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April 12, 2007
‘’WHAT DO
SPORTING SPONSORS WANT”
The JAAA website, with a view to counsel, if that is the right word, those who claim to be ‘’outside of the loop’’, unable to garner the assistance that is necessary, embarked on a plan to seek advice of its own from one of the country’s premier investors in advertising surrounding sporting events. Our first and last point of contact were telecommunication giants, Digicel who, since ‘’making it Jamaica’’ has injected billions into the sporting pool. JAMAICA’S
RICH FEMALE SPRINT HURDLES TRADITION—PART I In a country with a First World profile in track and field, it is not surprising that some of the more than respectable, even high level, performances by our athletes, are not given the recognition they deserve. Jamaica’s record in female sprint hurdling provides a clear example. Recently, in a conversation with a young, bright and extremely promising young lady, carving out her contribution to a quite healthy tradition, in the event, I was stunned by the admission ‘’I have never heard of Gillian Russell’’. But then, why should there be this surprise, after all, neither, it seemed, did the organizers of the Kingston staged World Junior Championships when they sat to recognize our junior athletes who had been outstanding at previous editions. Read on. |
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TRACK & FIELD
STARS TOP NATIONAL AWARDS, ONCE MORE
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SAFA & FRIENDS PULL IN THE FANS THE QUEEN’S/GRACE JACKSON INVITATIONAL WRAP
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| MVP EMBRACES THE WORLD | ||
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South African sprinter happy to be in Jamaica by Laurie Foster February 1, 2007 |
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 When
former Wolmers High School for Boys coach, Stephen Francis forfeited a
career in the lucrative financial world to take up coaching full-time,
he was thought, by friends and foes alike, to be a candidate for
confinement to the nation’s premier institution for the treatment of
mental maladies.
That he should now be
universally accepted as a coach, non-pareil, par excellence and other
titles that speak to brilliance and achievement, is the type of story of
which only dreams are made. This rotund, pot-bellied mass of a man has
earned and continues to earn, not only his keep, but the respect,
adulation and, indeed, envy of the world of track and field. |
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The
nation’s airwaves are clogged with pleas from sporting bodies, seeking
support of one kind or another for their projects, at times, far removed
from the sport over which they exercise control. Some say that it is
only the ‘’chosen few’’ who can have their needs met, as all tend to
‘’stretch their hand’’ in the same direction. No wonder some of those
who contribute would rather not have the publicity that is attendant,
for fear the floodgates open, stimulating an avalanche of similar
requests. 
The
nation’s, undisputedly, most successful sustained its centre stage tradition, as the
trail-blazing broadcast group, RJR, through its Sports Foundation,
celebrated their second staging of association with the Annual National
Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Awards, by doing that which an
ever lengthening line of those who seek to recognize and reward
brilliance and quality in the sporting arena, are doing. The 2006
Athlete of the Year and world 100m record holder, Asafa Powell and
female nominee on the distaff side, Sherone Simpson, both the
acknowledged fastest in their category, sprinted away with the top
prizes.
The
three-time 9.77 short sprint world record man, Asafa Powell ‘’opened the
flood gates’’ at the National Stadium East Field on the last Saturday in
January and did the fans pour in?. They were there to catch an early
sighter of what the elite MVP Club and their athletes would put down, as
they launched their medal assault for this summer’s World Championships
in the Japanese city of Osaka. Even the traditional football massive
from neighbouring Nannyville turned up to witness the spectacle.
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