RBSC

**Islandman** · July 24, 2008, 08:07 AM

I think thats a little unfair though Historian.

Although you are right about us being a sprint and netball (to a lesser extent) power only, I think credit has to be given to the track and field fraternity for creating an infrastructure that allows us to produce world-class athletes locally as opposed to farming them out to the US college system and hoping a few do not end up permanently burnt out.

Also while sprinting is still "our thing" we have made steady progress in areas like the hurdles and the field events where we did not have any presence 40 years ago.

And there is football , not as promising as it was 10 years ago but certainly far better organized than it was in the 60s and 70s where beating Barbados was a big thing.

Boxing has really gone down in the last decade or so, and cricket is another story. The cricket authorities have never figured out a way to compensate for the restrictions that were introduced to English county cricket which prevented the same kind of farming out of raw talent and waiting for it to come back as a finished product.

The only reason I have not given up on the region ever becoming a force in cricket again is that there is so much money in the game these days that maybe someone locally or further afield will find it profitable to develop the raw talent again.

**Peter R** · July 24, 2008, 08:28 AM

So what constituted the overall title? if we were second to T&T in the swimming. Water Polo and Diving?

I don't follow the sport even though my neighbour here is on the TT swim team...and his sister on the water polo team. He just got a full scholarship th University of New Orleans. I admire the dedication and drive of some of these young people... getting up EVERY morning to go train for 2 hrs at 5 AM before school starts.

What JA needs is more pools (like the one that went to fallow) in full operation. recognizing however, that maintaining these facilities is costly; Every child in Jamaica should know how to swim, even if it's just two laps.

**Mosiah** · July 24, 2008, 08:37 AM

Unreasonable, unrealistic and very HL-like.

Is there any positive at all when it comes to Jamaica?

Have you heard about one Usain Bolt?

**Assasin** · July 24, 2008, 08:43 AM

also need more coaches. I have never met a swim coach in all my years in Jamaica. I assume they are only a few in Kingston and maybe Mobay.

In some places we coulda use river as a substitute fi the pool but kids learn to swim as playtime, not how to stroke and compete.

**Historian** · July 24, 2008, 09:01 AM

Mosiah, Did You Read My Post?

Mosiah, did you read what I wrote? Why do you automatically feel that any criticism of specific results from Jamaica (in this case, our underperforming in swimming and several other sports activities) is an attack on Jamaica??

Why am I not surprised by your response? Is it because standards mean so little to you that any overt demand for raising of standards immediately becomes an attack on Jamaica?

I stated clearly that Jamaica is a TRACK and NETBALL power!! So please don’t ask me about Usain Bolt, as the last time I checked Usain Bolt was a track star!! For your information, and to avoid further insulting questions, track and field is my favorite sport, which is why I used to be a regular poster on the Caribbean Track & Field Forum.

What is so “unreasonable” about expecting a better showing from Jamaica in regional swimming? Do you follow CCCan and Carifta Games swimming? Well, for your information, countries with much smaller population levels than we do consistently outperform us in swimming! I’m referring here to small population centers like Barbados, Trinidad, the Bahamas, and the French territories (Martinique and Guadeloupe)!

Do you follow swimming and boxing? For your information, Jamaican boxers have lost virtually all the boxing matches they’ve fought elsewhere in the Caribbean over the past two years! Did you watch Jamaica’s performance vs. Trinidad in the 2008 Stanford twenty20 cricket finals? If you did, I guess you were filled with pride! If you missed it, I will gladly make a copy of that final and send it to you.

Cuba has been suffering some 45 years of US embargo. Yet, have you ever seen Cuba’s sports facilities (I have)? Have you seen achievements of Cuban athletes in field events like the javelin throw, thr triple jump, shot put throw and discus throw? Thank God for our boy Dorian Scott and our girl Trecia Smith.

I suggest that, in future, you read any post I make TWICE before launching into an emotional tirade!

**Mosiah** · July 24, 2008, 09:22 AM

Emotional tirade!?! You mean like the one you are having??! LOL!

Like the article below says, were it not for the home court advantage, the results would have been most likely vastly different! (For example, even with home court advantage, we couldn't even win the 2007 (or was it 2008?) Carifta Games swimming championships.)

I hope that I'll live to see the day when Jamaica becomes what it is not today, a bona fide sports power! After 46 years of independence, and 60 years after our grand Olympic Games entrance, we have not advanced much, and so today we remain a sprint and netball power only! Doubt my words? Well, just reflect back to the 2008 Stanford Twenty20 cricket and our embarassing final performance, or the performance of our boxers (beaten every time) they step on to a regional country's soil.

Do you have any consideration whatsoever as to why T&T does so well in swimming and Jamaica doesn't? Give it a guess.

We lose a 20/20 match to T&T and all of a sudden wi nuh have nuh use in di sport? How did the team do otherwise?

Heard of taekwondo?

Where exactly do you expect a little country of 2.8 million people to fall in the grand scheme of things? We should be No. 1 in golf? How about baseball? Tennis? Table tennis? Bobsledding?

Is T&T a "bona fide sports power"? How about Malaysia? Cuba?

I have read your silly post 5 times now and I still think you are being unreasonable, unrealistic and HL-like.

And if you think I am being emotional, YOU ARE DAMN WRONG, MISTER!

**Jangle** · July 24, 2008, 09:24 AM

FYAH BOX!!!!!! Mek me draw up a seat!!! Hey Gamma, bring de beers!!!

**Assasin** · July 24, 2008, 09:24 AM

Woooeeeeee, unnu tek it easy this mawning brethren, unnu have mi in stitches.

**Historian** · July 24, 2008, 09:51 AM

My Closing Comments!

Mosiah, this is getting tiresome.

Also, it is actually a somewhat busy day for me, so I’ll check back later in the day to read whatever responses you have made.

But once again, do not make a habit of mistaking my demands for much higher levels of achievements from Jamaicans as being “anti-Jamaican.” The simplistic accusations won’t do!

Of course I’m fully aware of why Trinidad & Tobago does so well in swimming? But why pick on Trinidad & Tobago in swimming? Why not pick on the even smaller Caribbean countries that I have mentioned? To cite just two examples, despite the fact that in 2004 Trinidad & Tobago achieved the Caribbean’s first ever Olympic Games medal in swimming, at the junior level Barbados, with a very tiny population, has often been even more impressive than Trinidad in swimming! In the case of the Bahamas, they did not even have a national swimming pool until several years ago!

You ask the question where exactly do I expect a “little country of 2.8 million people to fall in the grand scheme of things?”

My answer is, certainly much more impressive versus our regional competitors! Check the results of the Caribbean Volleyball Championships, which just ended in Barbados this past weekend. I guess you are impressed! With our large population base, when last did we make it to Zone I in regional lawn tennis?

My point is that Jamaica has underachieved in sports!! This “little country,” as you phrase it, has the largest population by far in the English-speaking Caribbean! However, lack of vision has ensured that Jamaica has not taken its rightful place in Caribbean sports supremacy!!

And for the record, our incredible achievements in track (again, not track and field) came not from leadership at any national level, but rather from the immense, admirable dedication of high school coaches and a traditional system (high school champs, which started way back around 1912) which sees the continuance of the tremendous local enthusiasm for track and field.

By the way, as I suspected, you did not watch that Standford Twenty20 cricket final, otherwise you wouldn’t have so glibly used the word “lose”! We did not merely lose! We were demolished in a most embarrassing way, in fact comparable in every sense to the defeat the Reggae Boyz gave the Bahamas national team a few weeks ago!! In fact, to this day I regret that defending champions Guyana did not play Trinidad in the finals, as we would have certainly seen regional cricket of a higher standard!

Give me a break!

**Willi** · July 24, 2008, 10:55 AM

Historian,
While \I understand your overall thrust, you are shortchanging our achievements.

We have won a cycling Oly medal, many Bobsled pushing competitions, we have done well in badminton, regional cricket and in the past boxing. Tennis and table tennis have regressed mightily!

In field events, we did have Germaine Mason (who defected), 2 world class decathletes (Claston getting over injury), Tricia S. is battling back, Elva G. was on the brink, and Beckford is over the hill now. Dorian is going wekll and wehave a female putter that is just shy of world class.

**Assasin** · July 24, 2008, 11:11 AM

Can you imagine Peter Mo Young winning his first national championship in TT. Peter has been in the top five before I went to high school. We have simple not progressed in TT.

**Mosiah** · July 24, 2008, 11:48 AM