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Juliet Campbell at The JAAA National Trials 2000

Recently retired Jamaican Olympian, now Athletes Representative, Juliet Campbell was the Main Guest Speaker at the Annual Awards Dinner & Presentation Ceremony hosted by the Cayman Islands Athletic Association on Saturday, January 6. The function is held to recognize and reward, among others, the Junior and Senior Male and Female Athletes of the Year and this edition was staged at the Mary Miller Hall in Red Bay.

Campbell who holds the post Project Manager-Jamaica with the international equipment manufacturers, Puma, was instrumental in providing sponsorship support, through her company, for the sport, in the island group and it was against this background that the invitation to address the gathering was extended.

President of the Cayman Islands Federation, Delroy Murray, in speaking to the JAAA Website, after the function, said, making reference to the former Jamaican athlete’s speech, ‘’Juliet’s presentation was well received by an appreciative audience and was punctuated with applause from time to time as she hit a number of high points relevant and pertinent to the development of the sport in the Islands’’.

Campbell called on the country’s young athletes to strive to emulate the feats of their world class campaigners, last year’s number 6 world ranked 200m runner, Cydonie Mothersill and Kareem Streete Thompson, who competed for both USA and his native country, in the 100m and the long jump, being, along with multiple Olympic gold medalist, Carl Lewis the only athletes to run sub 10 seconds 100m and leap over 28 feet in the long jump.

The three time Olympian told the athletes ‘’You not only have to do the sport, you need to know the sport as well’’, encouraging them to get their federation to make available literature on the sport, in order to expand their knowledge on the sport’s history. There was also a message telling them that ‘’Coaches are there to assist, but, the onus is on you, to motivate yourselves to move forward and achieve as Streete-Thompson and Mothersill have and to be the type of role models that they are’’.

Campbell, who is a back to back Commonwealth Games (1998-Kuala Lumpur, 2002—Manchester), silver medalist in 200m, charged the Private Sector with the responsibility to support the federation in their attempts to make the name of the Cayman Islands ‘’resonate around the world, whenever athletes gather for elite

competition’’. ‘’Your anthem needs to be played at the Olympics and the World Championships and your people need to have the opportunity of sitting in front of their television sets and shout, scream and cry as their own athletes, shine or stumble on the world scene’’. She also asked for an ‘’Adopt an Athlete’’ and a mentorship program, as the one from which she benefited at high school in Jamaica and which assisted her, immensely, in becoming a world class athlete.

The main honorees were Kemar Hyman, who made the second round of both sprints at the world Junior Champiosnhips in Beijing (Junior Male Athlete of the Year as well as Overall Male Athlete of the Year), Omar Wright, the new National High Jump record holder (Senior Male Athlete of the Year), Cydonie Mothersill (Senior Female Athlete of the Year) and Alexandra Terry, who won gold at the CAC Juniors and silver at the Carifta Games, (Junior Female athlete of the Year). There were also awards to the top Youth Athletes of the Year, both genders.

100m Olympic and World Champion, Jamaican born, Donovan Bailey was the other Guest Speaker and the function was attended by the regional track and field boss, Teddy McCook and several local dignitaries, including the Governor General..