FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ristananna Tracey, who set the Champs
record wearing Edwin Allen blue in 2011, led
a Jamaican trio into the final. US schooled
Leah Nugent was a fine 6th with Janieve
Russell, who succeeded Tracey as high
school gold medallist while she was at
Holmwood, beating injury to get to the
final and to place 7th. Tracey and Nugent
logged personal best times of 54.15 and
54.55 seconds in the final.
Nine years before the Rio Games, Annsert
Whyte finished third in the Champs Class 1
400m for Clan Carty High. In Rio, he wasn’t
far away
from
2014 Commonwealth Games 100m winner,
taking gold for the second Olympics in a
row for running the anchor leg in the heats.
Asafa Powell, Blake, 100m and 200m semifinalist
Nickel Ashmeade and Bolt did the
business in the final in 37.27 seconds.
Cousins Simone Facey and Sashalee
Forbes, who ran at Champs 2015 for
Holmwood, set the ladies 4x100m team
on its way to the final, with Williams,
Thompson, Veronica Campbell-Brown
and Fraser-Pryce getting second place in
the final.
Anniesha McLaughlin and Jackson
shone in the ladies 4x400m. McLaughlin
is one of the most successful athletes in
Champs history. Fourteen years after
her World Junior 200 metre silver medal
performance, ‘Annie’ sparkled in her
Olympic debut. A strong 50.2 second leg
and solid contributions from Christine
Day and Chris-Ann Gordon eased
them into the final where she zoomed
her 400 metre stint in 49.8 seconds.
Jackson was even faster with a
49.5 second blast on the third leg.
McPherson, McLaughlin, Jackson and
experienced Novlene Williams-Mills
placed second overall.
FEATURES
L-R:Veronica Campbell-Brown,
Elaine Thompson, Christania
Williams, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
Omar
McLeod
joining
Winthrop Graham and Danny McFarlane
as Olympic medal winners for Jamaica in
the 400 metre hurdles. His times – 48.37/
heat, 48.32/semi and 48.07 for fifth in the
final – show that he peaked perfectly. All
three established new personal bests. Those
numbers and his determined rise are a huge
source of inspiration. Young Jaheel Hyde,
twice a winner in the Champs 400 hurdles
for Wolmer’s Boys and twice World Junior
champion, rode his Olympic debut to the
semi-final round but no further. Barring
calamities, great days lay ahead for Hyde.
Disappointingly, the 60 strong Jamaican
Olympic contingent produced only 3 other
finalists, O’Dayne Richards in the shot,
Kimberly Williams in the triple jump and
Damar Forbes in the long jump.
Happily, the Games ended with Jamaica
winning a medal in each of the 4 relays and
gold for Bolt in the 4x100m. Jevaughn
Minzie, a 2015 Champs 200 metre winner
for Bog Walk, gave the team a good start
in the heats with Kemar Bailey-Cole, the
The men’s 4x400m team matched that.
Peter Matthews, a Champs Class 1
800 metre gold medallist for Decarteret
College in 2009, Nathon Allen, Fitzroy
Dunkley and Javon Francis ran smoothly
to the silver. Their effort contained a trio
of milestones. Matthews and Dunkley,
a former Jamaica College combination
jumper, won the first ever Olympic medals
for their high schools and Allen matched
legendary baton genius Davian Clarke and
Francis with the fastest 4x400m leg ever
by a Jamaican with his whirlwind 43.5 third
leg in the heats. Francis, a three-time Class
1 400m champion for Calabar High School
at Champs, sped through his anchor leg in
43.8 seconds.
The total medal haul of 6 gold, 3 silvers and
2 bronzes paralleled the all-time high first
attained at the 2008 Olympics where Bolt
and Fraser-Pryce came to prominence.
With Bolt announcing that Rio was his last
Olympics and others like 5-time Olympian
Campbell-Brown, and Bolt’s colleagues like
4-timers Williams-Mills and Powell perhaps
likely to follow suit, it was hard to escape a
feeling that these familiar faces won’t return
when the Games open in Tokyo in 2020.
Luckily, Thompson, McLeod, Jackson,
Williams, Allen, Tracey, Hyde, Russell,
Minzie and Francis should take Jamaica
safely into a new era of gold.
O’Dayne
Richards
Janieve Russell
Anneisha
McLaughlin
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