Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
Jamaica's Samantha Albert, on Before I Do It, waves after competing in the dressage test portion of the Individual Eventing competition in Hong Kong, on Saturday. - AP
BEIJING, China
Track and field manager Ludlow Watts has no doubt the just concluded 10-day camp in Tianjin achieved much of what it set out to do.
"The camp was aimed at providing the team with undisturbed practice," Watts said yesterday from the Village, hours after the track and field team had arrived and settled in the Games Village in Beijing.
"In the camp you determine when you want to train and how many hours you want to spend. You are unrestricted in terms of what you want to do," the track and field manager added.
He said the training facilities in the Games Village are open to many countries and there will be a limit to what they can do leading into Friday's start of track and field.
"In the Village there are two training facilities and you are given a time to train and told when to leave because so many nations are using the facility. The camp thus proved very beneficial as we had the facility to ourselves and we could train anytime we wished, he said."
Swim star
Alia Atkinson will be the first of the three swimmers here to see action. She swims tomorrow in the heats of the women's 200m breaststroke. Jevon Atkinson and Natasha Moodie will compete on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
Samantha Albert and her 14-year-old mare, BEFORE I DO IT, had a very good second stage of eventing yesterday.
Albert, ranked 52 overall at the end of the dressage on Saturday, improved 10 places to 42 of the 60 riders remaining in the competition going into today's third and final stage - show jumping.
She will not be winning any medals, but Albert, and her horse, won a lot of applause for a supreme effort over the 4,560 metres course and 29 obstacles, some of which had to be cleared twice.
"It was a very, very good ride. We had a few time faults but considering what the going was like, I was very pleased with her result. I am both thrilled and relieved that we coped with all the obstacles and came home safe and sound.," the British-based Jamaican said.
The pair had no jumping penalties, but incurred 41.60 time penalties. Overall Albert has total penalty points of 97.90. Germans Hinrich Remeike (50.20 penalty points) and Ingrid Klimke (50.70) are in the top two spots. Megan Jones of Australia is in third spot on 51.00. The top riders are those with the lowest number of penalty points. In cross-country the course must be completed in a prescribed length of time and penalties are given for exceeding the time limit, refusals of the horse to jump at an obstacle and falls of horse or rider.
Albert who felt she was a bit 'hard-marked' in the dressage on Saturday is looking forward to the show jumping.
"I am very confident she will jump well. She looked good tonight (after the gruelling cross-country)," Albert said. Each horse must survive a veterinarian inspection before going into the final round.
Jamaican Olympians Maurice Smith (left) and Usain Bolt share a light moment as they arrive at the Athletes Village at the Beijing Olympics yesterday. - Charles Pitt
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