Published:Sunday | January 10, 2016 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
The respected United States publication, Track and Field News, has named American Ashton Eaton and Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia as its Athletes of the Year for 2015.Despite contesting just one decathlon for the entire season, Eaton won the bulk of the...
It's far too soon to describe the ISSA-GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Championships winning streaks by Calabar High School and Edwin Allen High School as dynasties. Both have a long way to go before their respective series of consecutive Champs wins...
Published:Tuesday | January 5, 2016 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
For two and a half months last season, Javon Francis was just one stride away from the five-year-old national 400-metre record of 44.40 seconds.Then national teammate Rusheen McDonald blasted the record to 43.93 in the heats of the World...
Published:Monday | January 4, 2016 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
With the World Junior Championships coming in July, athletics chief Warren Blake is promising that junior team training camps will be held this year.Blake, the president of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), made the promise as...
Published:Sunday | January 3, 2016 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
Athletics chief Warren Blake believes that Jamaica can top the track and field medal table at this summer's Olympic Games.Blake, president of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), says the 110-metre hurdles and the men's 4x400-...
One national icon reminds us not to forget our past. We do anyway. The year that closes today contained many important sporting anniversaries, and all of them have passed quietly. It's a real pity.The schoolboy football season has passed with hardly...
Published:Tuesday | December 29, 2015 | 6:51 PMHubert Lawrence
Christopher Taylor is very fast. However, it turns out that he didn't run as fast as was first reported at the Tyser-Mills development meet at the G.C. Foster College for Physical Education on December 12.Taylor, the World Youth 400-metre champion...
Published:Sunday | December 20, 2015 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
Take one look at Jamaican Olympic triple jump hopeful Shanieka Thomas and her potential is obvious.At six-foot tall and 145 pounds, she is built almost exactly like world record holder Inessa Kravets.Thomas, 11th at the 2015 World Championships,...
Published:Monday | December 7, 2015 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
As can be expected, the incomparable Usain Bolt is looking forward to the Olympic Games next year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The picture isn't so clear when it comes to the 2017 World Championships in London. According to a report carried in the...
Published:Saturday | November 28, 2015 | 4:14 PMHubert Lawrence
In 20 of the 28 times when the International Association of Athletic Federation (IAAF) has presented its male Athlete of the Year Award, it has been won by a man who has set a world record in the season under consideration. That may satisfy Jamaican...
Published:Thursday | November 26, 2015 | 3:22 PMHubert Lawrence
TWO-TIME World 400-metre hurdles champion, Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic, has singled out Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer as her greatest rival. Hejnova made the admission as part of an interview with the online IAAF publication Personal Bests. She...
Published:Wednesday | November 25, 2015 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
Noted athletics coach, David Riley, says Jamaica could develop top-class male horizontal jumpers in three to four years.Riley, who is head coach at Excelsior High School, says Jamaica has the talent. He believes this goal could be achieved by better...
Ever since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia has consistently been a major power in world athletics. Its combined strength on the track and in the field crystallised in 2013, when the World Championships were held in Moscow.Powered by...
The Jordan Foote story is a tear-jerker. Instead of enjoying his last year of high school football eligibility, Foote has been stricken by cancer. The Holy Trinity High School standout has fought many battles on the field of play. Now, he is...
Published:Thursday | October 29, 2015 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
Double Olympic silver medallist Juliet Cuthbert is suggesting that Asafa Powell add some indoor races to his 2016 season. Cuthbert believes some indoor action would complement Powell's projected reduction of outdoor races in the period leading up...
Though the stars of athletics make nowhere near the money gained by their peers in football, boxing, golf, Formula One and the domestic American sports, it’s becoming more tempting for young prospects to make the big move. They’d best...
Published:Tuesday | October 27, 2015 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
Usain Bolt could log his 50th sub-10 seconds 100-metre clocking in 2016.Bolt, the 2008 and 2012 Olympic 100 and 200 metres champion, has already run 45 such races in his career. With the Olympic Games in the offing, he could well reach the milestone...
Even though their female teammates outscored them at the World Championships, Jamaica's male athletes had a pretty good season in 2015. Led by the incomparable Usain Bolt, our men collected five of the 12 medals won by Jamaica at the World...
It was headline news when Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia broke the 1,500-metre world record in Monaco with a super run of three minutes, 50.07 seconds.When she took the gold medal in the 1,500m at the World Championships in Beijing, she became a prime...
If anything, the weeks after the Beijing World Championships have been just as interesting as the 2015 season itself. The movements of bright prospects from high school to local colleges kept hard-core fans of Jamaican athletics on their toes, with...
Published:Friday | September 25, 2015 | 6:24 PMHubert Lawrence
After a season where injuries forced his hand, Jamaica-trained British sprinter, Delano Williams, is keeping his options open.The former Munro College champion sprinter set a personal best over 400 metres in 2015 and was consistently fast for Great...
It's almost funny. Jamaica's 1,500 metres national records turned 20 and 21 this year. Given that we view it as a 'non-traditional' event, it's no wonder time stands still for Jamaica in the metric mile.Twenty-one years ago, Yvonne Graham, the...
Published:Saturday | September 19, 2015 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence
Jamaican sprinters have beaten the 11-second benchmark of quality in the women's 100 metres more than 200 times.Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce brought the milestone within reach with her winning time of 10.76 seconds in the final of the recent World...
Late-season marathons aside, the 2015 athletics campaign is practically over. It ended brilliantly for Jamaica, with the country's second best medal performance at a World Championships or an Olympic Games. Now it's time to begin to choose the...
Published:Monday | September 14, 2015 | 8:11 PMHubert Lawrence
French hurdler Pascal Martinot-Lagarde says Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt is the best athlete he has ever seen.Martinot-Lagarde, the 2010 World Junior 110-metre hurdles champion, says Bolt has brought fun to the sport of athletics. The 24-year-old...
