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It should have been Smith
published: Thursday | January 31, 2008
He may be the worlds fastest man, but Asafa Powell's tragic stumble in the men's 100m final at the 2007 World Championship in Osaka, Japan, and Maurice Smith's heroic performance while battling an injury to win the decathlon silver medal, should have been more than enough for the latter to cop the RJR Sports Foundation Sportsman of the Year award.
The fact is that the sprint star ran a blistering time of 9.74 at the Rieti Grand Prix in Italy last September. Powell didn't just shave a couple of milliseconds off his previous mark of 9.77, Powell smashed it to bits.
However, the simple fact of the matter is that the response of many Jamaicans and even the world was: the Great Asafa can do it, but only when it doesn't count.
Disappointing showings
World 200m and 400m world record holder Michael Johnson neven went as far to declare Powell the fastest, but certainly not the best, after several disappointing showings on the big occasion.
A loss for any Jamaican, on the world stage, especially, is always a painful one, but Powell's loss to Tyson Gay in that 100m final, which brought tears to many Jamaican eyes, is one of the toughest ones to recover from.
Sure, Powell did in a sense rebound with a fantastic run to lead Jamaica to a silver medal in the men's 4x100m relay, but again that was after the fact and after such major disappointment one tends to get the feeling that only a gold medal would have been good enough.
Smith may not own or have set a world record, but he certainly added to his PanAm Games record in Rio de Janiero, based on the fact, that his performance was record-breaking for the nation, in that it established a new frontier for local athletes to look to dominate, and raised Jamaica's flag high in yet another world event.
Hampered by an elbow injury, Smith's silver medal at the PanAm Games was truly something to be proud of, and handing the athlete a runner-up award and allowing him the 'privilege' of giving the vote of thanks on behalf of the athletes was simply not enough.
Sure, a globally more recognised Powell lifting his third award in three years is, I suppose, a better sell for the televised national awards, which wouldn't be in its first year of making controversial decisions, but after a performance which saw him "panic" on the world stage, he certainly doesn't deserve it over Smith, who delivered on the big occasion.
The Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association seems to be the ones who got it right, in a far less glamorous and glitzy event.
Plucky performances
Both got it right in selecting Veronica Campbell-Brown as Female Athlete of the Year, but that was almost a no-brainer, considering her plucky performances throughout the season. An award of this nature should not be based on simple numbers, but also on fortitude and courage; things we like to consider hallmarks of our tiny nation.
While I certainly hope Asafa will prove Johnson wrong in the long run, especially with the Olympic Games later this year, he still has a long way to go in terms of coming up with performances which merit getting another award.
feedback: kwesi.mugisa@gleanerjm.com
published: Thursday | January 31, 2008
He may be the worlds fastest man, but Asafa Powell's tragic stumble in the men's 100m final at the 2007 World Championship in Osaka, Japan, and Maurice Smith's heroic performance while battling an injury to win the decathlon silver medal, should have been more than enough for the latter to cop the RJR Sports Foundation Sportsman of the Year award.
The fact is that the sprint star ran a blistering time of 9.74 at the Rieti Grand Prix in Italy last September. Powell didn't just shave a couple of milliseconds off his previous mark of 9.77, Powell smashed it to bits.
However, the simple fact of the matter is that the response of many Jamaicans and even the world was: the Great Asafa can do it, but only when it doesn't count.
Disappointing showings
World 200m and 400m world record holder Michael Johnson neven went as far to declare Powell the fastest, but certainly not the best, after several disappointing showings on the big occasion.
A loss for any Jamaican, on the world stage, especially, is always a painful one, but Powell's loss to Tyson Gay in that 100m final, which brought tears to many Jamaican eyes, is one of the toughest ones to recover from.
Sure, Powell did in a sense rebound with a fantastic run to lead Jamaica to a silver medal in the men's 4x100m relay, but again that was after the fact and after such major disappointment one tends to get the feeling that only a gold medal would have been good enough.
Smith may not own or have set a world record, but he certainly added to his PanAm Games record in Rio de Janiero, based on the fact, that his performance was record-breaking for the nation, in that it established a new frontier for local athletes to look to dominate, and raised Jamaica's flag high in yet another world event.
Hampered by an elbow injury, Smith's silver medal at the PanAm Games was truly something to be proud of, and handing the athlete a runner-up award and allowing him the 'privilege' of giving the vote of thanks on behalf of the athletes was simply not enough.
Sure, a globally more recognised Powell lifting his third award in three years is, I suppose, a better sell for the televised national awards, which wouldn't be in its first year of making controversial decisions, but after a performance which saw him "panic" on the world stage, he certainly doesn't deserve it over Smith, who delivered on the big occasion.
The Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association seems to be the ones who got it right, in a far less glamorous and glitzy event.
Plucky performances
Both got it right in selecting Veronica Campbell-Brown as Female Athlete of the Year, but that was almost a no-brainer, considering her plucky performances throughout the season. An award of this nature should not be based on simple numbers, but also on fortitude and courage; things we like to consider hallmarks of our tiny nation.
While I certainly hope Asafa will prove Johnson wrong in the long run, especially with the Olympic Games later this year, he still has a long way to go in terms of coming up with performances which merit getting another award.
feedback: kwesi.mugisa@gleanerjm.com
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