MY FAVOURITE ATHLETES FOR 2013

The year two thousand and thirteen in sports was a good one for Jamaica. The accomplishments were overshadowed somewhat by a number of the island’s biggest athletes failing drug tests but to me the good still outweighed the bad.

Jhanielle Fowler, for instance, left Jamaica in January this year to play for the Southern Steel in the ANZ league, easily the best netball league in the world featuring the best players from the top two countries in the world, Australia and New Zealand. For Fowler it was an opportunity to make a decent living from the sport she chose to pursue, and man did she jump at it. Not only did she play well, she dominated. She got the Steel closer to the playoffs than they had been in a while and set a new scoring record for the league, breaking the one set by her countrywoman Romelda Aitken.

At the end of the season, the Steel fell short but only just but the super tall Fowler had by then made her mark. She set new records for the highest number of goals scored in a single match (59 from 63 attempts). She was the lead scorer (666 goals). She was voted the league MVP and the Best Newcomer.

She goes back next season looking to set new standards, her own, in the best netball league in the world.

Alia Atkinson made us all proud when she finished fourth in the 100-metre breast stroke at the London Olympic Games in 2012. To many in this country where inexplicably swimming barely registers on the sporting barometer, it was a moment we will all cherish. This after all, is an island. We are surrounded by water. Anyway, following the Olympics, Alia ventured to the FINA long course championships in Barcelona but things didn’t go as planned. She bombed. Disappointed she went home and prepared for the World Cup where between August and November she exploded, winning 24 medals including a bunch of gold and set new personal and national marks along the way.

She continued that good form at the USA Winter Nationals in early December setting new marks for the 100m breaststroke. We look forward to her continued good run in 2014.

If Javon Francis did not do a single thing other than win Jamaica that silver medal at the IAAF World Athletic Championships in the mile relay, he still would have been among my favourite athletes for 2013. The way he dragged Jamaica from fifth to second in that relay still gives me goosebumps. The thing is, you kind of saw this kind of performance coming. After winning at Champs, which many expected him to do, Donkeyman went to the Penn Relays and sounded a very loud warning that he could very well be the next great thing.

Running the anchor leg of the mile relay for high school boys, Francis found himself five metres down to the super-talented Delano Williams. Williams is a 10.25/20.28 sprinter who just happens to be very good running the 400 metres as well. Undaunted, Francis timed his run to perfection to squeak past Williams on the line and hand Calabar the win in 3:09.22. Munro was two thousandths of a second back. Francis’ split, a incredible 44.8 seconds. It turned out to be good practice for his 44.05 split that handed Jamaica an extra medal in Moscow.

Usain Bolt is easily the greatest sprinter that ever lived. Even when he is not at his best he is better than all the rest. In what, by his standards, was an ordinary season Bolt started out sluggishly and in June lost to Justin Gatlin, who I have to admit is not as cocky as he used to be. Hampered by a hamstring injury that interrupted his preparation, Bolt didn’t really hit his stride until he arrived in Moscow and much like in London in 2012 when there was some amount of uncertainty over whether he would win it all, he showed up and removed all doubt. He took the 100m in a world-leading 9.77, the 200m in a world leading 19.66 and anchored the sprint relay to yet another gold medal. Since Bolt rose to prominence in 2008, the Jamaican team has not lost a sprint relay and set three world records along the way.

At the end of the day Bolt only lost once in the season and won the Diamond League 100-metre title. Winning the IAAF Male Athlete of the Year was a good way to end a great but unspectacular season for a man who has become famous for doing the spectacular.

Many will remember 2013 as the year Shelly Ann Frazer- Pryce became the new sprint queen of Jamaica.  What the Pocket Rocket did this past year was nothing short of amazing.

In her first year out school Frazer-Pryce raised the bar on every female sprinter in Jamaica and the Caribbean. She had the top three fastest times in the world over the 100 metres – 10.71, 10.72 and 10.77; the top two fastest times in the 200-metres – 22.13 and 22.17. She won three gold medals at the World Championships in Moscow, something no other Caribbean woman has ever done, and she won the Diamond League title in both short sprints. It was a truly dominant year. For her efforts she was named the IAAF Female Athlete of the Year.

We wait with bated breath to see how she  tops those performances in 2014. I have a feeling she has something special in store.

There were other athletes who impressed in 2013 and I will list them here.

Nicolas Walters for making a potentially difficult fight against Alberto Garza look easy.

Warren Weir for continuing his amazing linear progression in the 200 metres, lowering his personal best to 19.79 which makes him the third fastest Jamaican in history.

Kemar Bailey – Cole who is making steady strides to perhaps becoming the next ‘Bolt’. With seven sub-10 times in 2013 it makes you kind of anxious to see how fast he will go next year.

Romelda Aitken is an exciting player whose performances were only overshadowed by Fowler’s brilliance.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!