Editorial/s

We join the celebration in Canada, particularly within our community here in the GTA, with the Caribbean over its Olympic success in Beijing. Even as we celebrate the medals won by our Canadian team in China, we are also holding our heads up in pride for a second time over the outstanding performances by Jamaicans Usian Bolt, Shelly-Anne Fraser, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart. We are also proud of Trinidad and Tobago’s Richard Thompson.
As we look at past Olympics, we note that Caribbean sprinters have been building up to a position of dominance in world sprinting for some time. In the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, there were three Caribbean athletes and two from the US in the starting blocks. Trinidad and Tobago’s Ato Boldon won silver and Barbados’ Obadele Thompson took home the bronze. In the 2004 Olympics at Athens, Greece, there were three Caribbean and three American athletes in the finals. The gold and bronze were taken by Americans Justin Gatlin and Maurice Greene.
Today, our own Caribbean athletes are well in position to dominate the short sprints in the years to come. Beijing’s success, undoubtedly, is the result of years of hard work, careful planning, execution and dedication.
Last week’s competition saw six of the eight runners in the finals for the 100-metre dash coming from the Caribbean, with three from Jamaica, two from Trinidad and Tobago, and one from the Netherlands Antilles. This works out to 75 percent of the finalists from the Caribbean, with five of the eight starters from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. The US, which has dominated the Olympics and World Championships for many years, saw just one athlete making it through and finishing with the bronze medal.
Last week’s performance is all the more reason for pride since the 1976 Olympics here in Montreal when Trinidad and Tobago’s Hasely Crawford took the gold and Jamaica’s Don Quarrie the silver – it was a flag-waving moment when our own took the top two medals in the 100-metre dash. Bolt’s and Thompson’s success last week was a time for us to relive that moment again.
How overjoyed we were to see Bolt comfortably striding through the required 41 steps to the gold in a world record time of 9.69 seconds, no doubt an outstanding athletic achievement in our time. And how proud we were to watch Thompson follow in less than a heartbeat, even as our hearts swelled with joy, with a finish of 9.89 seconds for silver, a mere .04 seconds over what was then a world record set by our own Donovan Bailey. This, followed the next day by a first ever in Olympic history where Jamaica swept the first three spots in the women’s 100-metre dash, with yet another world record by Fraser, her teammates Simpson and Stewart tying for silver.
There are certainly good things coming out of the Caribbean in our time! Even as we savour the victories of our Canadian athletes, we look forward to further strides in other areas of excellence from our homelands.