Marvin Anderson

Howard Campbell, Sunday Gleaner Writer

MARVIN ANDERSON was still a student at St Jago High School when he was chosen a Gleaner Honour Award winner in 2001. That year, he won the Class One sprint double at Boys' Championships, and also anchored his school's 4X100 and 4X400 metres teams to victory.

Anderson has continued to be competitive in the senior ranks. He was a finalist in the 200 metres at last year's World Championships in Osaka, Japan, and won a silver medal over the distance at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In June, at the National Trials, Anderson was second to hot favourite Usain Bolt in the 200 metres. He was selected to be a member of Jamaica's Olympic squad.

What a year Usain Bolt has had! The current world record holder over 100 metres with an astonishing 9.72 seconds, the lanky Trelawny native was the talk of the track and field world going into the Beijing Games.

Reebok Grand Prix

Bolt has run six sub-10- seconds races this year. The most impressive came in May at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York when his 9.72 seconds effort destroyed compatriot Asafa Powell's 9.74 time. He is expected to become the first runner since American Carl Lewis in 1984, to win the sprint double at the Olympics.

Bolt has fulfilled the promise he showed as a junior at William Knibb High School. He was unstoppable at Boys Championships and maintained that impressive form in 2002 at the World Junior Championships in Kingston.

Bolt won the 200 metres in world record time for his peers (20.61 seconds). He also took home silver medals with Jamaica's 4X100 and 4X400 relay teams. For his remarkable showing in 2002, at only 15 years of age, Usain Bolt was made a recipient of the Gleaner Honour Award.

Veronica Campbell-Brown is a two-time winner of the Gleaner Honour Award. She was first cited in 2004 for her brilliant performances at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, where she won gold medals in the 200 metres and 4X100 metres relay, and a bronze in the 100 metres.

Continued to excel

The former Vere Technical runner has continued to excel, especially over the 100 metres, in Grand Prix competition. Last year, she won the 100 metres at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, getting up in time to pip American Lauryn Williams. For that victory and a strong season, Campbell-Brown was rewarded with her second Gleaner Honour Award.

Trecia-Kaye Smith was a Gleaner Honour Award winner in 2005, the year she won the triple jump at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, with a leap of 15.11. The 32 year-old Smith, who lives in London, was a seven-time champion competing at the college level in the United States for the University of Pittsburgh.

Asafa Powell had an outstanding 2005. He equalled his world record of 9.77 seconds for the 100 metres twice and won the gold medal for the distance at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.

His spectacular feats that year not only made him the International Association of Athletics Federations' Male Athlete of the Year, but earned him a Gleaner Honour Award.

Powell, 25, has maintained his position as one of the world's top sprinters. Despite losing to American Tyson Gay in the final of the 100 metres at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, last August, he set a new world record (9.74 seconds) for the distance at a Grand Prix meet in Rieti, Italy, two weeks later.

That record was smashed by Usain Bolt in May.

howard.campbell@gleanerjm.com