Dear Editor,
A Championships like none other. Thirty records broken - some with jaw-dropping performances. Three class two boys run under 47 seconds in 400 metres. First-year class three boy runs 21.87 seconds over 200 metres. Class four girl runs 11.75 seconds over 100 metres, etc, etc. What's up? What on earth is going on?
Doubt has been cast by some on the accuracy of the timing devices. Some have even entertained the thought that the absence of doping control at Champs may have led to the use of illegal performing practices, there being no danger of being caught. Well, perish the thought.
"Forensic" scrutiny reveals the fingerprints of the just-departed Neville "Teddy" McCook scattered all over this explosion of brilliance and over the years of smouldering that preceded
the explosion.
Much of what we are witnessing today has its genesis 29 years ago, when in 1984 McCook assumed the presidency of the JAAA. A major policy objective of his administration was to greatly increase the number of formally trained coaches so that "every school in Jamaica can have a qualified coach ". McCook understood that talent existed everywhere, even in schools we've never heard of.
Who better to spot and develop talent than a trained/qualified coach? The resulting proliferation of coaches has greatly multiplied and facilitated the contacts between coach and talent, producing the spectacle that we see today.
It boggles the mind to think of what could be, if track and field athletics in Jamaica wasn't hampered by meagre financial resources and very poor facilities. Nothing could be more basic than having access to a proper running track, but sadly, in all of Jamaica, there exists only five such.
We are indeed miracle workers.
Congratulations to the athletes, coaches and others involved.
Dr Patrick D Robinson
(Olympian, Tokyo 1964)
Kingston 6
pdougrobins@gmail.com
An amazing 'Champs' 2013
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A Championships like none other. Thirty records broken - some with jaw-dropping performances. Three class two boys run under 47 seconds in 400 metres. First-year class three boy runs 21.87 seconds over 200 metres. Class four girl runs 11.75 seconds over 100 metres, etc, etc. What's up? What on earth is going on?
Doubt has been cast by some on the accuracy of the timing devices. Some have even entertained the thought that the absence of doping control at Champs may have led to the use of illegal performing practices, there being no danger of being caught. Well, perish the thought.
"Forensic" scrutiny reveals the fingerprints of the just-departed Neville "Teddy" McCook scattered all over this explosion of brilliance and over the years of smouldering that preceded
the explosion.
Much of what we are witnessing today has its genesis 29 years ago, when in 1984 McCook assumed the presidency of the JAAA. A major policy objective of his administration was to greatly increase the number of formally trained coaches so that "every school in Jamaica can have a qualified coach ". McCook understood that talent existed everywhere, even in schools we've never heard of.
Who better to spot and develop talent than a trained/qualified coach? The resulting proliferation of coaches has greatly multiplied and facilitated the contacts between coach and talent, producing the spectacle that we see today.
It boggles the mind to think of what could be, if track and field athletics in Jamaica wasn't hampered by meagre financial resources and very poor facilities. Nothing could be more basic than having access to a proper running track, but sadly, in all of Jamaica, there exists only five such.
We are indeed miracle workers.
Congratulations to the athletes, coaches and others involved.
Dr Patrick D Robinson
(Olympian, Tokyo 1964)
Kingston 6
pdougrobins@gmail.com
An amazing 'Champs' 2013
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