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Posted by admin on August 29, 2013
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By Robert Taylor, Special to Trackalerts.Com
The 2013 World Championships in Moscow, Russia have ended with some great performances from the Jamaican athletes. However, the recent spate of positive tests brought out the critics, the cynics, the jealousy and of course genuine question from objective minds. I look on the whole media frenzy and outright ignorant accusation with amazement.
I must admit the letter from the former executive director of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission only reinforce the negative beliefs.
There was a time yams were being said to cause the Jamaica athletes to perform so well.
Usain Bolt (right) and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
You even have a university professor coming out with a so-called proof. I would expect a university professor to come out with a thoroughly research finding, but unfortunately he did not.
A moderate research would point to the fact that South America and West Africa have yams and yet have not produce any athletes such as the calibre of global superstar Usain Bolt of Jamaica.
Since Slavery Jamaica had yams and no consistent world dominance before 2008.
The accusations became so biased that I could not help but notice the hypocrisy.
For example, I was looking at the CNN and NBC websites and they both had an article about the Jamaican footballer who tested positive and find some way to associate it with Asafa Powell.
Yet the baseball players who are in trouble for doping were getting it from an anti-aging clinic likewise Tyson Gay, but no connections made.
Also what no one seems to want to say is how Gay got tested in May and Powell got tested in the middle of June, but both were coincidentally released the same day.
We all know that Powell tested positive for stimulant but no one knows what Gay tested positive for.
We know it could not have been stimulant because his first positive test was out of competition, thus it must be something more serious.
How could an athlete be tested in early May be allowed to run in the middle of June (US National Trials) to be tested positive the second time?
It is nnfortunate that I have to use Gay to point out the duplicity because I genuinely admire him as an athlete and was led down a path he innocently followed.
Nevertheless, the situation leads me with no other option. Can you image Jamaica withholding what type of drug an athlete test positive for as with the Gay situation?
You have someone accusing Jamaica of running a state-sponsored doping system.
If he had done a little reading he would see the improbability of such statement. The infighting, resentment and division within the Jamaican athletic community are only second to the deadly garrison politics the Jamaican politicians practiced.
So many forget the dispute of 2009 where the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) had to ask the Jamaican federation to allow certain athlete to compete.
You have so many news stories ascribing a position to Powell on the 100-metre team but for the doping failure.
Yet the fact clearly showed that Powell placement was seventh at the Jamaica trials, thus he was ineligible for a relay spot much less a 100-metre spot.
There is the talk about testing agents cannot find the Jamaican athletes when they visit the country.
This argument is even used by a once World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) leader. An asinine statement if you ask me.
Firstly, there is the rule that if you miss three tests, it constitutes a doping violation.
Usain Bolt and Warren Weir after the 200m final during Day Eight of the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 at Luzhniki Stadium on August 17, 2013 in Moscow, Russia.
A current World and Olympic champion suffer such fate. This never happens to a Jamaican athlete.
Unless they are questioning the credibility of WADA in regards to how it apply the rules to Jamaica.
This only shows the level of criticism without merit people are willing to use.
There is now the question of how could a small and poor country produces so many sprint champions and the fastest in history at that.
I remember when Donovan Bailey won the Olympic men’s 100-metre final for Canada.
Carl Lewis a former US sprinter came out and said the US Colleges should stop granting scholarships to foreign athletes because they are coming to the US leaning sprint techniques, developing and then go out and beat the US at the major championships.
Funny he said that because Jamaica is now doing exactly what he wanted.
They are now keeping most of their top athletes and developing them instead of totally depending on the US college system as in the past.
The media should place some of the Jamaican sprinters achievement on the Cubans and Dennis Johnson (a Jamaica Olympian). First the Cuban government built the G C Foster Sports College.
This school has produced a plethora of coaches at the high school level and professional for Jamaica.
Many are doing the IAAF courses and quite a few has acquired the highest coaching designation the IAAF has to offer.
Secondly, Dennis Johnson was the first to actually conceive the idea that Jamaica can develop coaches and offer qualified athletes scholarships to their tertiary institutions.
In the early days he would bring US sprint coaches to run clinics and presentation to local coaches.
Also let’s not forget the gift of the high performance centre that has aided in the process of the Jamaica local athletic development.
Like countries that have youth programs to develop quality footballers so does Jamaica with athletics.
A significant amount of the US colleges and high school coaches are glorified physical education teachers, while in Jamaica the high school coaches are mostly GC Foster graduates and pursuing IAAF courses to attain the highest level certificate.
Competition drives success; there is none that is greater than the Jamaica high school athletics system.
Recruiting is at a level for high school talent never experience anywhere else. There is no hidden gem a coach won’t find and there are no coaches at the high school level who do not have the basic rudimentary knowledge of sprinting.
One would have to visit Jamaica and look at the intensity of the boys and girls’ high school athletic championship to understand.
Glen Mills, who is the coach of Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Warren Weir, Kemar Bailey-Cole, just to name a few of his athletes, has been in the coaching business for more than three decades.
He was once the coach of Camperdown high school in Jamaica.
Jamaica 4x100m women’s team, from left to right, Kerron Stewart, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Carrie Russell and Schillonie Calvert pose beside the clock after breaking the Championship Record during the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 – Day Nine – Getty Images
When Mills was a high school coach, his Camperdown high school teams for years were so consistently dominant at the annual Penn Relays that some of the US high school coaches would complain that he was carrying a stacked team (a national team) to represent his school.
Now many current US high school coaches are complaining that too many Jamaican high schools are competing at the Penn Relays and making it difficult for their athletes to win.
For those who read and still harbour disbelief and see Jamaica population and geographical size as the reason for their doubt, I would like them to take a look at the history of Jamaican athletes.
Also I want them to examine the Jamaican contribution to the world and see that their relatively small size has no negative bearing on the country ability to produce quality relative to the rest of the world.
Since the 1948 Olympics Jamaica has been producing world-class athletes.
As a matter of fact in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics Jamaica came first and second in the 400 metres and set the 4×400-metre world record in 1952.
The injury of Arthur Wint in the 1948 4×400-metre final cost Jamaica.
Herb McKenley is the only top athlete in any era I know of that reach the 100, 200 and 400-metre finals at the Olympic level.
He was setting 400-metre records on a routine basis.
Then you have other Olympic medal winners such as Lennox Miller (incidentally his daughter Inger Miller ran for the US) and Donald Quarrie showing a long line of athletes coming out of Jamaica long before the emergence of Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce.
Some will question how can such a small country produce so many sprinters much less the greatest sprinter of all time.
It is simple; Jamaica has been making great contributions to the world that belies its land and population size.
Take a careful look on the few things I am about to list. Jamaica is the country that gave the world dread locks and Rastafarian religion, Ska, a music that now have a huge non Jamaican following, Reggae music, which produce music icons such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff just to name a few.
Jamaica opens the world eyes to marijuana, a plant that is now shown to have far more medicinal value than recreational drug use, something Jamaican has been saying for years.
There is Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican who has internationalised black pride movement long before liberation wars etc. I could go on and on.
The current athletic system Jamaica has, the contributions they make to the world culture and the history of its athletes, it should not surprise anyone that Jamaica is doing exceedingly great in the athletic arena.
*The views expressed in this article are those of the author (Robert Taylor) and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, trackalerts.com
Posted by admin on August 29, 2013
Sponsored links
inShare
By Robert Taylor, Special to Trackalerts.Com
The 2013 World Championships in Moscow, Russia have ended with some great performances from the Jamaican athletes. However, the recent spate of positive tests brought out the critics, the cynics, the jealousy and of course genuine question from objective minds. I look on the whole media frenzy and outright ignorant accusation with amazement.
I must admit the letter from the former executive director of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission only reinforce the negative beliefs.
There was a time yams were being said to cause the Jamaica athletes to perform so well.
Usain Bolt (right) and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
You even have a university professor coming out with a so-called proof. I would expect a university professor to come out with a thoroughly research finding, but unfortunately he did not.
A moderate research would point to the fact that South America and West Africa have yams and yet have not produce any athletes such as the calibre of global superstar Usain Bolt of Jamaica.
Since Slavery Jamaica had yams and no consistent world dominance before 2008.
The accusations became so biased that I could not help but notice the hypocrisy.
For example, I was looking at the CNN and NBC websites and they both had an article about the Jamaican footballer who tested positive and find some way to associate it with Asafa Powell.
Yet the baseball players who are in trouble for doping were getting it from an anti-aging clinic likewise Tyson Gay, but no connections made.
Also what no one seems to want to say is how Gay got tested in May and Powell got tested in the middle of June, but both were coincidentally released the same day.
We all know that Powell tested positive for stimulant but no one knows what Gay tested positive for.
We know it could not have been stimulant because his first positive test was out of competition, thus it must be something more serious.
How could an athlete be tested in early May be allowed to run in the middle of June (US National Trials) to be tested positive the second time?
It is nnfortunate that I have to use Gay to point out the duplicity because I genuinely admire him as an athlete and was led down a path he innocently followed.
Nevertheless, the situation leads me with no other option. Can you image Jamaica withholding what type of drug an athlete test positive for as with the Gay situation?
You have someone accusing Jamaica of running a state-sponsored doping system.
If he had done a little reading he would see the improbability of such statement. The infighting, resentment and division within the Jamaican athletic community are only second to the deadly garrison politics the Jamaican politicians practiced.
So many forget the dispute of 2009 where the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) had to ask the Jamaican federation to allow certain athlete to compete.
You have so many news stories ascribing a position to Powell on the 100-metre team but for the doping failure.
Yet the fact clearly showed that Powell placement was seventh at the Jamaica trials, thus he was ineligible for a relay spot much less a 100-metre spot.
There is the talk about testing agents cannot find the Jamaican athletes when they visit the country.
This argument is even used by a once World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) leader. An asinine statement if you ask me.
Firstly, there is the rule that if you miss three tests, it constitutes a doping violation.
Usain Bolt and Warren Weir after the 200m final during Day Eight of the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 at Luzhniki Stadium on August 17, 2013 in Moscow, Russia.
A current World and Olympic champion suffer such fate. This never happens to a Jamaican athlete.
Unless they are questioning the credibility of WADA in regards to how it apply the rules to Jamaica.
This only shows the level of criticism without merit people are willing to use.
There is now the question of how could a small and poor country produces so many sprint champions and the fastest in history at that.
I remember when Donovan Bailey won the Olympic men’s 100-metre final for Canada.
Carl Lewis a former US sprinter came out and said the US Colleges should stop granting scholarships to foreign athletes because they are coming to the US leaning sprint techniques, developing and then go out and beat the US at the major championships.
Funny he said that because Jamaica is now doing exactly what he wanted.
They are now keeping most of their top athletes and developing them instead of totally depending on the US college system as in the past.
The media should place some of the Jamaican sprinters achievement on the Cubans and Dennis Johnson (a Jamaica Olympian). First the Cuban government built the G C Foster Sports College.
This school has produced a plethora of coaches at the high school level and professional for Jamaica.
Many are doing the IAAF courses and quite a few has acquired the highest coaching designation the IAAF has to offer.
Secondly, Dennis Johnson was the first to actually conceive the idea that Jamaica can develop coaches and offer qualified athletes scholarships to their tertiary institutions.
In the early days he would bring US sprint coaches to run clinics and presentation to local coaches.
Also let’s not forget the gift of the high performance centre that has aided in the process of the Jamaica local athletic development.
Like countries that have youth programs to develop quality footballers so does Jamaica with athletics.
A significant amount of the US colleges and high school coaches are glorified physical education teachers, while in Jamaica the high school coaches are mostly GC Foster graduates and pursuing IAAF courses to attain the highest level certificate.
Competition drives success; there is none that is greater than the Jamaica high school athletics system.
Recruiting is at a level for high school talent never experience anywhere else. There is no hidden gem a coach won’t find and there are no coaches at the high school level who do not have the basic rudimentary knowledge of sprinting.
One would have to visit Jamaica and look at the intensity of the boys and girls’ high school athletic championship to understand.
Glen Mills, who is the coach of Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Warren Weir, Kemar Bailey-Cole, just to name a few of his athletes, has been in the coaching business for more than three decades.
He was once the coach of Camperdown high school in Jamaica.
Jamaica 4x100m women’s team, from left to right, Kerron Stewart, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Carrie Russell and Schillonie Calvert pose beside the clock after breaking the Championship Record during the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 – Day Nine – Getty Images
When Mills was a high school coach, his Camperdown high school teams for years were so consistently dominant at the annual Penn Relays that some of the US high school coaches would complain that he was carrying a stacked team (a national team) to represent his school.
Now many current US high school coaches are complaining that too many Jamaican high schools are competing at the Penn Relays and making it difficult for their athletes to win.
For those who read and still harbour disbelief and see Jamaica population and geographical size as the reason for their doubt, I would like them to take a look at the history of Jamaican athletes.
Also I want them to examine the Jamaican contribution to the world and see that their relatively small size has no negative bearing on the country ability to produce quality relative to the rest of the world.
Since the 1948 Olympics Jamaica has been producing world-class athletes.
As a matter of fact in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics Jamaica came first and second in the 400 metres and set the 4×400-metre world record in 1952.
The injury of Arthur Wint in the 1948 4×400-metre final cost Jamaica.
Herb McKenley is the only top athlete in any era I know of that reach the 100, 200 and 400-metre finals at the Olympic level.
He was setting 400-metre records on a routine basis.
Then you have other Olympic medal winners such as Lennox Miller (incidentally his daughter Inger Miller ran for the US) and Donald Quarrie showing a long line of athletes coming out of Jamaica long before the emergence of Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce.
Some will question how can such a small country produce so many sprinters much less the greatest sprinter of all time.
It is simple; Jamaica has been making great contributions to the world that belies its land and population size.
Take a careful look on the few things I am about to list. Jamaica is the country that gave the world dread locks and Rastafarian religion, Ska, a music that now have a huge non Jamaican following, Reggae music, which produce music icons such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff just to name a few.
Jamaica opens the world eyes to marijuana, a plant that is now shown to have far more medicinal value than recreational drug use, something Jamaican has been saying for years.
There is Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican who has internationalised black pride movement long before liberation wars etc. I could go on and on.
The current athletic system Jamaica has, the contributions they make to the world culture and the history of its athletes, it should not surprise anyone that Jamaica is doing exceedingly great in the athletic arena.
*The views expressed in this article are those of the author (Robert Taylor) and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, trackalerts.com
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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