Donkey seh di world nuh level

[Jangle]

Undeniable pedigree

“Donkey seh di world nuh level”. Well, maybe it was my mother who often said that, but somehow, I find this to be true looking at the circumstances surrounding the false-start fiasco that marred the final day of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA)/Supreme Ventures National Senior Athletics Championships (National Trials) on Sunday last.

At the moment, Williams is ranked second in the world in the 100m hurdles, and did a season’s best 12.66 seconds in Doha, Qatar, on May 3. Incidentally, Doha is the home of this year’s IAAF World Championship. She is also the 2015 Champion. Her pedigree is undeniable. While Janeek Brown has been faster this year and has the national record of 12.40, Williams had a blistering personal best of 12.48 seconds in 2018 and is as good a prospect as any for a medal in Doha.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/s...orld-nuh-level

[Jangle]

Oral Tracey | Rules are rules, but at what cost?

It is pretty much the general consensus that the current version of the false-start rule in athletics is both unreasoned and unreasonable. The zero tolerance one-strike-and-you-are-out rule is not just unjust and irrational, but it is generally bad for the sport, especially the sprints, which it understandably affects more.


With that as a premise, I can now delve into what turned out to be the embarrassing and now spiralling fiasco involving 2015 100m hurdles World champion Danielle Williams. Opinions on this issue are generally split sharply between the self-righteous, self-serving sticklers for the rules and the rational, pragmatic realists.


The other salient point of reference must be the fact that despite the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA)/Supreme Ventures National Senior and Junior Athletics Championships essentially being trails for the selection of the various national teams, it is a Jamaican organised and staged event, manned by Jamaican officials with Jamaican athletes competing for the privilege to represent their country in international competition.

It is therefore quite befuddling that the former World champion, having transgressed so marginally, with reasonable explanation, is being chastised and almost crucified with such vicious finality by her very own countrymen. The chief starter, who just happens to be a senior official of the JAAA, entrusted with the requisite discretionary powers to simply apply some common and nationalistic sense to the situation, chose not to as the situation spiralled from an instance of simple human error to an elevated stage for self-aggrandisement and moral grandstanding.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/s...ules-what-cost