th tieing his personal best 4.20m, and who worked with Samuels through the rounds told Observer, he was happy for his training partner but said he was coming for the record next year.

“I felt great for him today to see all the hard work pay off,” Dobson said.

St George’s College Kimarki Absalom became the third Jamaican and second in arrow to win the high jump when he cleared a personal best 2.06m.

He beat his previous personal best of 2.05m and joined last year’s winner Andrew Riley of Calabar (2.06m) and Enrico Gordon of Wolmers’ Boys’ in 1995 (2.11m).

St Jago’s Machel Baker was fourth with 2.03m and Kingston College’s Champs Class One winner Jonathon Reid failed to get past the opening height.

Calabar’s Chad Wright was second in the discuss with a best throw of 54.44m while Shane Dodd of Jamaica College was sixth with 51.06m; Kingston College’s Oshane Harris was 11th while the Munro College pair of Omar Bryan and Razzack White were 12th and 13th respectively.

Kamal Fuller of Wolmer’s Boys’ was the best-placed Jamaican in the long jump with 7.23m for third place while Dexter McKenzie of Munro who also ran the 4×100m and 4×400m was fifth with 7.19m while Kingston College’s Jerome Wilson was 11th with 6.68m.

Wolmer’s Boys’ Ramone Bailey was fourth in the triple jump with 14.

Munro College on fire at Milo!!! Munro Munro rah rah rah hurray!!!

RSS — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:26:59 +0000

St Catherine – Edwin Allen High School’s Class One sprinter Gayon Evans and Holmwood Technical boys’ 4×800m relay team made it three-from-three in the Milo Junior Grand Prix Series after winning their events at last Saturday’s 31st Milo Western Relays at GC Foster Sports College in Angels, St Catherine.

The Grand Prix Series was introduced this season and offers $500,000 to the winners of the boys and girls 100m and 4×800m races in five meets through the season.

The schools from where the winners emerge will get the prize monies with $100,000 going to the 100m winners and $150,000 to the relay winners.

Evans beat her schoolmate and World Junior Championship teammate Kaycea Jones in the 100m race on Saturday, in a meet record 12.06 seconds to 12.08 seconds, while Herbert Morrison’s Class Two runner Shavine Hodges took third place in 12.19 seconds.

With two races to go, next week’s Gibson Relays at the National Stadium and the GC Foster Classic, Evans leads with 27 points, six more than Jones who has been second in all three races so far. Manchester High’s Leslie-Ann Mitchell who was fourth last week is third on 15 points.

Manchester High’s Brandon Tomlinson, who finished second in the 100m race to Munro’s Rolando Reid, leads the boys’ section with 25 points, followed by Reid and Albert Town’s Andrew Fisher both on 17 points.

The Holmwood relay team won at Western Relays to add to their wins at the STETHS Invitational in January and the Jamalco meet in Clarendon and lead with a perfect 36 points.

Holmwood, who were second to Manchester Striders in the open category, ran 7:40.28 seconds, their fastest time in the series and lead Bellefield by six points with Edwin Allen High net on 27 points.

Manchester High’s girls have, however, surpassed Holmwood Technical High as the leaders in the girls’ section after winning back-to-back races at Jamalco and Western Relays.

Thanks to a courageous anchor leg from national junior representative Natoya Goule timed at 2:04.78 seconds,
Manchester won the 4×800m race at Western Relays in 8:50.17 seconds, also the fastest this season to be on 34 points, two more than Holmwood Technical who had won at the STETHS meet.

Munro lead Western Champs eliminations

RSS — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:43:57 +0000

SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth – Four records were broken, two in the discus events on Tuesday as defending champions Munro College opened a commanding 67-point lead after 14 finals at the Milo/Cornwall Athletics Association’s Boys’ Western Champs eliminations at STETHS.

Munro’s Levar Dunchie smashed the Class 3 1,500m and 3,000m marks, both times beating Cornwall College’s Tarik Fullerton.

Dunchie shaved the 1500m time to 4:42.49 seconds then clocked 10:24.4 in the 3,000m.

Another Munro athlete, Emanuel Oniya, established a new record in the Class 2 discus when his final throw in the preliminaries landed at 48.55m, smashing the 46.53m mark set last year by teammate Rajae Gayle.

Oniya also won the Class 2 shot with 14.4 metres.

Petersfield’s Glenford Watson broke the 11-year-old Class 3 mark with his first throw of 43.74m, erasing the mark of 40.63m set in 1998 by Munro’s Basil Salkey.

Munro seem well set to retain their title as they raced to a commanding 188 points after 14 finals, comfortably ahead of Herbert Morrison Technical’s 121 heading into Saturday’s finals to be run at STETHS along with the girls’ finals.

Herbert Morrison’s Jermaine Shaw was also a double winner on Tuesday when he took both the high and long jump in Class 2 with marks of 1.7m and 6.11m respectively.

Munro’s Omar Bryan won the Class 1 discus ahead of teammate Razzack Whyte but was second in the shot putt to Petersfield’s Cornelius McIntosh, who won with 14.74m – well short of his personal best 15.57 set earlier this year.

Munro’s Dexter McKenzie won the Class 1 long jump with a best jump of 6.8m after winning at Western Champs last Saturday with a 7.26m mark.

Meanwhile, Munro’s Rolando Reid and Keneil Harrison look set to win triple titles in the 100m, 200m and 400m events qualifying.

William Knibb’s Jason Young scored a psychological advantage when he beat defending champion and IAAF World Junior winner Dexter Lee in their 100m semi-final heat.

Lee, who opened his season last Saturday at the Milo Western Relays, ran six events on the day – two rounds of the 100m and 200m plus legs on the Herbert Morrison Class 1 4×100m team and the 4×400m, while Young only entered the 100m.

Bolt opens with 400m at the 2009 Camperdown Classics

RSS — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:44:18 +0000

TRIPLE Olympic gold medallist, Usain Bolt, began his 2009 season on a winning note, clocking 46.35 seconds in the Invitational 400 metres at yesterday’s fifth Camperdown Classics at the Stadium East in Kingston.

Running in lane five of heat three, Bolt covered his competitors by the 200m mark before cruising home ahead of fast-finishing Racers Track Club teammate Yohan Blake (46.80).

Bolt told reporters, including members of the international media, he was pleased with the time when compared to his 2008 season opener of 46.96.

“It was alright. I’m not really in the best of shape, but it felt good and I’m just happy I got through it and looking forward to next week,” Bolt said.

The world record holder for the 100m (9.69secs) and 200m (19.30secs) is scheduled to run another 400 at the UWI Invitational next Saturday at the National Stadium.

“I’ll be running a couple more 400s, but the main aim (this season) is the 100 and 200,” the 2008 National Sportsman of the Year added.

Answerth Whyte, another training partner of Bolt, was third overall with 46.89, ahead of Olympic quarter-miler Ricardo Chambers, 46.96.

World Junior 200m silver medallist, Nickel Ashmeade of St Jago, was the top schoolboy with 47.98 to win heat one of the Invitational 400m.

In the relays, Calabar and Holmwood Tech won the Class One 4×100 for Boys and Girls respectively.

The team of Oshane Bailey, Ramone McKenzie, Warren Weir and Ricardo Powell clocked 40.05 to erase St Jago’s 40.14 established last year to collect the $60,000 prize.

St George’s College was second in 41.26, followed by Jamaica College, 41.69.

On the girls side, Holmwood clocked 45.7secs to win ahead of The Queen’s, 46.0, and St Andrew High, 46.9.

Meanwhile, Waquar DaCosta of JC clocked a record 1:55.68 to win the Class Two 800m, bettering Bengallo Morrison’s 2005 mark of 1:57.1. The JC pair of Earl Grant (1:57.52) and Wayne Petrie (2:03.8 were second and third.