Sport

JAAA boss lauds Francis, local programme

Howard Aris (left) and Donald Quarrie. Quarrie is one of six Jamaicans who have held outdoor individual world records. He was joint holder of the men's 200m and 100m world records during the 1970s. - anthony foster

kingston, cmc

THE JAMAICA AMATEUR Athletic Association (JAAA) president Howard Aris has branded Asafa Powell's world record run in Athens on Tuesday evening, a triumph for the local track & field programme and coaching.

Home-based Jamaican Powell sped to a new 100-metre world best 9.77 seconds to win at the Athens Super Grand event at the Olympic Stadium in Greece, topping American Tim Montgomery's previous world record of 9.78 seconds.

A huge statement

And Aris believes the effort makes a huge statement for track and field in the country since Powell's rise to the pinnacle was purely home facilitated, not the more common route of overseas development at US colleges.

"This means a lot for Jamaica's track and field programme in terms of local coaching," Aris told CMC Sport.

There are several previous cases of Jamaican athletes, prepared entirely through local facilities, registering very solid performances at the highest level, including teenager Una Morris getting fourth in the 200 metres at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, and Ray Stewart, as an 18-year-old, placing sixth in the men's 100 metres at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

But Aris believes the current infrastructure is now more deliberately designed to achieve world-class levels from home-based athletes.

"It started years ago as early as 1964 when locally based 16-year-old Una Morris coached by Noel White made the Olympic Finals and came fourth in Tokyo Japan, so we knew from then that we could do it," Aris said.

Francis' dedication

He praised Powell's coach Stephen Francis for his dedication and the expertise he has shown in developing world-class athletes from humble training facilities on the grass track at the University of Technology (UTech).

"Stephen Francis has worked so hard with Asafa Powell in accomplishing this and he deserves a lot of the credit other than Asafa himself, who performed," Aris said of Francis, who shelved an accounting career after achieving his MBA (Master of Business Administration) to focus on track and field coaching.

"Francis has made it his professional duty to learn, to experiment, to study, to do research and I think this is the culmination of all of that," Aris said.

Among Powell's world-class training partners in Francis's stable, are Pan American Games champion Brigitte Foster (100-metre hurdles), two-time World

Junior championship medallist Germaine Mason (high jump), and rising sprint star Sherone Simpson, whose solid backstretch run helped propel Jamaica to the 4X100-metre Olympic gold medal in Athens last year.

Before suffering an injury at last year's World Indoor Championship in Budapest, where he won bronze, Pan Am champion Mason was twice top of the IAAF's world "Performance List" in 2003, breaking new ground for an English-speaking Caribbean athlete in the high jump.

Powell's effort made pages in 97 newspapers worldwide on Wednesday and is the latest in a list of remarkable track and field accomplishments for the small Caribbean island that won its first individual Olympic gold medal at the 1948 London Games through Arthur Wint in the men's 400 metres.

Sixth Jamaican

Powell is the sixth Jamaican to hold an individual world record and the first since 1976 when Don Quarrie ran 9.9 for the last recognised hand-timed world record.

The outstanding McKenley, who was runner-up to Wint in the 400 at the London Olympics, was the first Jamaican to hold a world athletics record.

He was the first man to run under 46 seconds in the 400 metres and 440 yards and George Rhoden also set a world best time in the 400 metres.

Quarrie and Dennis Johnson, who ran 9.3 seconds for the 100 yards in 1961, held sprint records, and Marilyn Neufville posted a 400-metre world best in 1970 at the Commonwealth Games.

Aris said Powell's run can inspire more high-level performances from Jamaicans and the JAAA is encouraging gifted local athletes to remain in Jamaica to prepare for international competition.

There is an increase of events on the local competition calendar and athletes are given the chance to study and travel for overseas competition.

"There is a concerted effort being made to ensure that some of our top athletes, some of them, remain here in Jamaica and the IAAF has supported this by funding the High Performance Centre to which Usain Bolt (world junior 200-metre record holder) and Jermaine Gonzales (ex-world junior 400-metre medallist), in particular are attached.

"There is an effort now to keep as many of those athletes, who are willing to stay here, provided we can give them the educational base and the overseas competition while they are here in Jamaica," Aris said.