Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce with her son, Zyon after her 10.71s win at the World Championships, Doha in the Women’s 100m final.
What an accomplishment for our pocket rocket, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, right?!
Suga cannot let another minute go by without Congratulating our Sprint Queen, Shelly, who won the Women’s 100m Final at the Doha World Championships in 10.71s! Her first major event after giving birth to her son, Zyon.
It is a pity Elaine Thompson could not give Jamaica the 1-2, but it has been said that her achilles tendon is acting up again with soreness. All the best to Elaine in the 200m!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
If you liked this Blog, follow Suga Lifestyle Online, on Instagram (@sugalifestyle), Twitter (@sugalifestyleja) or like the Suga Lifestyle Facebook page.
Usain Bolt was beaten in his last race! He got the Bronze.
Young Christian Coleman got Silver and fellow rival, Yohan Blake finished 4th. That leaves Justin Gatlin!
Gatlin who has been quiet all season with a point to prove, proved his point, quieting the boos from the crowd who haven’t forgiven him for his doping suspension even though he served his time.
Gatlin made it look deceiving in the Semis. He placed 2nd to Akani Simbine in the slowest SemiFinal, drawing Lane 8, possibly so he could be far from Bolt in the Final and see everyone who couldn’t see him.
What happened to Usain Bolt?!
Bolt’s preparation was probably the worst ever for this season with a loss of 3 weeks to his friend’s Germaine Mason’s death as well as more time due to injuries.
His body gave up on him too. With age and injuries on top of a bad start, he could no longer power himself past the 50 or 60m line to destroy his field of opponents. He did everything physically possible to reach the line with Coleman and Gatlin. But it still wasn’t good enough because he is not used to being so far behind coming up to the line with no power. He panicked and started to lean too early. With his foot across the line early and the 2nd slowest reaction time of 0.183 in the race to Coleman’s 0.123 and Gatlin’s 0.138, he ran the fastest race.
If Usain took one more step as the taller man, just as Coleman did, I believe he would have edged out Gatlin for the win.
So it wasn’t a surprising result, but a disappointing result. It was a fairytale ending that wasn’t meant to be. It not only showed that Bolt is human, but it was a lesson taught and inspiration to many, that if you try hard enough, you can beat the best and be the best. After the best have won over and over again, a small part of the motivation to win is lost as well.
Gatlin could never beat Usain at his best or in good shape. However, Bolt still reigned as the fastest man in the world and we cannot discredit Gatlin’s determination after never being able to beat Bolt, to finally beat him and win the Gold at his age. Sadly it happened at a time when Bolt will not run another race to answer. Bolt was gracious in defeat and we should be too.
Bolt said to Jamaica – ‘Sorry about that’. He knows how we can be with just one disappointment on the big stage. He surely cannot please everyone. Let us remember that if it was entirely up to Bolt he would have retired at the RIO Olympics 2016, but under the encouragement and influence of PUMA and the IAAF, they wanted him to come back to Worlds for a filled stadium and for the fans. We saw how hard it was for Usain to get the Gold in the 100m at RIO, much less a year later. I would have preferred for him to finish winning as most of us would, but there are others who may not care about the results of his last race, whether it was a win, lose or draw. They just wanted to see him run one more time. Thankfully he was realistic with himself and left his winning streak in his preferred 200m event, safe.
Thanks for everything you have done for Jamaica and Athletics Usain Bolt! We will miss you (Photo: AMP. Firstpost)
Bolt led a winning era for us from 2008 Beijing. That is almost a decade. We have a lot to be thankful for. So this brings me to Elaine Thompson losing in the Women’s 100m FINAL.
It was considered sure money for Elaine to win the Women’s 100m. She had the winning time, jogging in the Semis. So to place 5th, something must have gone wrong. None of us wanted that to happen at such a huge event, where we expected her to deliver Gold to lift Jamaica after Usain’s Bronze the day before. What made it worse?
Thankfully, she did not injure herself. She has been suffering with an achilles tendon injury, but this did not play a part in her loss.
She stated that she stumbled coming out of the drive phase, isn’t sure why and could not recover fast enough to pass the others who were already far ahead of her to the finish line.
Our local tv panel explained how this was possible. With her running at such a fast speed, to come out of a drive phase quickly would be like hitting a wall. We saw when she literally jerked back at about 50m. To lose focus or for something to go wrong for just a few thousandths of a second in an 11-second race, the field would already have left her behind. She still showed great effort to finish 5th. I have witnessed our Pcket rocket, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce come last in a 100m Diamond league race because she failed to recover from a bad start. People wondered what went wrong but she wasn’t crucified for it because it was not a big race.
These things can happen and she was in good spirits to continue with the 4×100m, refusing to blame the loss on anything else that was going on. As it later came out that she was seen vomiting in the warm up area after the Semis.
So yes this may have happened to Elaine but we didn’t even take the time to consider it and haven’t accepted it because we are looking at the bigger picture that it was another win for the USA in the sprint. Her coach, Stephen Francis also let her put all her eggs in one basket since she is not entered to run the 200m.
It is also a huge upset because USA has been our biggest rival for years. We have been on top for almost a decade and trust me, it took what seems like forever to get there. In a time where it was speculated more than half of the USA athletes were on drugs and doping regulations were not as strict, we painfully watched our hard working athletes such as Merlene Ottey, Juliet Cuthbert, Grace Jackson and more, get Silver and Bronze medals time and time again, always falling short of the Gold. We cried with them each time. We were also stuck watching the extremely biased USA feed to go along with it, rubbing salt into our wounds. We suffered. As a result, when Sprint athletes like Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin were given doping bans, it was like we were finally being freed from a great injustice. But so much damage had been done already, for instance with the Women’s 100m World record being totally unattainable, it left us being a bitter nation. So with the field leveled at a time when we had young and upcoming athletes like Usain bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, along with the veteran Veronica Campbell Brown and more, the timing was right for total redemption in Beijing 2008. Jamaica showed total dominance in the sprints with both the Men and the Women, shocking the Americans who thought it was a one-time fluke. But oh no, this continued to RIO 2016. We have not only been spoilt but developed an arrogance through bitterness.
All is not lost though. It is a change of the guard and we may have to wait again until others rise, but Elaine is still young and as she said, she has many more races to come.
There is a good outlook for us in Field events too. Fedrick Dacres finished 4th in the Discus throw. It was not his personal best, but that will come at the right time once he keeps working at it. We had Traves Smikle, who also made it to the Final round.
Photo: The Jamaica Gleaner
We also have …
Omar McLeod
Young Omar McLeod won Gold in the Men’s 110m, lifting Jamaica’s spirits and dedicated the Gold to Usain Bolt.
So keep the faith and be patient Jamaica. Stand by our Athletes win or lose because we are a talented nation and again we will RISE.
Continue to enjoy the sport, stay tuned for today’s Schedule that starts later this afternoon with hot races to look out for!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
If you liked this article, follow Suga Lifestyle or like the Suga Lifestyle Facebook page.
It was quite an entertaining weekend in Sports, featuring Athletics at the National Stadium on Saturday and the Eastern and Western Conference NBA Finals.
JAMAICA INTERNATIONAL INVITATIONAL ATHLETICS MEET
Highlights
400m Women
Veteran, Novlene Williams-Mills won in 50.54 in a packed field. Although it was a slow race, she finished ahead of USA’s Phillis Francis (2nd) and Natasha Hastings (3rd).
I said it was a slow race because Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas destroyed the field in 49.77 in Shanghai last week in a World Leading time. These ladies have work to do.
3000m Steeplechase
Jamaica’s Aisha Praught Leer won with a new Meet record time! Promising outlook for long distance from Jamaica.
100m Women
USA’s Morolake Akinosun who anchored the USA’s team at the Penn Relays, came away with the win in 11.06. She finished ahead of Trinidad & Tobago’s Michelle Lee Ahye (2nd) and USA veteran, Allyson Felix (3rd).
100m Men
Jamaica’s Yohan Blake finally had some good fortune and won in 9.93 ahead of USA’s Ronnie Baker (2nd) who finished in 9.98 and Mike Rodgers, also from the USA in 3rd.
200m Women
Jamaica’s Olympic Gold medallist, Elaine Thompson burnt up the track, sprinting ahead of her opponents on the curve and increased her speed and lead down the stretch. A spectacular run with a World Leading time of 22.09s.
Jamaica’s 400m runner, Shericka Jackson, tried her hand at the 200m and came 2nd. Is this a sign of greater things to come from Shericka?
Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson leads the field down the stretch in the Women’s 200m
200m Men
Canada’s Andre DeGrasse who won the Men’s 200m
Canada’s Andre DeGrasse had to run hard to win in 20.14 to beat USA’s LaShawn Merritt (2nd) and UK’s Zharnel Hughs (3rd).
Jamaica’s Nickel Ashmeade could not step up to the plate as usual and Warren Weir may need to consider an early retirement.
NBA PLAYOFFS 2017
The Cavs drstroyed the Celtics on Friday night to win by 44 points and to go up in the series, 2-0. It was an embarrassing loss for the Celtics in their own arena that many could not stay to watch, especially viewers at home in front of their televisions. Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas (IT) went to the locker room early during the game with a nagging hip injury. But if I were him I would run and hide too. They were throroughly disrespected by the Cavz. Even Cavs’ JR Smith had a petty moment, pretending to sweep a broom at one point in the game.
Before game 3, news broke that IT will be out for the rest of the Playoffs with the hip injury. So almost everyone wrote the Celtics off to lose in a sweep. But last night they came out without IT to compete and everyone contributed.
LeBron James only scored 11 points, his fewest points in his last 58 Playoff games! He was also scoreless in the last 16 minutes.
You have to question if this game was rigged by the NBA to save the Eastern Conference and the NBA. Because that loss by the Celtics on Friday was not only embarassing for them, but the league as well.
Either way, you have to say the Lepricon woke up and travelled with the Celtics to Cleveland after seeing Avery Bradley’s game-winning 3-pointer shot go in! Well done.
Watch “Avery Bradley GAME WINNER Celtics vs Cavaliers Game 3 May 21 2017 2017 NBA Playoffs” on YouTube here:
The San Antonio Spurs put up some fight on Saturday without Kawhi Leonard compared to their blow out loss in Game 2 vs the Warriors.  But they still fell short and Warriors are now up 3-0 in the series. Kawhi has been ruled out to play Game 4, so the Spurs may need something special in order not to get swept. Something special from LaMarcus Aldridge perhaps? He has been a complete disappointment.
So we wait for the inevitable Cavs-Warriors rematch in the Finals.
Stay tuned.
By: Gabrielle Burgess
If you liked this article, follow Suga Lifestyle or like the Suga Lifestyle Facebook page.
Other than some disappointments with the Results of Athletes in Field events, Alia Atkinson finishing last in her Final in the Pool and some Athletes suffering injuries shortly before the Olympics, Jamaica just fell short of 1 medal according to what was expected.
Looking at Quality over Quantity, Little but Tallawah Jamaica did quite well considering the current change in Generation of our Athletes. Jamaica finished with 6 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze Medals, placing an overall 23rd on the Medals table and 3rd in Athletics behind the USA and Kenya. Some Veterans failed to make it to RIO, some announced RIO may be their last Olympics and other Vets will hang around for Worlds next year, while the young ones are still blooming. However, a few bloomed early, such as Elaine Thompson, Omar McLeod and Shericka Jackson. We have a lot to be thankful for and we are proud of all of our Athletes and the tremendous effort they put out for the World to see.
Let us not only relive Great Moments from our Athletes but Highlight some of the Greats from other Countries and Islands as well.
☆Usain Bolt completing his first Triple, winning Gold in the Men’s 100m.
Watch “Usain Bolt Wins 2016 RIO OLYMPICS 100m Men’s Final FULL Video” on YouTube here:
☆Elaine Thompson winning the Women’s 100m, separating herself from the field in 10.71s.
☆Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce going for history to be the first woman to get the Triple in the Olympics 100m, but getting the Bronze after Jamaica prayed for her toe following the Semi-Final that she won in tears from the pain.
Watch “women 100M finals Rio 2016” on YouTube here:
ÂÂ
Photo: www.ewn.co.za
☆Wayde Van Niekerk of South Africa breaking the 17-year old World Record in the Men’s 400m set by Michael Johnson in 1999 from Lane 8!
Watch “World Record for men 400m Set by Wayde Van Niekerk in Rio 2016 finals” on YouTube here:
☆Simone Biles of the USA’s Final Five, winning 4 Gold and a Bronze, making up a combined total of 19 Olympic and World Championship medals. She is currently the most decorated AmericanArtistic Gymnast after Shannon Miller of the Magnificent Seven, who held that record for 20 years.
☆Michael Phelps of the USA still managing to dominate his individual races and play a significant role in his team’s relays, winning 5 Gold and 1 Silver. He retired from the Olympics to a standing ovation and of course not only as the most decorated Swimmer, but the most decorated Olympian ever in history with 28 medals, more than some countries have ever achieved.
☆Yona Knight-Wisdom making the Semi-Final of the 3m Springboard Diving Competition. He fell marginally short from making the Final but definitely has the potential to return and do even better!
Photo: Getty Images
☆Omar McLeod being the 1st Jamaican man to win Gold in the Men’s 110m Hurdles.
☆Christophe LeMaitre of France, known for continuous determination, finally winning his first individual Olympic medal, a Bronze in the Men’s 200m.
☆Usain Bolt completing the Sprint Double by winning Gold for the Men’s 200m.ÂÂ
☆Elaine Thompson passing the Dutchie, Dafne Schippers on the left hand side to win the Women’s 200m and the Sprint Double which has not been done since 1988.
Watch “Jamaica win 200m final rio olimpic Elaine Thomson” on YouTube here:
☆Jamaicabeing the 1st country to have a Man and Woman sweep the 100m and 200m in the Olympics in the same year #Jaminate
☆Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas winning the Gold in spectacular fashion for the Women’s 400m ahead of USA’s Allyson Felix and our Shericka Jackson getting the Bronze.
☆Jamaica’s Aisha Praught making the Final of the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase.
☆Great Britain’s ‘Mo’ Farah falling and getting up back then showing the thumbs up sign in the Men’s 10000m with 14 laps to go, then continuing to win the Gold. He also won Gold in the Men’s 5000m.
☆Ethiopia’s David Rudisha Defending his 800m title, winning the Gold.
☆Javon ‘Donkey Man’ Francis anchoring the Men’s 4×400m Relay starting his leg from way behind and taking them to Silver!
☆Brazil winning their first Olympic Gold in Football in front of their home crowd in a Penalty shoot out versus Germany with their star, Neymar scoring the winning Penalty kick.
Photo: time.com
☆Usain Bolt sealing the deal, cementing himself in history as the G.O.A.T by anchoring his team of Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade to Gold in the Men’s 4×100m Relay and thus completing the Triple-Treble.
Next stop for our Athletes? London World Championships 2017!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
If you liked this blog, follow Suga Lifestyle or like the Suga Lifestyle Facebook page.
It was a clear win for Elaine in 21.78 (SB) but she was so focused on her own race that she did not even know she won.
Elaine ran a well executed race, achieving an important task of beating Dafne Schippers on the curve then still having enough left to step it up another gear in about the last 30m to pass back Schippers who went slightly ahead, keeping her form and running right through the line.
Schippers lost form towards the line, got the Silver in 21.88 and fell hard to the ground after the line. She was quite upset with herself throwing her shoes down after the race. She eventually recovered and went over to Congratulate Elaine.
Torie Bowie got the Bronze in 22.15. Marie Josee Ta Lou placed 4th.
CONGRATS ELAINE! Elaine achieved the Sprint Double which hasn’t been done by any Jamaican Woman and hasn’t been done since Florence Griffith Joyner aka Flo-Jo in 1988.
Instagram Photo: @usainbolt
Tomorrow’s Lane assignment below for the Men’s 200m Final at 8:30pm without Gatlin who said that his ankle tightened up. Ask and you shall receive! Usain Bolt stated he would love to get Lane 6 in his interview and that he did!
Photo: www.iaaf.org
Tomorrow’s Schedule:
Relays begin in the morning and look out for Annsert Whyte who we expect to medal in the 400m Hurdles Final in the morning as well. USA’s Clement is expected to win Gold that one.
By: Gabrielle Burgess
If you liked this blog, follow Suga Lifestyle or like the Suga Lifestyle Facebook page.
GOLD FOR JAMAICA IN THE 110m MEN HURDLES!!!!! OMAR McLEOD has done it in 13.05! Spectacular race, execution of hurdles and clear win! He kept his focus the entire way.
Orlando Ortega of Spain won Silver in 13.17 and Dimitri Bascouof France won Bronze in 13.24.
Congrats Omar!!! We are so proud of you! Although it was expected we know it was not easy to pull off with hurdles. Well done.
With so much excitement we are ready for tomorrow’s 200m Women Final Showdown between Elaine and Dafne! It won’t be easy for Elaine who ran 2nd to Dafne, easing up and failing to secure a good lane. Keeping in mind Ta Lou and Bowie won their Semi-Finals.
It was Elaine Thompson who won the GOLD for Jamaica in 10.71s for the 100m Women Final! Our 2-time Defending Olympic Champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the Bronze. A valiant effort from Shelly after aggravating her toe injury in the Semi-Final. She ran her Season’s Best through the line in 10.86. It was a bittersweet feeling for Jamaicans knowing she was in shape to win the Gold and make history as the first woman to win 3 consecutive Olympic 100m titles, but it wasn’t meant to be after the injury was aggravated. We are extremely proud of our Pocket Rocket for being able to run through the pain and making the podium. Torie Bowie of the USA who came 3rd at the US trials got the Silver in 10.83.
Congrats Ladies! It was a talented field, demanding focus, fitness, determination and of course speed.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast continued to impress and came 4th with her PB in 10.86 (10.859). Thousandths of a second were used to separate her from Shelly.
Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands still could not manage to get a good start and probably won’t ever because of her height and was 5th with 10.90. Look out for her in the 200m though!
Michelle-Lee Ahye of Trinidad and Tobago was 6th in 10.92.
English Gardner who the USA expected to win Gold and who won at the USA trials could not manage the pressure of the big stage and finished 7th in 10.94.
Christania Williams of Jamaica looked as if she was injured and came last far behind with 11.80. News came in later that she had cramping in her calf muscle as a result of dehydration. A sign of being a rookie. However she is just coming out of high school and she put on a remarkable effort for Jamaica to even reach the Finals with her Personal Best and we are proud of her.
For those who missed it and wish to see the lead up to this heated field in the Final, let me take you through the 100m Women’s Semi Finals, as some familiar names were not there.
Torie Bowie and Ahye took Semi Final 1 on the same time in 10.90! Christania Williams did very well to come 3rd beating Ahoure of Ivory Coast with her PB of 10.96.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce blazed the field winning in 10.88 over Dafne Schippers in 10.90! Ta Lou of Ivory Coast finished 3rd in 10.94. Shelly was in tears at the end over her toes though. It became a huge concern and most if not all Jamaicans swarmed social media worried about Shelly’s toe and prayed for Shelly and her toe for the Final. (The prayers worked!)
Elaine Thompson ate English Gardner‘s food (totally destroyed her from start to finish) also finishing in 10.88! English Gardner was stuck on clocking 10.90 as well, glaring over to Thompson’s lane wondering what really just happened.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou and Christania Williams went through to the final as the fastest losers.
Tianna Bartoletta from the USA did not make the final, coming a surprising 4th in the Semi-final won by Shelly in 11.00s!
10000m Men Final
Mo Farah of Great Britain got tripped up and fell during his race with about 14 laps to go but got back up giving the thumbs up sign and went on to win the race. Gold for Mohamed Farah! His 3rd Olympic Gold, running through the line with his Mobot sign. Congrats Mo!
Long Jump Final
Damar Forbes failed to hit over the 8.38m mark and finished at the bottom of the pack, 12th with a mark of 7.82m. Jeff Henderson of the USA won the Gold with 8.32m.
Damar’s PB is 8.25m, which was the mark hit by the 4th place finisher. The athletes battled with headwind and Damar said he just did not feel comfortable or in full flight in the air for his last 2 jumps. There were other pits that could have been used to change the wind direction for the athletes but the wind in RIO changes direction all the time. That may be the reason they continued with the same pit. This is also the case at our very own National Stadium in Jamaica with 1 pit so our athletes must be prepared to put out their best in all conditions. Better luck next time Damar.
400m Semi-Finals
Javon ‘Donkey Man’ Francis finished 5th from Lane 1 in Semi Final 1 won by Kirani James easily in 44.02. LaShawn Merritt followed finishing 2nd. So Javon did not qualify for the Final. Well tried Donkey Man.
Van Niekerk jogged to 2nd in Semi Final 2. Trinidad & Tobago’s Cedenio won the race in 44.39. Ja’s Rusheen McDonald finished 6th, unable to qualify for the Final as well.
Taplin from Grenada won Semi Final 3 coming from behind for the win in 44.44.
Women’s Tennis
Mónica Puig of Puerto Rico upset Angelique Kerber (World #2) of Germany yesterday to win Gold.
Men’s Tennis
Juan MartÃÂn del Potro will face Andy Murray in the Gold Medal match today at 1pm
Rafael Nadal will face Kei Nishikori in the Bronze medal match this morning at 11:30am.
Swimming
Michael Phelps helped take his team to Gold and an Olympic record last night in the 4×100m Medley Relay, in what he says will be his last Olympic race. His RIO total is 5 Gold and 1 Silver. He ends his Olympic career with 23 Gold medals and 28 Olympic medals overall and of course a standing ovation as he waved Goodbye to the spectators in the Olympic stadium.
Stay tuned for the action and Lane assigment of the Men’s 100m today!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
If you liked this article, follow Suga Lifestyle or like the Suga Lifestyle Facebook page.
The Games of the 31st Olympiad in Rio, Brazil began yesterday with football but officially start today! The Games will run from August 5-21. Athletics begin next Friday, August 12.
The Opening Ceremony will start at 6pm this evening at the Maracaná Stadium and will be shown on TvJ with a Pregame show at 4pm. No station seems to have full rights to show the Games so no channel should be blocked.
Brazil’s Olympic Village may not be ready but our Jamaican athletes surely are ready.
However, Suga does not expect the level of magic that occurred in Beijing and London to occur in Rio. Jamaicans need to understand that our Athletics is going through a change in generation, where veterans are either no more such as Kerron Stewart or not as fast after rounds as they used to be, e.g. VCB, and most of the young, upcoming athletes are not quite ready to deliver the quality we have been spoilt with over the past 2 Olympiads.
However, enough of being a Debbie Downer. Even though that may be at the back of my mind, I remain positive and know that veterans like Usain Bolt can still deliver and newcomers like Elaine Thompson should deliver. Omar McLeod and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are on the ropes but there seems to be something about the Olympics that just puts a torch under our you know what and then sparks just fly.
We have newcomers to look forward to in Gymnastics such as Toni-Ann Williams, Yona Knight-Wisdom for Diving and Timothy Wynter for Swimming.
Will our Alia Atkinson finally get her Olympic medal? I sure hope so. She gets closer every time.
Swimming, Tennis and Basketball start tomorrow. Fret not for the hot races in Athletics because they are mostly in the evenings and on weekends. You can set in your calendars from now:
Women’s 100m FINAL:
Saturday, August 13 @ 8:35pm
Men’s 100m FINAL:
Sunday, August 14 @ 8:25pm
Women’s 200m FINAL:
Wednesday, August 17 at 8:30pm
Men’s 200m FINAL:
Thursday, August 18 at 8:30pm
The 4×100m Relay FINALS will be run on the Saturday before the Olympics end.
If you didn’t get your Free Jamaica Observer Olympics Supplement in the Sunday paper, you can be sure to stay tuned to Suga’s posted schedules, updates and commentary on this website and like Suga Lifestyle’s Facebook page.
There is also a Flow Rio 2016 App that you can download on your phones for free. Not sure if it is as user friendly as the London 2012 app yet but it seems to have a decent layout so far. Too early to endorse.
What a weekend in Sports! Congrats to Calabar and Edwin Allen for winning the oh so entertaining and inspiring ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics’ Championships! With 16 finals to go, both schools led the field and there was no turning back.
Our young Jamaicans put on quite a show, looking very promising for our future in Athletics. Suga’s main concern though is the workload put on the star athletes. There needs to be some kind of stipulation put in place for the Boys and Girls to run only a certain amount of events, ideally 2, because once they excel in individual events they are further pressured to run relays to help their team and school. The star athletes should also be restricted from running the heats for their teams in relays. Careful consideration needs to be given to this matter in order for them to make the transition like our legend, Usain Bolt.
With all seriousness aside, who took Champs for Suga?
Junelle Bromfield of STETHS with 4 GOLD medals! Junelle won the Class 1 Girls’ 400m, 800m, 1500m and anchored the 4×400m relay. She was absolutely exceptional and did not even blow after any final she ran. Amazing. She also blew away her rival in the 400m, Ashley ‘Felix’ Williams of Holmwood who beat her recently so she was on a mission and the revenge was sweet.
Ashley ‘Felix’ Williams, as her nickname suggests has a very similar running style and looks like USA’s athletic star, Allyson Felix. Ashley won the Girls’ 200m impressively.
KC’s Akeem Bloomfield continued his reign in the Class 1 Boys’ 400m, of which he holds the record from last year.
The tall, powerful, Dejour Russell of Calabar was upset by his teammate, Michael Stephens in the Class 2 Boys’ 100m after he could not recover from his usual slow start, but he got the opportunity again to win Gold and did just that in the Class 2 Boys’ 110m hurdles.
Another disappointment was Defending Champ of the Girls’ Class 2 100m, Shellece Clarke of Edwin Allen. She was not fully on form, had a poor start and failed to medal. She was also pulled out of the 200m event.
Instagram: @issachamps
Back to the winners! Christopher Taylor of Calabar! In addition to breaking the Class 2 Boys’ 400m record early in the heats in 46.33s, he also won 4 GOLD medals and ran a beautiful and strategic anchor leg in the last race of Champs, finishing ahead of KC’s Akeem Bloomfield in the Boys’ 4×400m relay. Akeem ran out too hard but had too much work to do anyway by the time he received the baton. Fantastic end to the Championships.
Then there was a big NBA game on Saturday night as well!
The San Antonio Spurs held the Golden State Warriors’ Steph Curry to 1 for 12 on 3 pointers in their 87-79 win over the Warriors. It was Curry’s worst stats for 3-pointers this season.
What happened? San Antonio’s superb defence and LaMarcus Aldridge with 26 points and 13 rebounds.
Check out some of the high class defense action below!
Watch “Danny Green becomes the 1st player to block a 3-pt attempt by Steph Curry in 15-16′ season” on YouTube here:
Then there was another massive block sacrificing his body! Watch “Danny Green Rejects Stephen Curry | Warriors vs Spurs | March 19, 2016 | NBA 2015-16 Season” on YouTube here:
The IAAF 2016 World Indoor Championships also occurred over the weekend in Portland, USA.
Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson beat the Dutch, Dafne Schippers in the SEMIS but did not have as fast of a start in the finals, where Schippers edge her to win the 60m in 7.10s.
Watch “Dafne Schippers Wins 7.10 Women’s 60m Final Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix 2016” on YouTube here:
Asafa Powell was impressive in the semis, but as usual choked in the 60m final. He had a bad start and was edged out by USA’s Trayvon Brommell.
But who really came through for Jamaica?
Omar Mcleod!
I will leave you with Jamaica’s Omar McLeod’s win.
Watch “Omar McLeod 7.41s Wins 60m Hurdles Final – IAAF WIC in Portland 2016” on YouTube here:
