Should Usain Bolt join the delegation to Singapore to promote the Youth Olympics and help his country get the money needed to acquire new synthetic tracks for the National Stadium and Stadium East?

There has been much debate about that issue this week. Minister Olivia Grange claims she had requested of Bolt’s management team, his presence on a mission to the Signapore to get much needed help for this country’s shoddy facilities. Bolt’s management team has said they don’t think it will be possible, given that he has prior commitments.

That is where the story should have ended.

Usain Bolt has been the beneficiary of much love, honour and attention from the lawmakers of this country, but in the last two years, especially, he has paid them back 10-fold, if not more.

Puma, Bolt’s shoe sponsor, said earlier this year the super athlete’s media market value to the company is in excess of US$350 million dollars. That is money Puma would have had to spend if they were to promote their products using traditional advertising.

I doubt very much if Jamaica has spent that amount of money in 10 years marketing this country but I am certain that should Bolt’s media market value to Jamaica be calculated it would amount to much more than what it would cost Puma. Through Bolt and his exploits, the Jamaican flag has been raised six times at the last two major championships but it extends way beyond that. Askmen.com recently conducted a poll – non-scientific, yes, but more than half-a-million people from across the world responded to the poll that named Bolt as the second most influential man in the world. Where is he from? Jamaica. Not Puma; Jamaica.

Everywhere he goes, the first thing that comes to people’s minds is “That’s Usain Bolt. He is from Jamaica.”

If Bolt should never lift another finger or wear Jamaica’s colours again we could never pay him back for the positive imaging he has helped this country with. Let me remind you. Over the past few years, Jamaica’s international image has taken a beating, justifiably so because of our ridiculous murder rate and our fragile economy.

Bolt has helped in terms of damage control by projecting some of the things that are still great about this country.

So if he chooses not to go on a seven-day mission to Singapore we should just let it go. The man has other commitments that are critical to building his brand and ensuring his future so that when his career is over he does not have to worry about taking care of his family and himself. He has to because Jamaica certainly isn’t going to. For all the goodwill he would have earned Jamaica, should be break his leg tomorrow and his career ends, this country would forget about him in the time it took for him to set the world record in Berlin.

Bolt has given Jamaica leverage, something that it can use in future negotiations as it hopes to create a proper sports industry that will earn valuable millions of dollars for this ailing economy.

Leave Bolt alone. He will help when he can. I am sure of it, but when he is not able to, we should be thankful that we can turn to him when we really need to.
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Word came last week that Veronica Campbell Brown and her long-time coach Lance Brauman were going their separate ways bringing to an end a partnership that has yielded three Olympic gold medals, two of them individual and a World title.

The Jamaican sprint queen and her coach have been together since their days at Barton Community College, through their times at the University of Arkansas and onto the professional circuit. They have been together through thick and thin, all the while remaining loyal.

When Brauman was sentenced to 12 months and a day in prison back in October 2006 on charges of embezzlement from student assistance program funds, one count of theft from a program receiving federal funds and three counts of mail fraud, it meant that Campbell Brown as well as Tyson Gay would go into the 11th IAAF World Athletic Championships in Osaka, Japan without Brauman’s direct input into their training routines. He wrote them manuals outlining their training programmes. Campbell Brown won gold in the women’s 100 metres while Gay won gold medals in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and the 4 x100-metre relay. It would be understated to say that the union resulted in great success.

But, if there was so much success to be had why did Campbell Brown leave?

Surely she has not forgotten the abundance of success that Brauman has helped her achieve including the fastest time in 10 years – 21.74s – that she ran while defending her Olympic 200-metre title in Beijing in 20008.

Here is why I think VCB has decided to move on. VCB is a fierce competitor. She ruled the world of female sprinting in 2007 but a year later she was only fourth best in her own country. Imagine how she must have felt when as defending world champion she was unable to represent Jamaica at the Olympics in the 100 metres. The three women who beat her also showed that it was no fluke taking all three medals in Beijing.

As defending world 100 metre champion VCB earned an automatic berth in the event for Berlin so she did not have to qualify. It made no difference. A persistent toe injury and a hamstring strain two weeks or so before the world championships rendered VCB little more than a spectator in the women’s 100 metres and she was handily beaten in her pet event, the 200 metres, by her American rival Alyson Felix.

But even if she was healthy going into the world championships, in all likelihood VCB would have been beaten in Berlin. The times recorded by Shelly Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart 10.73s and 10.75s respectively, far exceed VCB’s best times over the short sprint. She has even lamented that the world record time set by the late Florence Griffith Joyner 10.49s is out of her reach. Fraser, Stewart and Carmelita Jeter have all shown VCB that it is very possible for other women to approach the time set under controversial circumstances at the American national trials 21 years ago.

It’s a simple case of what have you done for me lately. It would seem as if the former Vere Tech alum has lost faith in the ability of her coach to give her the attention necessary to get her to run faster than she ever has before. In the world of track and field VCB is a queen. Not being on top is not something she will find acceptable. She has to be able to compete and that means extra attention from her coach, who also has another major star in Tyson Gay to attend to.

It could also be that VCB believes that Brauman is incapable of getting more out of her. Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt and it happens in all sports. No matter how good a coach is, there comes a time when his athletes stop listening. When that happens it’s time to move on.

Anthony Carpenter is the man on the hot seat now. Let’s see how far he can take VCB.

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Olympic 100 metre silver medallist Sherone Simpson must have had a hard time sitting around watching Jamaica dominate the 12th IAAF World Athletic Championships in Berlin last August. Thirteen medals including six gold ones and she did not have any part to play in a single one.

One of the fastest women in history, Simpson won her first individual medal at a major championship when she and team-mates Kerron Stewart and Shelly Ann Fraser copped a historic 1-2-2 sweep of the 100 metre sprint at the Olympics in Beijing, China in 2008. She then underwent her second knee surgery following those historic games and missed a sizeable chunk of the ‘09 season rehabilitating and training.

But it wasn’t like she didn’t try to get involved. In an incredibly brave attempt to qualify for the Jamaican team to Berlin, Germany, she barely missed the finals finishing fifth in the semi-finals of the 100 metres at the National Championships in June. It would mean that she missed her shot at making the top 4 in the finals and with it the last two world championships – Osaka and Berlin – both because of knee surgery.

In the time between Osaka and Berlin, Simpson graduated from the University of Technology fulfilling a significant part of her career goals.

Now chasing some of her other major career goals Simpson fought her way back to race fitness by participating in a series of low-key meets and one major meet before returning home presumably healthy and eager to see the back of 2009 and welcome 2010.

I have always admired Simpson for her courage, her smarts, and her ability to overcome adversity.

After experiencing a season on top of the world in 2006 when she recorded seven of the 10 fastest times in the world in the 100 metres and came within one-win of qualifying for a share of the Golden League million-dollar jackpot, Simpson would spend 2007 recovering from surgery to repair her damaged knee.

Then like the eternally rising Phoenix she exploded back onto the scene in 2008, finishing third at the National Championships in a smart 10.87s and then sharing silver medals with Stewart in the Olympic finals. Her time of 10.98s does not tell the story that she was actually leading the finals before Fraser caught and passed her on the way to the gold medal.

We can only hope that 2010 will witness another rising from Simpson. We can pray that she chooses to defend her 2006 Commonwealth Games 200-metre title in India and then go on to greater things in Daegu, South Korea in 2011. She still has time on her side and if anyone deserves a shot at World Championship glory it would the little petite miss from central Manchester.
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There was a significant debate recently over whether Usain Bolt deserved the national honour, Order of Jamaica that has been bestowed upon him by Prime Minister Bruce Golding. Many believed that it was too early for the 23-year-old World and Olympic champion to be receive the nation’s fourth highest honour.

Personally, I think Bolt deserves any and everything but he also needs to learn and learn fast that with such honour comes great responsibility. The recent brouhaha wherein Bolt made some disparaging remarks against supporters of Movado is an example of how quickly he needs to grow up.

Bolt is a supporter of entertainer Vybz Kartel, a man who veteran entertainer Bounty Killer described recently as the worst thing ever to happen to dancehall. (I guess there is no accounting for musical taste.) Based on Bolt’s comments, supporters of Movado have reportedly threatened Bolt and his management team is ‘leaving nothing to chance’, so they are taking extra precaution to ensure that Bolt remains safe.

This is my argument. Bolt is young but he is not a fool. He must be aware of the ongoing conflict between the two entertainers’ camps. He should also aware that there have been clashes between supporters of the opposing camps. His statements were inflammatory and in the context of the ongoing violence, naïve.

Usain Bolt could be forgiven for making such statements in public but Usain Bolt O.J. should have known better. His management admits that the champion sprinter is still a work in progress; that is he still a bit rough around the edges, but if Bolt is learning on the fly, this was one lesson he should have already learnt. Remember the comments he made about rolling ganja spliffs as a child? Or, the press conference where he was clowning around behind the moderator? Those incidents should have prepared him enough for him to see that there are certain things he should not do.

Surely he must be aware that there are some people who are not so bright and will do him harm just to get their 15 minutes of fame. If he has not yet learnt that lesson then he needs to learn it even more quickly than he would normally be required to. If he doesn’t it could cost him the rest of his career and neither his parents nor Jamaica and those who adore him would like that one bit. Neither would he.

How fast can Yohan Blake go next year? Blake, the promising St. Jago past student had promised so much as a junior but didn’t deliver as much as his scores of adoring fans expected. In his final years at St. Jago, Blake was upstaged by schoolmate Nickel Ashmeade, another promising junior, and Calabar’s Ramone McKenzie causing many to start thinking that they were seeing a modern-day Daniel England.

England as you may recall was a talented high school 200 metre and 400 metre runner for Calabar High School during the late 80s to early 90s. Many will remember his epic battle at Champs in the 200 metres with Asafa Powell’s older brother Donovan Powell, who that day handed England one of his rare defeats. However, as talented as England seemed to be at the time, his career fizzled after he left high school and eventually faded from public consciousness.

In 2008, Blake dropped out of school, opting to take his chances with veteran sprint coach Glen Mills. Four years earlier Mills had taken another talented youngster and eventually transformed him into one of the greatest athletes of all time. You may have heard of him. His name is Usain Bolt.

After less than one calendar year, Mills has taken Blake from 10.11s to 9.93s in the 100 metres and had it not been for a positive test for a mild stimulant that truncated his season he may have gone faster yet. Blake and training partner Marvin Anderson returned adverse findings during the National Championships in late June for 4-Methyl-2-hexanamine, a stimulant derived from the geranium plant and which will be added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of prohibited substances for 2010.

Blake has got a lot stronger under Mills’ guidance and he will get stronger still. His mechanics are also not as sound as they should be. The first 30 metres of his race, including his start, needs a lot of work but nothing that he wont be able to iron out during this current off season as he waits out his three-month ban.

There are other elements of his race that need improvement as well. When all is said and done we could be seeing 9.8xs from Blake on a consistent basis starting next season going forward.

How fast will he be able to go? I don’t know but Blake has been battle tested and the doping scandal he found himself in the middle of has forced him to mature a lot faster than he would have wanted this past season. The new found maturity and the team he has around him will help ensure that he remains focussed and train even harder.

Doubts will have been cast about his performances, so he will need to run even faster than ever to dispel those doubts over whether Muscle Speed aided his ability to run fast. In truth, he will never be able to outrun the doubters, not now, not ever. That being said, look for Blake to break new speed barriers next season as he tries to do the impossible and outrun public perception.
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