Tweet
Cradle of champions where Jamaican sprinters earn their spurs
Bolt has long been a vocal advocate of Champs and, last weekend, he was even more emphatic. "Champs is the real deal," he said, pointing out that his own sponsors, Puma, fund the athletics programmes of seven different schools at Champs. "The competition is fierce and the tradition is deep. If you can do well at Champs you can do well anywhere."
His friend Colin Jackson, who had flown from Britain on his annual pilgrimage to Champs, was an enthusiastically informed observer. The former world champion hurdler could not stop beaming. "I've been to a few championships in my time," Jackson quipped. "And, you know, the Olympics, the worlds and the Europeans are all pretty good. They're OK. But this is different. This is Champs. When you come here you see the real root of the sport. The Jamaican kids have such desire to compete. It's incredible. And the knowledge of the crowds is fantastic. Inside that stadium will be women in their mid-60s who will be able to discuss the form of all these school stars. It illustrates the knowledge and commitment you find at Champs."
Jackson shook his head in amazement. "I go into stadiums in the UK and I can tell you that spectators won't even know the names of the major stars in our sport – never mind high-school runners. At Champs you get to understand how deeply ingrained track and field is in this nation. My parents are both Jamaican, and I was brought up with Jamaican culture, but I still couldn't understand why they had this passion for the sport. It was only when I came to Champs that I finally understood. This is athletics in its purest state."
The impact of Champs runs so deep that the world's two greatest sprinters, Bolt and Asafa Powell, stress its influence on their respective careers. Their friendship is such that Bolt would never reach for the label "choker" when addressing Powell's infamous failure to replicate his true class at the world's great championships. But, being so candid, Bolt also explained how Powell had suffered from a lack of sustained exposure to the blistering competition of Champs.
"It has been a problem for Asafa," Bolt said with genuine sympathy for his rival. "He only got to run once at Champs and so he didn't have the same experience of this atmosphere as me. After running so much at Champs I don't worry about anything. Asafa is different. I've said to him he shouldn't stress too much or worry about the crowd. I'm always telling him this."
Powell himself was suitably thoughtful amid the bedlam. Standing at the edge of the track, while he watched hundreds of young sprinters straining eventually to emulate Bolt and himself as world-record holders, the 27 year-old said: "I love Champs. But I went to a very small school, Charlemont High in St Catherine, in south-east Jamaica, and we didn't get to qualify for Champs. We only made it one year and I got disqualified that time."
The noise around the National Stadium was such that Powell was forced to shout to make himself heard: "Usain was four years younger than me, but he was always a big deal at Champs. He made his name here. That helped him because, for us in Jamaica, after the Olympics and Worlds, Champs is the next big thing. Usain learnt quickly how to handle pressure. That's why he was so cool in Beijing and Berlin."
Bolt also has a singular character which allows him to face an Olympic or world championship final as if he is relaxing on the beach or having fun in the dancehall. But the hidden steel inside him was forged in the heat of battle at Champs. And so the demands of these championships were etched across the face of the latest young pretender, Julian Forte, a 17-year-old sprinter intent on following Powell and Bolt.
Forte was the standout sprinter last weekend – winning the two main Grade 1 sprint races for senior boys. "I won the 100m yesterday," he said late last Saturday afternoon as he prepared for the relays in the warm-up area behind the track. "And this afternoon I won the 200m. I was real happy because you could say these are the two most important races at Champs. But it won't mean so much unless my school, Wolmer High, gets to win Boys Champs this afternoon. At the moment we're in the lead but we've not won Champs a long time [since 1956] so the pressure is big. The pressure is tough. It's going all the way down to the relays."
The young sprinter laughed when asked how he compared to Bolt at the age of 17. "No way," he said. "Bolt at 16 and 17 was really extraordinary. There is no comparison between him and me. That's why he and Powell are my idols. I've not met Bolt but I talk to Powell and he's very encouraging. They both appreciate what Champs means and that's why they support it so much."
Forte's face lit up when asked how he might feel if the championship was decided on the very last race, the 4x400m, in which he would run for Wolmer. "I'd love it," he said, his quiet voice assuming a Bolt-like swagger. "I'd be super-excited."
Back inside the thronged stadium, as the sun sank low in a Kingston sky that changed from deep blue to a softer yellowy-orange, the chanting and screaming were amplified. There was also dancing, foot-stamping and incessant clapperboard banging as the lead swapped from one rival school to another. For Grace Jackson, who won a silver medal in the 200m at the 1988 Olympic Games, the appeal and importance of Champs had been revealed yet again.
"Champs prepares these young runners for big-time competition," she said. "Most of us come out of poverty and Champs is our first real opportunity. That's not to say that rich people don't run. But maybe poor people run just that little bit faster because we are striving. So that's why all these kids are trying so hard – they want to win for their school and to get a better future."
Her views were echoed by Juliet Campbell, a more recent Olympic sprinter. "Sprinting, for me, was a tool. If you ran fast you made it to Champs. If you ran faster you got to university and the Olympics. Sprinting is pretty much a way out of poverty. That's how it was for me following Merlene Ottey and Grace Jackson. And that's how it is for most kids at Champs today."
Much has changed since Jackson and Campbell ran for Jamaica. Where Champs was once swamped by visiting American scouts, hoping to entice the best talent to colleges in the US, the current trend is for young sprinters to emulate Powell and Bolt – and remain in Jamaica.
"It's been a tremendous benefit," Jackson said. "We now have Usain training at the University of the West Indies [where Jackson is the director of sport], here in Kingston, and that's a real carrot for youngsters. And we have cooked the carrot a little more by bringing his coach, Glen Mills, to the campus. So we're giving all these top athletes at Champs a real incentive. They can stay here alongside Usain and Asafa. And let's not forget the women. In Beijing, Jamaica won 11 medals. Three went to [the men] and the rest were won by the women."
There might be more depth in women's sprinting but Bolt remains the irresistible symbol of Champs and Jamaican success. He was first spotted by Puma seven years ago, when he was 16, in a visit seared in the memory of the company's chief executive, Jochen Zeitz. "I first came to Jamaica in 2003," Zeitz said. "Our talent scout had told me all about this kid, Usain Bolt, and we were looking for a new opportunity to do something from the grassroots up. It was obvious this was a special combination. Champs is grassroots sport as its best and Usain was just fantastic.
"Our first commitment was to Jamaican schools but, out of that partnership, we found a superstar. Of course the glamour and success gives him a new aura but I can tell you that Usain in 2003 was not so different to Usain now. He was the same charismatic joker." Zeitz is a rare figure in the corporate world, for he is able to merge big business with grassroots sport in an apparently seamless weave. And while his own company profits hugely from Bolt's brilliance, Champs has been bolstered by Puma's expansive sponsorship. "We'd love to find another Bolt along the way," Zeitz said with a grin, "but that's probably impossible. There is only one."
Forte is unlikely to reach the Olympian heights of Bolt. But, last Saturday night, in the final race of the centenary Champs, Forte ran in the 4x400m relay. His school, Wolmer, was only a point ahead of Calabar – who had won Champs on 21 previous occasions. The 43-year wait Wolmer had endured since their last championship victory weighed heavily on Forte as he stood quietly on the start line. It was a moment that might have been lost in a stadium seemingly crazed by tension and excitement. Bolt and Powell both understood the gravity of emotion that threatened to overwhelm the Wolmer teenager.
When the gun cracked, and the arena exploded, Forte found a new calm and determination. He ran his lap with power and grace, to build a sizeable lead over his rival from Calabar that would not be threatened throughout the rest of the race. The long wait for Wolmer was over and Forte was swamped by his team-mates. Champs had another hero.
Outside, on a clammy Kingston night, with the National Stadium still throbbing, the Champs' Wall of Honour gleamed in the moonlight. That long white wall was covered in the names of great local athletes, starting with Arthur Wint, who won Jamaica's first Olympic gold medal, in the 400m, at the London Games in 1948. It stretched out into the dark, lit up at the far end by a Bolt of lightning.
There was just one problem. In this new era, with the island's domination of world sprinting set to deepen, they will soon need a new wall on which to fit all the names of the future speeding stars of Jamaica.
- Donald McRae
- The Guardian, Thursday 1 April 2010
Bolt has long been a vocal advocate of Champs and, last weekend, he was even more emphatic. "Champs is the real deal," he said, pointing out that his own sponsors, Puma, fund the athletics programmes of seven different schools at Champs. "The competition is fierce and the tradition is deep. If you can do well at Champs you can do well anywhere."
His friend Colin Jackson, who had flown from Britain on his annual pilgrimage to Champs, was an enthusiastically informed observer. The former world champion hurdler could not stop beaming. "I've been to a few championships in my time," Jackson quipped. "And, you know, the Olympics, the worlds and the Europeans are all pretty good. They're OK. But this is different. This is Champs. When you come here you see the real root of the sport. The Jamaican kids have such desire to compete. It's incredible. And the knowledge of the crowds is fantastic. Inside that stadium will be women in their mid-60s who will be able to discuss the form of all these school stars. It illustrates the knowledge and commitment you find at Champs."
Jackson shook his head in amazement. "I go into stadiums in the UK and I can tell you that spectators won't even know the names of the major stars in our sport – never mind high-school runners. At Champs you get to understand how deeply ingrained track and field is in this nation. My parents are both Jamaican, and I was brought up with Jamaican culture, but I still couldn't understand why they had this passion for the sport. It was only when I came to Champs that I finally understood. This is athletics in its purest state."
The impact of Champs runs so deep that the world's two greatest sprinters, Bolt and Asafa Powell, stress its influence on their respective careers. Their friendship is such that Bolt would never reach for the label "choker" when addressing Powell's infamous failure to replicate his true class at the world's great championships. But, being so candid, Bolt also explained how Powell had suffered from a lack of sustained exposure to the blistering competition of Champs.
"It has been a problem for Asafa," Bolt said with genuine sympathy for his rival. "He only got to run once at Champs and so he didn't have the same experience of this atmosphere as me. After running so much at Champs I don't worry about anything. Asafa is different. I've said to him he shouldn't stress too much or worry about the crowd. I'm always telling him this."
Powell himself was suitably thoughtful amid the bedlam. Standing at the edge of the track, while he watched hundreds of young sprinters straining eventually to emulate Bolt and himself as world-record holders, the 27 year-old said: "I love Champs. But I went to a very small school, Charlemont High in St Catherine, in south-east Jamaica, and we didn't get to qualify for Champs. We only made it one year and I got disqualified that time."
The noise around the National Stadium was such that Powell was forced to shout to make himself heard: "Usain was four years younger than me, but he was always a big deal at Champs. He made his name here. That helped him because, for us in Jamaica, after the Olympics and Worlds, Champs is the next big thing. Usain learnt quickly how to handle pressure. That's why he was so cool in Beijing and Berlin."
Bolt also has a singular character which allows him to face an Olympic or world championship final as if he is relaxing on the beach or having fun in the dancehall. But the hidden steel inside him was forged in the heat of battle at Champs. And so the demands of these championships were etched across the face of the latest young pretender, Julian Forte, a 17-year-old sprinter intent on following Powell and Bolt.
Forte was the standout sprinter last weekend – winning the two main Grade 1 sprint races for senior boys. "I won the 100m yesterday," he said late last Saturday afternoon as he prepared for the relays in the warm-up area behind the track. "And this afternoon I won the 200m. I was real happy because you could say these are the two most important races at Champs. But it won't mean so much unless my school, Wolmer High, gets to win Boys Champs this afternoon. At the moment we're in the lead but we've not won Champs a long time [since 1956] so the pressure is big. The pressure is tough. It's going all the way down to the relays."
The young sprinter laughed when asked how he compared to Bolt at the age of 17. "No way," he said. "Bolt at 16 and 17 was really extraordinary. There is no comparison between him and me. That's why he and Powell are my idols. I've not met Bolt but I talk to Powell and he's very encouraging. They both appreciate what Champs means and that's why they support it so much."
Forte's face lit up when asked how he might feel if the championship was decided on the very last race, the 4x400m, in which he would run for Wolmer. "I'd love it," he said, his quiet voice assuming a Bolt-like swagger. "I'd be super-excited."
Back inside the thronged stadium, as the sun sank low in a Kingston sky that changed from deep blue to a softer yellowy-orange, the chanting and screaming were amplified. There was also dancing, foot-stamping and incessant clapperboard banging as the lead swapped from one rival school to another. For Grace Jackson, who won a silver medal in the 200m at the 1988 Olympic Games, the appeal and importance of Champs had been revealed yet again.
"Champs prepares these young runners for big-time competition," she said. "Most of us come out of poverty and Champs is our first real opportunity. That's not to say that rich people don't run. But maybe poor people run just that little bit faster because we are striving. So that's why all these kids are trying so hard – they want to win for their school and to get a better future."
Her views were echoed by Juliet Campbell, a more recent Olympic sprinter. "Sprinting, for me, was a tool. If you ran fast you made it to Champs. If you ran faster you got to university and the Olympics. Sprinting is pretty much a way out of poverty. That's how it was for me following Merlene Ottey and Grace Jackson. And that's how it is for most kids at Champs today."
Much has changed since Jackson and Campbell ran for Jamaica. Where Champs was once swamped by visiting American scouts, hoping to entice the best talent to colleges in the US, the current trend is for young sprinters to emulate Powell and Bolt – and remain in Jamaica.
"It's been a tremendous benefit," Jackson said. "We now have Usain training at the University of the West Indies [where Jackson is the director of sport], here in Kingston, and that's a real carrot for youngsters. And we have cooked the carrot a little more by bringing his coach, Glen Mills, to the campus. So we're giving all these top athletes at Champs a real incentive. They can stay here alongside Usain and Asafa. And let's not forget the women. In Beijing, Jamaica won 11 medals. Three went to [the men] and the rest were won by the women."
There might be more depth in women's sprinting but Bolt remains the irresistible symbol of Champs and Jamaican success. He was first spotted by Puma seven years ago, when he was 16, in a visit seared in the memory of the company's chief executive, Jochen Zeitz. "I first came to Jamaica in 2003," Zeitz said. "Our talent scout had told me all about this kid, Usain Bolt, and we were looking for a new opportunity to do something from the grassroots up. It was obvious this was a special combination. Champs is grassroots sport as its best and Usain was just fantastic.
"Our first commitment was to Jamaican schools but, out of that partnership, we found a superstar. Of course the glamour and success gives him a new aura but I can tell you that Usain in 2003 was not so different to Usain now. He was the same charismatic joker." Zeitz is a rare figure in the corporate world, for he is able to merge big business with grassroots sport in an apparently seamless weave. And while his own company profits hugely from Bolt's brilliance, Champs has been bolstered by Puma's expansive sponsorship. "We'd love to find another Bolt along the way," Zeitz said with a grin, "but that's probably impossible. There is only one."
Forte is unlikely to reach the Olympian heights of Bolt. But, last Saturday night, in the final race of the centenary Champs, Forte ran in the 4x400m relay. His school, Wolmer, was only a point ahead of Calabar – who had won Champs on 21 previous occasions. The 43-year wait Wolmer had endured since their last championship victory weighed heavily on Forte as he stood quietly on the start line. It was a moment that might have been lost in a stadium seemingly crazed by tension and excitement. Bolt and Powell both understood the gravity of emotion that threatened to overwhelm the Wolmer teenager.
When the gun cracked, and the arena exploded, Forte found a new calm and determination. He ran his lap with power and grace, to build a sizeable lead over his rival from Calabar that would not be threatened throughout the rest of the race. The long wait for Wolmer was over and Forte was swamped by his team-mates. Champs had another hero.
Outside, on a clammy Kingston night, with the National Stadium still throbbing, the Champs' Wall of Honour gleamed in the moonlight. That long white wall was covered in the names of great local athletes, starting with Arthur Wint, who won Jamaica's first Olympic gold medal, in the 400m, at the London Games in 1948. It stretched out into the dark, lit up at the far end by a Bolt of lightning.
There was just one problem. In this new era, with the island's domination of world sprinting set to deepen, they will soon need a new wall on which to fit all the names of the future speeding stars of Jamaica.
Nice!
Comment