… Sports to continue as one of the major players in Jamaica’s tourism

THE world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, who is one of Jamaica’s pride and joy and main contribution to world athletics, will be pacing into a very young retirement at the age of 30, on the June 10 after running his last race as a professional athlete on Jamaica’s soil.
Bolt will be competing at the JN- Racers Grand Prix Meet at the Jamaica National Stadium, at a meet organised to salute the ‘legend’ before he retires from the track. Bolt broke through to international fame by becoming World Junior Champion in the 200 metres at age 15 in 2002 at the very same stadium.
While some Jamaicans are expressing mixed emotions about Bolt’s retirement, the sporting arena is generally in a sober atmosphere, as faces will no longer be glued to televisions with fingers crossed, almost a guarantee that those fingers will be opened with celebratory screams and gesticulations after Bolt crosses the finish line first, with ease, at every Olympic race.
“I am having mixed emotions about it because it is like I’m sad he is retiring but I didn’t want him to compete again because I don’t want him to be beaten. I don’t want him to go into retirement with a defeat,” one Jamaican sports enthusiast said.

Dr. Warren Blake, president of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) has expressed some pessimism that Jamaica’s sports and athletics Industry might be affected as Bolt was the main attraction, but is confident that the myriad of young and upcoming athletes will close the gap of Bolt’s retirement comfortably.
“It might affect the sport industry a bit but we have quite a number of young talents coming up, we have quite a good crop of youngsters coming up who would be ready to replace Mr Bolt when he retires,” JAAA boss told Chronicle Sport in an invited comment.
Boasting on names such as Akeem Bloomfield and Nathan Allen, who are upcoming young athletes currently turning heads in Jamaica, Blake said that JAAA, in collaboration with the Government of Jamaica as well as other supporting entities, is continuing to hold hands in not only keeping the standard of athletics in the island, but sifting out loopholes in areas which need improvement.
Only last Saturday the organisation hosted its 14th International Jamaica Invitational Meet at the National Stadium which saw over 150 top track and field athletes, including over 50 Olympic medal athletes, compete in front of a capacity crowd of diehard Jamaican athletics supporters who did not only show love to their own, but also to the invited athletes as well.
Allison Felix, Andre De Grasse, Yohan Blake and Elaine Thompson were just some of the big names who competed at the Meet. Meets such as these, Blake said, are the real driving force of sports tourism in Jamaica, a section of the sector which is the main contributor to Jamaica’s economy.

DEALING WITH BOLT’S ABSENCE
With the absence of Bolt, the sports and athletic organisations have to work harder to boost sports tourism in Jamaica since sports fanatics around the world will be enthused to come to Jamaica to watch events of such magnitude live.
“It is increasingly important because sports has really been a drive of tourism because if you take some of the athletic events, quite a number of people in the diaspora make it the point of time to come home; so you come home, enjoy your holidays and take in a sport event or two,” JAAA president Blake said.

TRAIN THEM YOUNG
One of the factors to Jamaica’s plethora of successes in sports, more so athletics, and recognition on the worldwide sporting arena is the effort with resources placed in training young students from the preparatory stage in order to sift out their athletic potential. In this way, according to Blake, another Bolt is born every day.
“Every week there are about 4 or 5 meets spread across the Island at all levels and we have about 10 000 athletes on the track each week and you just have to come and look at these meets to see the passion in which these athletes compete to understand why Jamaica is great is sports the way it is,” he said. He also revealed that Government gives tremendous support to these events.
Jamaican Olympic sprinter and 100m relay gold medallist, 28-year-old Schillonie Calvert Powell, credited the school’s athletic programme for her emergence into the super athlete she is today.

Originally from Montego Bay, Powell moved to Manchester in the south eastern end of the Island to pursue her ambitions in athletics and revealed that the rigid and well supported coaching school programmes and competitions such as the Boys and Girls Championships are very competitive and impacting.
“The Boys and Girls Champs brought out my talent, in the 100m and 200m,” she said, bragging about her several medals while still in school at many international events such as the CARIFTA games.
She later transitioned from a junior to senior athlete where she made it on to the Olympics team and achieved relay gold medals.
Donald O’Riley Quarrie, Jamaica’s gold and silver 200m medallist in the 1976 Olympics, in comparing sports in Jamaica from his time to now told this publication that he has lived to see great improvement.
“It has improved a lot, I think the support and the expertise from coaches have improved. There is a standard to athletics in Jamaica primarily in the sprint and the Government has played a role in helping athletes in different ways but most of all the coaching programme is expanding, not just for sprinting, but for other events and eventually I think Jamaica will have an overall balanced super team that will send a message to the world that we are here not just in one or two events but most of the events,” Quarrie said.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
Minister of Culture Gender Entertainment and Sports, Olivia Grange, said the Government of Jamaica is proud to be the main sponsor of the International Invitational Meets and other sporting events and is extremely proud of sports in Jamaica for the country to be able to host sporting events of such magnitude.
“When we host international events, it is an opportunity for us to share in our experiences and share our talent and our hospitality,” she said.
Speaking on Bolt’s retirement, Minister Grange said that Bolt’s contribution is indeed iconic and Jamaica has given the world the fastest man on the planet.
“Sports is the centre of grand Jamaica, we have the 10 fastest men in the world and the ten fastest women, and in that 10, we have the fastest man so the world is in awe about Jamaica that has impacted others.”
She revealed that a statue of Usain Bolt will be unveiled in August. The statue was not only erected in honour of the legend athlete but for recognition of the country’s 55th Independence Anniversary where sports plays a major role in the celebration.
In recognition of what the country has achieved in sports over the last 55 years, the projects to be embarked on will have lasting impressions. In addition to Bolt’s statue, statues of Shelly-Ann Fraser and Asafa Powell will also be unveiled by 2018.
There will also be expansive renovations to the National Stadium which was built in 1964 and the expanding of the sports museum which is in proximity to the stadium.