Dreams of MVP Track Club realised in Beijing

[Sir X]

Dreams of MVP Track Club realised in Beijing
published: Sunday | September 7, 2008

Bruce James, Contributor

"WE ARE going to prove to those [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]American [COLOR=orange! important]college[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] coaches that we can do it right here in Jamaica, gentlemen," were the prophetic words of Stephen Francis in September, 1999. "Paul, David, Bruce do you believe that as a group we can coach and manage post-[COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]high [COLOR=orange! important]school[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] Jamaican athletes right here in Jamaica and develop them to the point where they are the best in the world?"
"Yes we can!" we replied.
That was the birth of the MVP Track and Field Club on the playing field of the Wolmer's Boys' [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]School[/COLOR][/COLOR] in Kingston, Jamaica.
Fast forward to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the MVP Track and Field Club has grown from one Olympic participant at Sydney in 2000, Brigitte Foster-Hylton, to six Olympic participants in Athens 2004 (Asafa Powell, Michael Frater, Ainsley Waugh, Winston Smith, Foster-Hylton and Sherone Simpson) and now 12 in Beijing (Shelly-Ann Fraser, Simpson, Foster-Hylton, Shericka Williams, Melaine Walker, Powell, Frater, Nesta Carter, Markino Buckley, Germaine Mason (Great Britain), Darrel Brown (Trinidad and Tobago) and Andrew Hinds (Barbados).
André Wellington was also selected for the Jamaican Olympic team as a reserve but did not take to the track.
Incredible performances
Noteworthy, all 12 of our athletes who participated in Beijing made it out of the first round of their respective events.
Impressively, 10 of our athletes made it all the way to finals of their events, except for Brown and Hinds.
Incredibly, eight of our athletes earned Olympic medals, save, and except, for Foster-Hylton, who missed a medal in the 100m hurdles by 2/100th of a second, and Buckley who set two personal records to make it to the final of the men's 400m hurdles.
Then the dream is realised! Five MVP Track and Field Club members earn Olympic gold medals. Twenty-one-year-old Shelly-Ann Fraser wins the 100m, becoming the first Jamaican woman in [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]history[/COLOR][/COLOR] to win this race at the Olympics and the second fastest Jamaican ever.
Melaine Walker breaks the Olympic record and Jamaican national record in the 400m hurdles and becomes the second woman in Jamaica's history to win the Olympic gold medal in this event.
Carter, Frater and Powell along with Usain Bolt (not MVP) combine to win the Olympic [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]gold[/COLOR][/COLOR] in the 4x100m relay and, in the process break, the Olympic and world records.
The dream is reinforced as three MVP Track and Field Club athletes earned silver medals in Beijing. Simpson, third at the Jamaican Olympic trials in the 100m, finishes second at the Olympic Games and adds this silver medal to her 2004 Athens Olympic gold in the 4x100m relay.
Shericka Williams, also third at this year's Jamaican Olympic trials, interestingly enough also improves to second place at the Olympics and becomes the fourth fastest Jamaican woman ever over 400m.
Mason, who lives and trains in Jamaica but represents Great Britain, high jumps his way to the silver medal, giving real meaning to word 'field' in the title of our club.
Williams then becomes the only MVP athlete to earn two medals at the Beijing Olympics when she runs the lead-off leg for the 4x400m relay team that earned a bronze medal in the second fastest time in Jamaica's history.
MVP Track and Field Club had two coaches (Stephen Francis and Paul Francis), two massage therapists (Gavin James and Patrick Watson) and assistant manager (Aundre Edwards) in Beijing for the Olympics.
Coaches' preparation
Evidence of their ability to prepare our athletes for the big event is seen in six of our athletes setting personal records at the Olympics, Frater, Fraser, Buckley, Walker, Williams and Mason.
Coach Stephen 'Franno' Francis showed amazing scope by getting MVP athletes into the finals of 11 Olympic events, 100m (men and women), 200m (women), 400m (women), 100m hurdles (women), 400m hurdles (men and women), high jump (men), 4x100m (men and women) and 4x400m (women). I dare say that this spread of events is unprecedented for any single track club in the world.
Even with these spectacular results we expected more but between injuries, an incomplete baton change in the women's 4x100 metres relay and some of our support staff not being accredited for the Olympics, we earned seven Olympic medals - three gold, three silver and one bronze.
Which means, yes the Maximising Velocity and Power Track and Field Club would have been sixth on the Olympic medal table for track and field out of 205 countries. We thank God for his many blessings! Bruce James is president of the MVP Track and Field Club.

[Historian]

Good post, X.

Back in 2003, when MVP was being severely criticized over on Willi’s track and field board by a few simple-minded people, some of us were saying that MVP is what Jamaica needs! I recall people like myself, TDowl, Willi, MdmeX, and others defending Stephen Francis. Back then, it was obvious to us that Jamaica had long reached the stage where an emphasis on at-home development of senior athletes was necessary! Prior to MVP, what we had was largely successful high school track and field coaches!

Now, we are seeing the results of this visionary coach, Stephen Francis! We are also seeing the end results of the vision of the great Dennis Johnson when he embarked on the task of setting up a first-class local track and field training facility at UTech!

Jamaican sports fans tend to have very short memories. However, regardless of who comes along later with successes, history has already recorded the fact that this new era of Jamaica’s track and field development started with an at-times-difficult but outstanding and visionary coach, Stephen “Franno” Francis.

[Sir X]

I concur Sir, he took it to another level. I hope we have 5 more like him just waiting to get a chance or create thiers like he has done.

[Historian]

I concur Sir, he took it to another level. I hope we have 5 more like him just waiting to get a chance or create thiers like he has done.

Excellent point, X, and again I fully agree with you on what Stephen Francis has done! I also pray that we have more like Francis!

This is why when others criticize him for whatever negative aspects they see in him (his perceived arrogance, for example), I refrain from saying anything. What this man Franno has done for Jamaica's sports is something that is so immense that track and field fans, in particular, and sports fans in general should never be allowed to forget it!

[Sir X]

Arrogance i cannot condone from anyone , there is a thin line between arrogance and confidence , you know the difference in how a person commuicates when critiqued.

All that being said he is the best at what he does , thank GOD he is Jamaican.

[Hortical]

Don't waste your energy on critics. Francis needs to boost up his staff with a on-call psychologist btw.

[Sir X]

O.K sah .

[Time]

We need to go after a few more sports

Dreams of MVP Track Club realised in Beijing
published: Sunday | September 7, 2008

Bruce James, Contributor

"WE ARE going to prove to those [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]American [COLOR=orange! important]college[/color][/color][/color] coaches that we can do it right here in Jamaica, gentlemen," were the prophetic words of Stephen Francis in September, 1999. "Paul, David, Bruce do you believe that as a group we can coach and manage post-[COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]high [COLOR=orange! important]school[/color][/color][/color] Jamaican athletes right here in Jamaica and develop them to the point where they are the best in the world?"
"Yes we can!" we replied.
That was the birth of the MVP Track and Field Club on the playing field of the Wolmer's Boys' [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]School[/color][/color] in Kingston, Jamaica.
Fast forward to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the MVP Track and Field Club has grown from one Olympic participant at Sydney in 2000, Brigitte Foster-Hylton, to six Olympic participants in Athens 2004 (Asafa Powell, Michael Frater, Ainsley Waugh, Winston Smith, Foster-Hylton and Sherone Simpson) and now 12 in Beijing (Shelly-Ann Fraser, Simpson, Foster-Hylton, Shericka Williams, Melaine Walker, Powell, Frater, Nesta Carter, Markino Buckley, Germaine Mason (Great Britain), Darrel Brown (Trinidad and Tobago) and Andrew Hinds (Barbados).
André Wellington was also selected for the Jamaican Olympic team as a reserve but did not take to the track.
Incredible performances
Noteworthy, all 12 of our athletes who participated in Beijing made it out of the first round of their respective events.
Impressively, 10 of our athletes made it all the way to finals of their events, except for Brown and Hinds.
Incredibly, eight of our athletes earned Olympic medals, save, and except, for Foster-Hylton, who missed a medal in the 100m hurdles by 2/100th of a second, and Buckley who set two personal records to make it to the final of the men's 400m hurdles.
Then the dream is realised! Five MVP Track and Field Club members earn Olympic gold medals. Twenty-one-year-old Shelly-Ann Fraser wins the 100m, becoming the first Jamaican woman in [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]history[/color][/color] to win this race at the Olympics and the second fastest Jamaican ever.
Melaine Walker breaks the Olympic record and Jamaican national record in the 400m hurdles and becomes the second woman in Jamaica's history to win the Olympic gold medal in this event.
Carter, Frater and Powell along with Usain Bolt (not MVP) combine to win the Olympic [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]gold[/color][/color] in the 4x100m relay and, in the process break, the Olympic and world records.
The dream is reinforced as three MVP Track and Field Club athletes earned silver medals in Beijing. Simpson, third at the Jamaican Olympic trials in the 100m, finishes second at the Olympic Games and adds this silver medal to her 2004 Athens Olympic gold in the 4x100m relay.
Shericka Williams, also third at this year's Jamaican Olympic trials, interestingly enough also improves to second place at the Olympics and becomes the fourth fastest Jamaican woman ever over 400m.
Mason, who lives and trains in Jamaica but represents Great Britain, high jumps his way to the silver medal, giving real meaning to word 'field' in the title of our club.
Williams then becomes the only MVP athlete to earn two medals at the Beijing Olympics when she runs the lead-off leg for the 4x400m relay team that earned a bronze medal in the second fastest time in Jamaica's history.
MVP Track and Field Club had two coaches (Stephen Francis and Paul Francis), two massage therapists (Gavin James and Patrick Watson) and assistant manager (Aundre Edwards) in Beijing for the Olympics.
Coaches' preparation
Evidence of their ability to prepare our athletes for the big event is seen in six of our athletes setting personal records at the Olympics, Frater, Fraser, Buckley, Walker, Williams and Mason.
Coach Stephen 'Franno' Francis showed amazing scope by getting MVP athletes into the finals of 11 Olympic events, 100m (men and women), 200m (women), 400m (women), 100m hurdles (women), 400m hurdles (men and women), high jump (men), 4x100m (men and women) and 4x400m (women). I dare say that this spread of events is unprecedented for any single track club in the world.
Even with these spectacular results we expected more but between injuries, an incomplete baton change in the women's 4x100 metres relay and some of our support staff not being accredited for the Olympics, we earned seven Olympic medals - three gold, three silver and one bronze.
Which means, yes the Maximising Velocity and Power Track and Field Club would have been sixth on the Olympic medal table for track and field out of 205 countries. We thank God for his many blessings! Bruce James is president of the MVP Track and Field Club.

We have enough affluent people to go after swimming

We have enugh shottas to go after shooting

Francis is also a soccer coach, let go after the Brazillians next - Hmmm

[Karl]

Good post, X.

Back in 2003, when MVP was being severely criticized over on Willi’s track and field board by a few simple-minded people, some of us were saying that MVP is what Jamaica needs! I recall people like myself, TDowl, Willi, MdmeX, and others defending Stephen Francis. Back then, it was obvious to us that Jamaica had long reached the stage where an emphasis on at-home development of senior athletes was necessary! Prior to MVP, what we had was largely successful high school track and field coaches!

Now, we are seeing the results of this visionary coach, Stephen Francis! We are also seeing the end results of the vision of the great Dennis Johnson when he embarked on the task of setting up a first-class local track and field training facility at UTech!

Jamaican sports fans tend to have very short memories. However, regardless of who comes along later with successes, history has already recorded the fact that this new era of Jamaica’s track and field development started with an at-times-difficult but outstanding and visionary coach, Stephen “Franno” Francis.

No one can deny Francis' vision...but it seems to me the looking down on...or forgetting to mention our ISSA and the very many who contributed to the coming of a Francis by so many, cheapens our accomplishments. The whole thing is a process. The teacher training colleges were always in the forefront of constantly improving those sent into the schools to manage (heads of departments or track and field programs) and share with their coaches their ever growing knowledge. The teachers colleges constantly recruited graduates from colleges outside of the island (including many past teacher training college students) who had specialised training in track and field (also persons with training in other disciplines..but we are looking at Track and field here.)

Our school coaches had already proven themselves 'world class'. Certainly from the days of Herb and other early recipients of 'track scholarships' it was seen that there were Jamaica coaches who had developed world class athletes....at the very least world class age group athletes.

btw - Many had tried to establish local track and field clubs. For example, I can remember Comets. I remember Lamont had a track club. GC Foster had a 'stable' of athletes (Was that where Larry Khan was developed? Do not really remember.) Not too sure...but I also think Mel and Mal Spence were also members of another club???? The problem was not being able to find and provide the financing needed to sustain support for the athletes and the clubs. The experitse to produce world beaters was here...long, long ago. The funding was not forthcoming.

Francis and Mills have come along at the right time. Will the successes Francis and Mills have reaped lead to more institutions (mmmm??? It appears UWI is on its way. I wonder if they shall take it one step further and bring in a stable of coaches?) joining in and producing similar successes? GC Foster College of Sports and Physical Education - Maurice Wiilson is there?

DJ (our own Denis Johnson - The man who ignited a firestorm about the rolling start as he ran 9.2 secs for the 100 yards and equalled the 9.3 sec 100 yards record multiple times): What can you say about his return and the establishment of his Cast track club?

Great...great...work!
Has DJ received any National Honours? I seem to remember him receiving same - OJ??? Not sure!

[Historian]

We have enough affluent people to go after swimming. We have enugh shottas to go after shooting. Francis is also a soccer coach, let go after the Brazillians next - Hmmm

I love this post! I've been saying the same thing for years about swimming, boxing and field events! Our failure in swimming in particular, even at the Carifta Games level (we are much less impressive than Trinidad, Barbados, the Bahamas, and the French Antilles) has always irked me!

Can you imagine that our great nation has won only one Olympic Games medal outside of track and field, and that is David Weller's cycling bronze medal?!

[Jangle]

Table Tennis is another sport which I think we can excell at internationally. Cycling. I remember back in the late eightied when I lived off Mountain View Ave, I used to walk up to the stadium velodrome to watch cycling on a Sunday evening. I had a good friend who fancied himself to be a cyclist. We were part of a youth group I we would go out of support for him. I was introduced to the technical side of track cycling. I especially loved the race called "Devil Take the Hindmost" or the unknown distance. This is where you have a whole group of racers (about 20 - 30) circling the track not knowing when the bell is going to ring. At the sound of the bell, the last rider crossing the finish line is eliminated, and this goes on until the field is whittled down to two. The last two would then play cat n mouse with each other until the bell rings. It was very exciting. We already have the velodrome albeit in a state of disrepair, so why not use it.

[Mosiah]

We are also seeing the end results of the vision of the great Dennis Johnson when he embarked on the task of setting up a first-class local track and field training facility at UTech!

Let's not get carried away. DJ did not set up a first-class facility anywhere. To this day UTech has no such thing. What DJ did was offer great coaching to high school graduates who attended CAST and gave them some life after high school. He pushed CAST to the forefront of intercollegiate sports and all that gave rise to clubs like MVP.

[Gamma]

yep i used to go too...yuh had a rider named moodie who was mashing up the place...there was a guy named arthur tenn too....they also used to have oldtimers out there too.....trying to remember if percy hayles used to ride....but there was an oldtime named mignott who my old man used to to tell mi' bout...

[Don1]

Excellent point, X, and again I fully agree with you on what Stephen Francis has done! I also pray that we have more like Francis!

This is why when others criticize him for whatever negative aspects they see in him (his perceived arrogance, for example), I refrain from saying anything. What this man Franno has done for Jamaica's sports is something that is so immense that track and field fans, in particular, and sports fans in general should never be allowed to forget it!

Francis is to be fulsomely praised for his achievements.. no doubt.

He is also not to be immune from constructive criticism when he errs.

[Don1]

Let's not get carried away. DJ did not set up a first-class facility anywhere. To this day UTech has no such thing. What DJ did was offer great coaching to high school graduates who attended CAST and gave them some life after high school. He pushed CAST to the forefront of intercollegiate sports and all that gave rise to clubs like MVP.

My thoughts exactly!

People seem to think that the so-called High Performance Center at UTECH is some kind of modern facility... truth is it's a rocky, uneven maybe 300m dirt track which serves as a goat pasture when athletes are not training. It has next to no available equipment or training aids except UTECH's antiquated gym.

That DJ, Francis and others have been able to achieve so much with so little is one of the greatest feats in all of contemporary sports.