FROM THE PUBLISHER

Yohan Blake,
Nickel Ashmeade,
Asafa Powell,
Usain Bolt
THE LAST HURRAH, A NEW ERA
By: Hubert Lawrence
When Usain Bolt completed the Olympic
100m/200m double for the third time in a
row in Rio di Janeiro, Brazil, the feat came at
the end of an era. By contrast, when Elaine
Thompson did the same thing in the same
place, it seemed to herald the arrival of a
new star. Together, Bolt and Thompson
had garnered 4 of the six gold medals
Jamaica won in Rio, a tally that equalled the
haul won eight years earlier when Bolt and
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce burst on to the
sprint scene.
Joining Thompson in a glorious emergence
was Omar McLeod, who became the first
Jamaican, male or female, to win an Olympic
sprint hurdles final. All three overcame
adversity to run riot in Rio. Bolt, a four-time
winner at Boys and Girls Champs during
his days at William Knibb Memorial High
School, got tripped by a hamstring injury
at the National Senior Championships. The
same thing happened to Thompson, who
never managed to win a Champs medal
when she was at Manchester High. Her old
Manchester teammate McLeod had record
breaking Champs 2013 as the highlight of
a season when he blossomed at Kingston
College. A World Indoor 60 metre hurdle
win and a fast start to the outdoor season
made him the Olympic 110 metre hurdles
favourite until he fell twice in races before
Rio.
10
All three bounced back. Bolt marked the
fitness register in time and ran the 100
metre field off its feet in 9.81 seconds. His
win broke a two-win tie he shared with Carl
Lewis of the United States who won the
100m in 1984 and 1988.
Yohan Blake’s slow return to full speed
left him short of his 2012 silver medal form
in fourth. A toe injury hurt Fraser-Pryce’s
bid to be the first to win the women’s 100
three times. Thompson stepped into the
spotlight with a super win in 10.71 seconds,
with the 2-time champion blocking the
pain and leaning in for third. Christania
Williams, who had won the Class 1 100m at
Champs for Edwin Allen in 2013, was in the
final too.
Shericka Jackson, who like Williams was
a winner at Champs 2013, did even better.
The former Vere Technical star first surprised
herself with a personal best of 49.83 seconds
in the 400 metre semi-finals. Another big
run - 49.85 - nabbed the bronze in a race
where her old Carifta rival Shaunae Miller
of the Bahamas took the gold medal by
a narrow margin over super American
Allyson Felix. Jackson’s UTECH training
partner, 2014 Commonwealth champion
Stephennie McPherson was sixth in the
final.
With Bolt and Thompson primed for the
200m, McLeod made his own bit of history.
A safety first approach yielded a winning
time of 13.05 seconds. His heartfelt
celebration was sweeter because of the
confidence crushing falls he suffered in
Budapest and Monaco. No one who saw
him win the 110 metre hurdles and the 400
metre hurdles for Kingston College at Boys
and Girls Championships in 2013 would
have been surprised at his success in Rio.
Thompson hit top gear to outrun World
Champion Dafne Schippers in the 200m
with the fastest time of the year – 21.78
seconds. The slender 24 year-old is the first
successful Olympic female sprint ‘doubler’
since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.
Rain made the track heavy for the tall man
in his 200m final. Yet, he managed to crank
a winning time of 19.78 seconds. Only Bolt
himself, Michael Johnson, Blake, Frank
Fredericks and Mike Marsh have gone
quicker in the Games. Four years earlier in
London, he had become the first man to
win the 200m twice. In Rio, with his third
win, he peeled off further into the distance.
Six athletes had come to Brazil seeking
a third consecutive gold medal in their
respective events. All the others missed.
Bolt remarkably had done the treble in two
individual events.
Though there were no more individual
medals, Jamaica showed itself to be a
world power in the 400 metre hurdles.