Proud and loud from the stands
Foster’s Fairplay has covered global events at all levels staged by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now World Athletics, since the World Junior Championships held in Sudbury, Canada, in 1988.
This service to Jamaican media, both electronic and written, includes Youth, Junior, and World championships, both indoor and outdoor. There is vivid recollection of the 1988 and 1990 editions of the World Juniors and the 1991 staging of the World Championships when one of the best, Bobby Fray, was the sole company on these trips.
A bond encompassing mostly track and field was formed and continues to this day. For the Stuttgart World Champs in 1993, Ed Barnes and Lance Whittaker joined the now well-established duo of microphone-toting newsseekers.
It has been a labour of love and a passion for the sport, which has afforded the country a considerable amount of glory and respect around the world. In those fondly remembered days, the only country support visible from the stands lay in whether one of the Jamaican press corps had taken it upon himself to wear a garment in the colours black, gold and green. The end of the period of live reporting came with the World Juniors staged in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 2008. It was deemed the time to make way for younger journalists to pick up the mantle and do their bit.
There has been a dramatic change in the level of support coming from the stands since it was decades ago.
There can be no doubt that a sterling role in that change has come from groups of fans who can now be seen on television giving vociferous support to Jamaica’s athletes as they strut their stuff on the track (and we must now include the field events) from Beijing to the most recent Doha experience.
It is a most welcome sight. From personal experience, when Foster’s Fairplay and company, courtesy of the world governing body, the IAAF, were afforded the best facilities available to the press, the support from home was nowhere close to what is seen now.
If mention of the facilities afforded to the journalistic team is allowed, there is stark memory of the media lounge being kept open as late as the Jamaican crew would wished, it to be. Then there were the luxury sedans always waiting to take the crew to their respective hotels.
MCNAUGHTON’S PERFORMANCE
As one reminisces on how it was in those days as far as support from Jamaicans in the stands was concerned, there is a name no one should forget.
Olive McNaughton, who, from the position of being an athlete competing for The Queen’s School in the year of their first and only Girls’ Champs victory, through a stint of journalism, has been the forerunner in stimulating the interest of the country’s track and field supporters to bring their support to these global events. She insists, and with conviction, that she is driven solely by her love and passion for the sport in which she was once a participant.
Long may that continue. The athletes appear to have found favour in the support as it now exists.