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The year 2006 will be remembered as one of the greatest years in Jamaica's Athletics as the country's athletes performed extremely well throughout.

COMMONWEALTH GAMES (MARCH 19-25) The country's first tour of duty was March's Commonwealth Games, and they delivered in fine style by taking all the sprint events, 100m, 200m, sprint hurdles and sprint relays, to become the first nation to win all the sprint titles at a major championship since the United States' feat at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Asafa Powell who won the men's 100m in 10.03 and Sheri-Ann Brooks who took the female section in 11.19 seconds, ran scorching relay legs to help Jamaica to complete the clean sweep.

The Caribbean sprint powerhouse, without the service of Veronica Campbell, captured the women's event in 43.10 seconds while the men's team collected victory in 38.36 seconds.

The women's team of Danielle Browning, Sheri-Ann Brooks, Peta-Gaye Dowdie, and Sherone Simpson won their first Commonwealth Games women's 4x100m relay title. The men joined them with the quartet of Michael Frater, Ainsley Waugh, Chris Williams and Asafa Powell winning their second Commonwealth Games 4x100 title following their 39.46sec golden run in Edinburgh in 1970.

Simpson, who anchored the women's sprint relay team, had earlier won the 200m in 22.59 seconds ahead of Veronica Campbell (22.72) while Omar Brown, who along with Campbell left early because of school commitments, took the 200m in 20.47 ahead of Williams, who finished third in 20.52.

In the women's sprint hurdles, Jamaica's women took 1 and 3 in the final. In a race that saw Canada's Angela Whyte splitting the Caribbean hurdlers for the silver, pre-Games favourite Brigitte Foster-Hylton took the gold medal when she clocked 12.76 seconds to beat Whyte, at 12.94sec and Delloreen Ennis-London 13.00. Maurice Wignall won the men's 110m hurdles in 13.26 seconds. World triple jump champion, Trecia-Kay Smith, leapt 14.39m for gold.

Dorian Scott threw 19.75m for second in the men's shot put while Kenia Sinclair ran a national record 1: 58.16 for second in the women's 800m, Kemel Thompson (48.65) was third in the men's 400m hurdles, while Jermaine Gonzales (45.16) and Novlene Williams (51.12) took bronze in the 400m.

Jamaica's men's mile relay team finished third in 3:01.94.

Jamaica finished with 22 medals, including 10 gold behind winners Australia, who finished the athletics program with 41 medals, of which 16 were gold.

CARIFTA GAMES

Jamaica's second assignment was CARIFTA Games. As expected; Jamaica topped the medal tables for the 22nd consecutive year, when the curtain fell on the 35th staging of the Championships at the Rene-Serge Nabojoth Stadium IN Guadeloupe.

Jamaica finished with a tally of 68 medals, comprising 39 gold, 21 silver and eight bronze, in another dominant performance.

Among the highlights of the team's performers, were Remaldo Rose, who justified his favourite label for the Under-20 boys' 100 metres when he dismissed a threat from Trinidad and Tobago's Kerston Bledman to win in 10.48 seconds, and Schillonie Calvert who won the senior girls' equivalent in 11.51 seconds. Jamaica completed the short sprint sweep when Danielle Jeffery (11.67) and Carie Russell (11.70) made it a Jamaica one-two in the Under-17 girls' 100m while Dexter Lee took the boys' equivalent 10.72.

NACAC UNDER-23 CHAMPIONSHIPS (July 7-9) Jamaica left the three-day North America, Central America and Caribbean Under-23 Championships in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic with six medals.

Ricardo Chambers and the men's quarter-mile team secured gold medals while Wilbert Walker and Nickeisha Wilson bagged a silver each and Isa Phillips and Clora Williams pocketed bronze.

Chambers took the men's 400m in a championship record 45.09 seconds. He later teamed up with Huntley Thomas, Leford Green and Brian Steele to win the men's 4x400m in 3:03.86. United States (3:05.10) and Bahamas (3:06.95) trailed Jamaica across the line.

Walker's silver medal came in the men's triple jump with a leap of 6.18m while Phillips secured his first medal in national colours when he crossed the line in 49.80 for third in the men's 400m hurdles.

Wilson ran a personal best 56.77 for silver in the women's 400m hurdles while in the women's 400m, Williams finished third 52.40.

CAC GAMES (July 25-29) At the CAC Ganmes in Columbia, Jamaica earned nine medals, including three gold … Dorain Scott's shot put 20.34m Games and national record and Xavier Brown’s 20.74 in the 200m.

Closing the meet in style, the mile relay quartet of Sanjay Ayre, Leford Green, national champion Ricardo Chambers and Bryan Steele, gave the Jamaicans it's only relay victory of the meet, winning in 3:01.78 ahead of Trinidad & Tobago (3:02.65) who were competitive right to the end. Jamaica finished with three gold, three and three bronze.

CAC JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (July 14-16) Jamaica dominated the XVII Central America and Caribbean Junior Track and Field Championships in Trinidad & Tobago. The Jamaicans ended atop the medal standing with 59 medals.

The highlight of Jamaica's performance was winning all eight-relay titles, which saw them leaving the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, with 59 medals - 32 gold, 16 silver and 11 bronze medals.

Mexico, 42 (14G, 16S, 12B); Trinidad & Tobago 39 (10G, 17S, 12); Barbados 20 (8G, 4S, 8G) and Puerto Rico 23 (7G, 6S, 10B) rounded off the top five.

Romaine Mckenzie won four gold medals, while Schillonie Calvert, Yohan Blake, Carrie Russell and Natoya Goule won three gold medals each.

Jodian Richards won the Under-20 800m in 2:12.23 and the 1500m in 4: 33.77.

Blake (21.02) and (10.33), along with Calvert (23.20) and (11.37) won the Under-20 sprint double events respectively. Calvert broke Simone Facey's four-year-old record of 23.22 seconds to beat teammate Anastasia Le-Roy (23.25), who finished second.

Russell captured the 200m Under-17 title in 23.75 to add to her 100m (11.79) victory, while McKenzie won the 200m in 21.17 to go his 400m (47.59). Goule took the Under-17 800m in 2:09.15 and the 1200m 3:33.74.

Calvert and Blake were apart of Jamaica's female and male Under-20 4x100m relay teams, which secured victories in 40.49 and 44.74 respectively while Russell, and McKenzie were apart of the Under-17 sprint relay quartets which took top honours in 40.83 and 45.50 seconds respectively.

McKenzie was also apart of the boys' Under-17 mile relay team, which won in 3: 17.05 seconds while Goule anchored the female team to victory in 3: 45.31.

In other mile relay, the Under-20 girls 4x400m team of Andrea Reid, Sherene Pinnock, Bobby-Gaye Wilkins and Sonita Sutherland won in 3: 36.02 ahead of Trinidad & Tobago (3:42.31), while the boys' quarter of Tarik Edwards, Allodin Fothergill, Gawain Gray and Edino Steele clocked 3:06.99 to beat Trinidad & Tobago (3:07.51).

Apart from Calvert, six other Jamaicans were also in record-breaking form. Pinnock won the girl's Under-20 400m hurdles in 57.09 seconds to erase the previous mark of 57.84 set by Yusmelis Garcia of Cuba in 2002 while Shariff Small threw 57.79m for a new championship record in the boys' Under-20 discus.

Sutherland broke the girls' Under-20 400m championship record on her way to victory in 51.57 ahead of teammate Bobbie-Gaye Wilkins (53.19) while Omar Bryan established a new championship record, 52.77m, to win the boys' Under-17 discus throw. Sutherland wasn't too happy with her time while Wilkins described the race as 'difficult'. Alain Bailey's 7.68m leap won the boys' Under-20 long jump and Taneisha Blair's 44.89m throw to win the girls' Under-20 Javelin, also established new Championship records.

IAAF WORLD CUP (September 15-16)

Sherone Simpson was Jamaica's lone winner at the 10th IAAF World Cup of Athletics. With a gun-to-tape victory, Sherone Simpson took home the expected 9-point victory for the Americas, and US$30,000 for herself. Running in nearly still conditions, the 22-year-old Jamaican produced yet another dominating victory as she crossed the line in 10.97 in one of the most lopsided victories ever in World Cup competition.

It was the eighth straight win for Simpson, the world leader in both the 100 and 200 this year. American Torri Edwards (11.19) was a distant second.

With a sizzling 49.6 closing leg, Jamaican Novlene Williams anchored the Americas team to a thrilling victory over Team USA in the 4x400 Relay. The quartet clocked a world-leading 3:19.84 to defeat the American team's 3: 20.69 to successfully defend their World Cup title. Jamaica's Shericka Williams was apart of the team.

World Indoor (March 10-12) Kenia Sinclair broke the Central American & Caribbean (CAC) 800m record again, but this time it was only good enough for second to Mozambique's Maria Mutola on her way to handing Jamaica its only medal at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow, Russia. Sinclair's medal placed Jamaica joint 16th with eight countries. In breaking her own CAC record mark of 2: 00.06 set in previous day's semi-final, Sinclair's time of 1:59.54 was the first 800m medal for Jamaica at the world level. Russia topped the three-day championships with 18 medals (eight gold, five silver and five bronze) ahead of the United States - 13 (seven gold, four silver and two bronze) and Ethiopia - two (two gold).

WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (August 15-20) Jamaica ended the six-day IAAF World Junior Track and Field Championships in sixth position, earning two gold, one and six bronze at the Chaoyang Sport Centre in China.

Kaliese Spencer won the women’s 400m hurdles in 55.11 seconds and the men's 4x100m team secured victory in a time of 39.05 seconds. The quartet of Winston Barnes, Remaldo Rose, Cawayne Jervis and 100m bronze medallist, Yohan Blake, in winning the gold, set a new national junior record.

Sonita Sutherland (52.41) took silver in the women’s 400m. Sherene Pinnock (56.67) took third in the women’s 400m hurdles, Yohan Blake (10.42) and Carrie Russell (11.42) took bronze in the men’s and women’s 100m respectively.

The women's 4x100m team of Naffene Briscoe, Anastasia Le-Roy, Carrie Russell and Schillonie Calvert, stopped the clock in a season best 44.22 seconds for third place.

The women’s 4x400m relay quartet of Latoya McDermott, Pinnock, Sutherland and 400m hurdles champion Spencer, secured bronze in a season best 3: 31.62. USA won in a world leading 3:21.01 ahead of Nigeria (3:30.84).

After the performance at the World Junior, Central American & Caribbean Athletics Confederation’s (CACAC) president Victor Lopez sent congratulatory letter to the JAAA.