The Jamaican Empire has Fallen...in London

Jamaica's Hold on world track and field may have come to an end in the capital of our former captures, coincidence or pure irony?

Now that the London World Championships have come to a close with Jamaica only mustering four medals and only which of which being Gold. It now solemnly signifies the end of what was Jamaica dominating Global Track And Field and with that its now time for us to look holistically at our track and field program and how if at all we can regain our position as the best in Track and Field.

Firstly, the Heroic send off that was not to be, last year Usain Bolt heralded the end of his career when he won an unprecedented Triple Triple in Olympic Gold Medals for the men's 100m, 200m and 4X100m titles. At which point he could have ended his career on at the highest of Highs. But being defending World Champion for the men's 100m, he had an open space to attend the world championships this year. This year Bolt has not been the form that he has always been in, and this was very evident in the times he ran early in the season. To add tragedy to it, his training was hampered by the loss of his friend which he took three weeks off from training in the heights of the season. When he ran at the Grand Prix in Kingston, he ran one the slowest times he has ever run to win a 100m race indicative that he was just not in the form he used to be. And finally,  his performance that the most recent games, he placed 3rd in the men's 100m final behind his long time rival Justin Gatlin who himself has remained in form. The most shocking of events was when he pulled up in the men's 4X100m relay final for his career to come to a crashing halt. Despite all his achievements Jamaica is still proud of him and what he has done.

But now what happens to Track and Field Jamaica, given that Jamaica just didn't perform this year. Even though Omar Mcleod won Gold in his event he was not int he record form which he was in earlier this year, Elaine Thompson was unfortunately ill during the final of the Women's 100m, but with an injury earlier this year we'll have to wait and see. The Success story of Athletes, however, are Ristananna Tracy who ran a personal best to get a well-deserved bronze medal in the W 400m Hurdles as well as Danniel Thomas-Dodd and Frederic Dacres who both place 4th in their respective field finals.    

My point is if we want to get back to the Top of Track and Field our focus can no longer be on getting the gold medal through top athletes but developing all of our athletes to perform in unconventional areas. Maybe in time to come, we may get 12 Olympic/ World Championship medals, but these medals may come in the field, middle and long distance, hurdles, etc. We need going forward to build an environment where we support our athletes as they represent our country. Not curse when they don't win Gold like we're used to.

Sporting development takes time, and the values have to be instilled from youth stages, Our coaches need to be holistic trainers, our development programs should focus on athlete health to reduce injury and increase lifetime survivability in their various sports.

We may eventually see another Bolt one day