Tony Becca
THE YEAR 2005 is fast receding into history and as far as sport is concerned, but for the standard bearers in track and field, it has been, for Jamaicans, a year in which there has not been much to really shout about.
On the field, for example, Jamaica failed to qualify for next year's World Cup Football Finals in Germany and Jamaica got only one player on the West Indies Youth team for next year's Under 19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka.
TT EMBARRASSMENT
Off the field there was the embarrassment that led to the removal of the president of the Jamaica Table Tennis Association and the revelation that football clubs, like cricket clubs, were suffering due to the lack of money.
In the midst of the somewhat disappointing performances, however, were a few brilliant ones as Jamaica once again underlined its greatness in track and field at the World Championships in August.
In a performance comparable to that of the Olympic Games in 2004, Jamaica won one gold medal, five silver medals and two bronze medals to finish fourth in the medals table, and hats off to Trecia Smith, Veronica Campbell, Elloreen Ennis-London and Michael Frater, to Brigitte Foster-Hylton, to the Jamaica women's relay teams, and to the Jamaica men's 4x400 relay team.
SMITH'S GOLD
In some glorious performances, Smith won the gold medal in the triple jump, Campbell, the Olympic gold medal winner in the 200 metres and the Olympic bronze medal winner in the 100 metres, won the silver in the 100 metres.
Ennis-London, followed by compatriot Foster-Hylton, won the silver in the 100 metres hurdles, Fraser, finishing behind Olympic champion Justin Gatlin, won the silver in the men's 100 metres, the Jamaica team of Sanjay Ayre, Brandon Simpson, Lansford Spence and Davian Clarke won the 4x400 relay, and the Jamaican girls - Danielle Browning, Sherone Simpson, Aleen Bailey and Campbell in the 4x100 and Shericka Williams, Novlene Williams, Ronetta Smith and Lorraine Fenton in the 4x400 - won the silver in the relays.
In any language, those were magnificent performances - and particularly so the one by Smith and the combination of Ennis-London and Foster-Hylton as Jamaica grabbed two of the three medals in one event.
FASTEST MAN
To many, however, the performance of the year belonged to sprinter Asafa Powell - the man who, on Tuesday, June 14, in Athens, became the fastest man of all time.
After failing to finish the event at the Olympic Games in 2004, after running 9.84 - the third fastest time ever, Powell, then 22 years old, ran a blistering 9.77 to shave 0.01 seconds off Tim Montgomery's previous record and hats off to him also.
That was a great run - a performance that, like those of Smith, Campbell, Ennis-London, Foster-Hylton, Frater, the relay boys and the relay girls, was undoubtedly Jamaica's best of 2005.
To them, many thanks for something to remember, and to the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association, to the Jamaica Olympic Association, many thanks for the kind of leadership which has continued, for so many years, to produce such great Jamaican sportsmen and sportswomen.
