EXCELLENT JAMAICANS IN LYMPICS.
Excellent performance by Jamaican Usain Bolt in 100 metres in the current Olympics at Beijing. With the advantage of perfect start and with horse’s stamina, he easily cruised to the finishing line in the most memorable race in the history of Olympics. His long strides with quick succession gave an added advantage to his already victory confident self. His age 21 is an appropriate time to attain the required climax in such a great race. At this young age to rule the world in sprint is a marvelous achievement for this young man coming from also a young country. It is really an admirable feat for a small nation to produce such a big athlete.
I have seen on TV and movies yesteryear athletes especially sprinters but never I saw a sprinter cruising to the final line in 100 metres with such an ease and confidence as Bolt has done. Normally 100 metres race result looks like photo finish but defeating all his rivals with more than 5 metres lead is an excellent achievement. Such leads you don’t see in sprints but Bolt made it happen because of his superlative sprinting qualities. I saw the former great sprinters like Owens, Heines, Johnson, Powell and Lewis running to the victory with great finish but Bolt was unique in the sense that inspite of winning he still had reserve, I mean abundant reserve power and energy in his body to complete another 100 metres even without going to the podium to receive his gold medal for the already won race.
If Bolt maintains the same level of practice and body conditioning then I don’t think this 100 metres gold medal will escape from his strides in the next Olympics at London. One of the reasons for his great achievement was that he graduated into running 100 metres from 200 metres. By acclimatizing into running a bigger race in the beginning one can easily accumulate his energy and burst it into victory in the smaller race. This is what has happened to Bolt though lot of other factors especially his genes, methods of practice, diet and body conditioning had to be taken into consideration. 100 meters in any Olympics is considered as the most valuable and prized victory since this race creates fastest human being on this planet. I am happy that during my lifetime I saw such a fantastic runner and sprinter. And with the passing of time and with improved and more scientific methods of training, I am sure the now clocked timing 9.67 seconds of Bolt could be still lowered, possibly by Bolt himself because a few metres from finishing line he slowed down taking victory for granted. Otherwise, the clicked timing of 9.67 seconds would have been still lowered by him only and in this race only.
At the time of his starting the race my tense mood took me back to my younger days in Goa when I too was the champion 100 metres runner of Goa being individual athletics champion, 100 metres was my forte in addition to 200 and 400. At the age of 16 at All Goa Interschool Athletics Meet I ran 100 metres in 11 seconds without any assistance of qualified and professional coach and ruled Goa in this item. Originally my forte was 400 metres but gradually I shifted to 100 metres which I found more palatable. During those days the facilities were few and rewards were not commercial. In today’s world athletics victories give you not only name and fame but more than that lifelong commercial benefits. Jamaica though not a thickly populated country with one billion people like India yet within the available manpower resources by providing them best of facilities it created world champions. Jamaica though not an atomic nor an industrial giant yet in sporting field it produced more power than some of the atomic and industrial powers. I applaud this nation for nurturing the physical wealth of its youth. It is a good lesson for huge countries in size and population like India to learn some lessons from Jamaica. Jamaica may be just like any of the States in India in size and population but yet it overpowered India in every department of the Olympics. Countries like India lagging in this area must send it experts and trainees to Jamaica to learn the methods and system used by them and get benefits from them.
In women sprints too Jamaica conquered the world by producing not only one fastest woman in the world but three since all the first three places were captured by them. What a marvellou achievement. Out of 8 finalists, 4 were from Jamaica. It is unbelievable feat. Kudos to them.
What is the use of having such a big population in India if it cannot produce world class athletes and world beaters? By fully concetrating on Maharajas' game Cricket we will never be able to achieve anything in the globalised sports. Our training methods are faulty and not advanced. Our training methods and equipments do not create base for us to reach to the top of the world. And our officials overseeing this area are fully corrupt. Politics of regionalism, casteism, communalism and secterianism are taking precedence over everything. At Beijing Olympics India sent only 57 athlethes but to take care of this small number India sent 42 officials. What a mockery of exchequer money?
Indian sports will never develop to compete at world level and India will never be able to rule the world in sports though India is having all potentials in its manpower. Only our politicians should desist from interering in sports. Sport is totally a different field and once a politician integrates into this field, there is bound to be cracks in the sporting arena. Involvement in running Indian Cricket by Sharad Pawar from Bombay and Narvenkar from Goa both most corrupt politicians in India will surely degrade the greatness of Cricket in India. They have both corrupted the politics in their areas. Active politicians should not be allowed to participate in running the sports in India as it is happening in India today and because of them India is not going up. Politicians have their own ulterior motives to fulfill and everything comes secondary for them. If first time India failed to participate in Hockey in Olympics this time at Beijing then it was only because of too much politicalisation of Hockey on and off the field by the administrators due to their petty politcs. It is a shame for a country having one billion people and not being able to create a dent in Olympics. As an Indian I am ashamed but our Sports administrators and the political rulers of our country are not and they will never either because they are shameless.
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A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
