Games held in the Cayman Islands, April 3 to 5. Significant about Jamaica’s win though, was not that they hauled 72 medals (37 gold, 22 silver and 13 bronze), since frankly, the island’s performance is now a habit (26 years in a row), but that 22 of those medals were won for field events and 11 of the 22 were gold. This signals that the country needs to be broadening its horizon to seriously focus on the non-traditionals (field events and long distance races) that are treated like poor relatives while there’s a tendency to flock to the sprints that get all the glory.
Since the 2008 Olympics, Jamaicans tend to believe that the island has replaced the US as the track & field superpower. But isn’t this belief purely a romantic one? While Jamaica might have led the medal table for a while at the Olympics and World Championships based on the number of gold and silver during sprints, that lead vanished when the Games ended and the results of the field events were included.
To be the real superpower in the sport, Jamaica must now pay much more attention to the field events and distance running (look at the performances by Chad Wright, Candicea Bernard, Natoya Goulem, Kemoy Campbell and several others) at the senior level. With 22 medals for field events and others for long distance races, the juniors have set the example this year. It is, therefore, incumbent on coaches, organizers, sponsors and the government to encourage and attract athletes to keep the momentum going beyond high school days.
Jamaica’s minister of Youth, Culture and Sports was so right when she said, “The excellent performances of this junior team in the short and distance races, as well as in the field events, are good signals that Jamaica’s future in track and field is assured.”
Spanish-speaking Cuba, which does not compete in the CARIFTA Games, has been making bold statements on the field at the senior level — something Jamaica should have been doing. Maybe Jamaica could take a thing or two from Cuba’s program and really surpass the US as the track and field superpower.