I’VE BEEN TO too many U.S. Olympic Trials to count without fingers. When the opportunity arose to cover the Jamaican Trials, maybe that’s why I quickly signed on. Having interviewed more than a few Jamaican athletes over the years, I thought I had a good handle on how big track & field is on the island. In truth, I had no idea.
First clue came at Customs, where I was confused by the signage and ended up in the wrong place. The agent asked me to step forward, and then pointed out that I had taken cuts ahead of a few hundred others. As I stammered an apology and offered to go to the back of the correct line, she demanded to know why I was in Jamaica. I told her I was writing about the track meet. That changed everything.
“Who do you like in the women’s 100?” she asked. “Shelly-Ann,” I answered immediately. I’ve always been a big SAFP fan.
Wrong answer, turns out. She glowered at me, and then indicated she was of the Shericka Jackson camp. But she gave me a respectful nod, stamped my passport, and told me to get out of there.
Riding to the hotel, the driver started talking track. He said, “The Trials will be good, everyone will be watching, but it’s nothing like Champs.” It was a refrain that I was to hear throughout the weekend. “Champs” refers to the Jamaican school championships, held annually in late March or early April. More than 2000 athletes ages 10–19 do battle in Kingston’s National Stadium. It is no exaggeration to say it is the furnace that forges the athletes who will contend for spots on the Jamaican Olympic team.
On my free day before the meet started, I did 10 hours of searching in the nearby Blue Mountains for the endemic birds of the island. My guide, one of the island’s foremost birders, started talking track, and not just casually. He knew the names, the PRs, the medals going back 50 years. He was equally schooled in the U.S. sprint scene, for what true fan doesn’t keep an eye on the opposition? When I expressed surprise that a birding guide would know so much about the sport, he said, “You’ve never met a Jamaican bird guide before.”
At the end of the day, a last piece of advice from him: “The meet you really need to see is Champs. That’s the big one.”
Day 1: 100 Heats Bedlam & Stadium Stew
Jamaica’s National Stadium is not…
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at Track & Field News…