"The fastest man in the world." I didn't want the importance of what my children were about to see to miss them. We were hopefully going to see Asafa Powell. His manager had advised me to catch him aftertraining, given me the time and place and wished me good luck. I had brought my kids so they could get a taste of excellence, of what it takes to be number one. My son's eyes lit up when I added for effect, "There is no one on this entire planet that can run faster than this man."

I had fallen victim of my own dramatics and as I stepped out of the car, I felt the unfamiliar butterflies gathering clumsily in my stomach, I realised that I had never met the world's greatest of anything before, and I was not just humbled, I was a little intimidated. What appeared before us was a field, it served as the track Asafa Powell trained on. There were no fancy stands, no lanes obvious, and no surface other than good old shaggy grass. The looks on my children's faces said it all, "This is it?" A man called from the small house beside us, and explained that Asafa had gone to the gym. The gymnasium was familiar, we had been there on many occasions for a whole host of reasons; but even now it did not seem to have much in the way of equipment and clearly was not a facility dedicated to athletics.

No serious resources

While it is inordinately impressive that Asafa Powell can achieve his level of success training in what seems to be basic conditions, it does beg the question why is it that we have produced many of the world's greatest athletes and yet our successive governments have never put serious resources behind the development of this sport. Despite our talents there is not an Athletic Academy of the highest possible standards to develop them, no state-of-the-art training facility, with gyms, nutritionists, guidance counsellors, sports psychiatrists, sports managers, comfortable dormitories and world-class coaches constantly demanding excellence. Such an academy could produce not only athletes but all the support personnel that are required for the sport. Asafa Powell has been a success despite our limited resources, just think how many more success stories we could have if we did put some resources behind this incredible talent.

Another obvious area where talent abounds is in our performing arts. Undoubtedly we have produced and continue to produce world-class musicians yet we do not have the equivalent of a Juilliard. Juilliard's Mission reads in part as follows, "Juilliard's central mission is to educate talented performing musicians, dancers and actors so that they may achieve the highest artistic standards, as well as become leaders in their professions. Through this process Juilliard will also help them to become thoughtful, confident and responsible adults."

Lack of training

Our musicians are not trained in entertainment law, or financial management, or even reading music, but often make their way without any formal training. Bob Marley and Sean Paul are two who have made it, but many produce music that is not as marketable worldwide, and as a result outsiders have taken our style and given it global appeal and made millions. Proper training could have kept those millions with us.

Too often we seem to focus on our weaknesses; we have an average football team so we spend millions to improve it. We are not a technically savvy population, so we decide that is where we are going to compete, yet we have incredible strengths and if we build on those strengths as well and benefit from the spillover effects of these two potentially world class industries, then surely I might even get used to butterflies in my stomach!

Feeling like some kind of groupie, we made several attempts to catch up with Asafa, with no luck. But one day my son came rushing in shouting, "Mummy I saw the fastest man in the world! Daddy showed me, we saw him at the 'sukermarket'!" Just about the only place I didn't look! Sometimes great things can be right there under your nose and you just don't notice them.