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Proud UWI fetes its athletes, Racers Track Club
BY DANIA BOGLE Observer staff reporter
Saturday, October 22, 2011
THE reigning World 100m and 200m champions Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt were in good spirits and feeling under no pressure ahead of next year's big Olympic season a few days after resuming training at the University of the West Indies (UWI) this week.
The pair were among 27 Racers Track Club and UWI athletes and management staff who were honoured at the institution's Mona campus on Thursday in a special reception held at the Undercroft Senate Building celebrating their achievements at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea and the World University Games in Shenzhen, China in August.
World University Games 110m hurdles gold medallist Hansle Parchment and 200m silver medallist Jason Young, both UWI students, joined the other athletes who train at the campus including, Blake and Bolt, World Championship mile-relay bronze medallists Jermaine Gonzales and Allodin Fothergill, women's 4x400m silver medallists Rosemarie Whyte, Davita Prendergast, and Shereefa Lloyd and other competitors Mario Forsythe, Marvin Anderson, Josef Robertson, Nickeisha Wilson, Ristananna Tracey, Schillonie Calvert and Wilbert Walker.
Racers coaches Glen Mills and Bert Cameron, masseurs Gavin James and Everald Edwards, World Championship management team Grace Jackson, Michael Clarke, Fitz Coleman, Dr Gwyn Jones and Vilma Charlton and World University Games management staff of Rashid Hall and Kerry-Lee Ricketts were the other awardees.
The atmosphere was light and anticipatory as students from Wolmer's Girls School, Calabar, Mona, Kingston College, Camperdown and Ardenne formed a guard of honour leading up to the Undercroft Senate Building awaiting the arrival by bus of the athletes.
Inside all those in attendance (a few including Wilson, Anderson and Clarke did not show) received plaques or other tokens marking their feats.
"It's very important because it helps to motivate the youngsters. UWI is our home and there's no place like being recognised at home," Mills said.
The usually straight-faced coach joked about Bolt's false start in the men's 100m at the World Championships implying that the gun was too slow for Racers athletes.
"We have to get one (gun) fast enough or we have to get them to slow down," he said.
UWI principal Gordon Shirley explained the thinking behind the function: "We are really very pleased to have our own athletes doing well and to be in partnership with Racers and to have them performing on the world stage and to have them doing so well. We wanted to say congratulations on behalf of the university and behalf of the entire Jamaican community."
Meanwhile, Blake, who received a standing ovation from the UWI students among the crowd, paid tribute to Mills.
"When I first came here it was a wonderful feeling. As you can see he is not only a coach he is a teacher to us," he said.
The youngest men's 100m World champion told the Observer that it was a dream to win a gold medal in the World Championships, adding he feels no pressure going into London 2012.
"I always come with surprises and I like to keep people thinking what I have next. Look at the 200m, nobody believed I would run that time, so I come with surprises and I like to keep people thinking."
Bolt, meantime, said that the track is where it's at: "Yohan has really stepped up his game now; we always compete in training. He is a really competitive person. I am a really competitive person but for me it's just competition on the track and we (are) still going to be friends. We are going to compete at our best and may the best man win," he said.
BY DANIA BOGLE Observer staff reporter
Saturday, October 22, 2011
THE reigning World 100m and 200m champions Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt were in good spirits and feeling under no pressure ahead of next year's big Olympic season a few days after resuming training at the University of the West Indies (UWI) this week.
The pair were among 27 Racers Track Club and UWI athletes and management staff who were honoured at the institution's Mona campus on Thursday in a special reception held at the Undercroft Senate Building celebrating their achievements at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea and the World University Games in Shenzhen, China in August.
World University Games 110m hurdles gold medallist Hansle Parchment and 200m silver medallist Jason Young, both UWI students, joined the other athletes who train at the campus including, Blake and Bolt, World Championship mile-relay bronze medallists Jermaine Gonzales and Allodin Fothergill, women's 4x400m silver medallists Rosemarie Whyte, Davita Prendergast, and Shereefa Lloyd and other competitors Mario Forsythe, Marvin Anderson, Josef Robertson, Nickeisha Wilson, Ristananna Tracey, Schillonie Calvert and Wilbert Walker.
Racers coaches Glen Mills and Bert Cameron, masseurs Gavin James and Everald Edwards, World Championship management team Grace Jackson, Michael Clarke, Fitz Coleman, Dr Gwyn Jones and Vilma Charlton and World University Games management staff of Rashid Hall and Kerry-Lee Ricketts were the other awardees.
The atmosphere was light and anticipatory as students from Wolmer's Girls School, Calabar, Mona, Kingston College, Camperdown and Ardenne formed a guard of honour leading up to the Undercroft Senate Building awaiting the arrival by bus of the athletes.
Inside all those in attendance (a few including Wilson, Anderson and Clarke did not show) received plaques or other tokens marking their feats.
"It's very important because it helps to motivate the youngsters. UWI is our home and there's no place like being recognised at home," Mills said.
The usually straight-faced coach joked about Bolt's false start in the men's 100m at the World Championships implying that the gun was too slow for Racers athletes.
"We have to get one (gun) fast enough or we have to get them to slow down," he said.
UWI principal Gordon Shirley explained the thinking behind the function: "We are really very pleased to have our own athletes doing well and to be in partnership with Racers and to have them performing on the world stage and to have them doing so well. We wanted to say congratulations on behalf of the university and behalf of the entire Jamaican community."
Meanwhile, Blake, who received a standing ovation from the UWI students among the crowd, paid tribute to Mills.
"When I first came here it was a wonderful feeling. As you can see he is not only a coach he is a teacher to us," he said.
The youngest men's 100m World champion told the Observer that it was a dream to win a gold medal in the World Championships, adding he feels no pressure going into London 2012.
"I always come with surprises and I like to keep people thinking what I have next. Look at the 200m, nobody believed I would run that time, so I come with surprises and I like to keep people thinking."
Bolt, meantime, said that the track is where it's at: "Yohan has really stepped up his game now; we always compete in training. He is a really competitive person. I am a really competitive person but for me it's just competition on the track and we (are) still going to be friends. We are going to compete at our best and may the best man win," he said.
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