Bolt ultimate role model ..UK athlethics

[Sir X]

Editor's letter
Blistering Bolt the ultimate role model

THIS winter, whenever I have told non-athletics people what I do for a living, they have inevitably only been interested in one thing. “What about Usain Bolt, eh?” they ask me, somewhat rhetorically. “Have you met him?” they add. “What’s he like?” they continue.
Along with swimmer Michael Phelps, Bolt has left his mark on history as one of the enduring images of the Beijing Olympics. With world records in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, he lit up the Bird’s Nest stadium in exhilarating style and spectators were left wondering how much faster he might have gone if he’d run hard all the way (in the 100m) or actually bothered to do his shoe laces up.
His impact ran deeper, though. It is not going too far to say that he arguably rescued athletics’ status as the No.1 Olympic sport.
Everything about him reeked of natural, drug-free athleticism and he has restored the belief back into the sport – the belief that amazing world records are achievable by clean athletes. Because until monosodium glutamate is added to the list of prohibited substances, Bolt appears destined to pass every drugs test going.
The Jamaican was also the coolest customer in the Chinese city last August. And since the Games he has continued to develop his reputation – by hanging out with reggae singer Shaggy, Manchester United footballers, Boston Celtics basketball players and appearing on the David Letterman Show with Paris Hilton.
Given this, it is no surprise he is the No.1 role model among young athletes right now and we have reacted to this by producing an in-depth feature about him on pages 22-25 of this issue.
This time last year, in the wake of the Marion Jones scandal, I was warned by people in Olympic circles that “nobody would watch the men’s 100m final in Beijing and believe what they were seeing”.
Well, I hope they enjoy this week’s feature too.

Jason Henderson, Editor

From this week's Athletics Weekly, - available in WH Smith and all good newsagents, or on

[Sir X]

Relief for Sherwoood?
Rural Water Supply examines Bingey's planHORACE HINES, Observer West reporter
Thursday, January 22, 2009

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS. Rural Water Supply engineers Garreth Mills (left) and Audley Thompson (right) collect data from a NWC pumping station in Duanvale. Councillor of the Sherwood Content Division Fernandez Smith (centre) looks on. (Photo: Horace Hines)
SHERWOOD CONTENT, Trelawny
A solution to Sherwood Content's chronic water woes could be reached by early next month when the Rural Water Supply is expected to determine the feasibility of joining the Sherwood Content Water supply with the neighbouring Duanvale system.
"We hope that in about the next two and a half weeks to three weeks, we will have everything on paper and hopefully we will be presenting it to our chairman. And from then he will discuss to see how quick we can get the plan implemented," Audley Thompson, general manager in charge of engineering at Rural Water Supply Limited told the Observer West.
Thompson was speaking to the Observer West at the end of Monday's tour of three Duanvale water supply facilities.
The visit was prompted by the chairman of the Rural Water Supply, Noel Donaldson, at the behest of Water Minister Dr Horace Chang, following a cantankerously put recommendation by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Councillor for the Sherwood Content division, Fernandez Smith.
An answer to the deep-rooted water crisis in Sherwood Content - the hometown of triple Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt - has been receiving priority attention since the Observer West reported that the 2008 Olympic hero had to cut short a visit to his family in the community last month due to the lack of piped water.
According to Bolt's father Wellesley, Bolt had to trek four miles to the Windsor River for a bath.
Sherwood Content's water woes are not new.
And a joint $20-million project between the National Water Commission and Red Stripe to upgrade the Sherwood Content Water Supply four years ago has not worked, due - according to the NWC - to an unanticipated, severe turbidity problem.
An elated Smith told the Observer West that he was happy with this week's turn of events.
"I have been saying for the past five years, tie the Sherwood system to the Duanvale system and it wouldn't have cost half of the $22-million it cost to upgrade the Sherwood system that was donated by Red Stripe Beer. The plan is to combine the three systems in Duanvale - guaranteed to distribute in excess of a million gallons per day - and pump directly into the Sherwood system," he said.
Added Smith: "You are going to kill many birds with one stone because you would have solved the problems at Perth Town, you would have solved the problems at Reserve and also solve the problem at Fontabelle, nearby communities which are undergoing severe water problems as well as the community of Sherwood Content."
Meanwhile, Smith says he is seeking an audience with North Trelawny MP Dr Patrick Harris to assist with the funding of the project with money from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
In the meantime, Harris - who explained that he initiated the upgrade of the Sherwood Water Supply, which is now dogged by turbidity-says he is only too willing to meet with Councillor Smith and all other stakeholders for a speedy resolution to the Sherwood Content water problem.

[Sir X]

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var isoPubDate = 'January 22, 2009'January 22, 2009
As Tuesday rolled blissfully into Wednesday, a television political analyst asked her broadcasting partners their favorite moment on this historic day.
It hit me that I couldn't come up with just one; after a couple of hours of reflecting, I had at least three that did more than make an impression, but symbolized where this country has been, where it is now and perhaps where it is going.
The first was at 11 a.m., a good hour before Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States.
Television showed an elderly black woman on the National Mall, bundled against the cold. A single tear rolled straight down her cheek, belying the crooked path her life undoubtedly took to this day.
The stories she could tell would probably fill several books. She was certainly old enough to remember when Jackie Robinson became the first black to play in a Major League Baseball game, and it would be interesting to hear her take on Tommie Smith and John Carlos protesting the 1968 Mexico City Olympics by putting their black-gloved fists into the air on the medal stand.
To hear her describe having to sit in the back of the bus or being refused service in white-only restaurants would bring a tear to most Americans' eyes today. Her deeply wrinkled face stained with that tear told more about how far this country has come since Barack Obama was born 47 years ago than any TV commentator could ever hope to portray.
The second happened seconds later when the same camera panned on four bubbly-faced 20-something white women. They were screaming as if Bono were about to take the stage and be administered the oath, rather than a man who describes himself as boring.
Obama's rock-star treatment Tuesday by ordinary citizens was as much inspiring as it was shocking. Who could have guessed just two years ago that a young Illinois senator with a funny name (to most Americans, at least) would set off hysteria on a cold Washington day by not only blacks and whites, but Latinos and Asians, young and old, rich and poor?
No one knows what those young women will see over their lifetimes; I'm sure if you asked the elderly woman standing next to them, she would probably have said at their age, she never dreamed of being on the National Mall watching a black man become the leader of the free world.
Those young women represented hope, not only for a better America, but on a more elementary level, a better day-to-day life for all citizens through breakthroughs in medicine, a better education system and a citizenship that is more concerned with making society better than how much money it can stash away for a self-absorbed retirement.
The third was the playing of a musical selection by John Williams by the musicians Itzhak Perlman (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet).
A Jew, an Asian, a white woman and a black all on stage together in a location that just 50 years ago was part of the highly segregated South. The music at times was turbulent, quickly reversing to a calm — much like the history of this country.
What has made this country unique — our ability to overcome adversity (the Revolution, Civil War, Great Depression, Vietman, Watergate) and aspire to greatness — can also be our curse.
We want more, expect more and continually strive for more, resulting in astounding achievements but also catastrophic failures.
In the sports world, a team wins the big name and the Gatorade hasn't dried on the coach's coat before we're asking can they do it again next year.
I keep thinking of Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who won three golds and set three world records at the 2008 Olympics. Bolt went back to Jamaica and partied for a couple of months, not thinking about running or worrying what was next. And his countrymen let him do it, enjoying the moment of being the world's best.
In the U.S., we'd be asking the next day if Bolt could top his feat in four years.
Of the four musicians on stage, Ma genuinely seemed to be having the time of his life, no doubt realizing what a momentous occasion he was part of.
I couldn't help but think what will happen to the young Yo-Yo Ma's of this country as we face tough decisions ahead — do we cut music and arts programs in our schools because of rising costs and shrinking budgets?
Do we cut sports programs, reducing the chances of young men and women to stay out of harm's way by giving them after-school activities?
Let's hope the answer is no to both.
As Barack Obama listened to the music, the contrast in the tempo had to hit him harder than the January cold.
But winter doesn't last forever and neither do tough times. Just ask the elderly black woman whose tears of joy replaced tears of sorrow she cried for decades.


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[Mosiah]

Hmmm, I wonder if such a poll taken by Sports Illustrated or some other yankee publication would have given us a similar result.

[Assasin]

You see di effect of Letterman? and the Yankee shows?

Get him a date with Oprah or a dance wid Ellen fast.

[Mosiah]

Which poll would have given you such a response, Sass?

[Assasin]

I can't say. We might be surprised.

Let them comission it.