Grange taking positives from World Champs
MINISTER OF Sport Olivia Grange has said that she is taking a “glass, half, full approach” to the outcome of the recently concluded IAAF World Championships for Jamaica.
Jamaica sent a 56-member team to the track and field meet staged in London, England last month, but won only four medals: one gold from 110metre hurdler Omar McLeod, and three bronze from Usain Bolt in the men’s 100m sprint, Ristananna Tracey in the women’s 400m hurdles and Jamaica in the women’s 4x100m relay.
However, Grange said that she is not treating what happened as a negative, instead looking for positives to take from the nation’s participation.
“I want to say to our athletes that in spite of the performance at the World Championships in London, where we did not bring home a lot of medals, there are a number of achievements that we should note. Jamaica is fully with our athletes, and we know that we will be on top in the near future,” she said.
“You have peaks and valleys in a situation, and I would say that our athletes, for the last 10 or 15 years, have carried Jamaica’s flag high. They have sustained a reputation where Jamaica has been placed centre stage as the sprint country of the world. And we will continue to maintain that reputation.”
ROLE MODELS
The minister called on the more experienced athletes who are coming towards the end of their careers to serve as role models for younger ones looking to establish themselves at future international track and field events.
“We are in a transition period right now, so a number of the established athletes
are now retiring,” Grange shared. “They are now moving on to becoming mentors of the younger ones. We have an extremely strong talent pool of athletes, who I know will excel. We have proven it, over the years, that more and more they get better as the years go by, so we expect great things. Yes, we are disappointed that we did not bring home all the medals that we are accustomed to, but we made some achievements. We made inroads. We were able to enter events
that we were not involved in before. So we are broadening, we are diversifying.”
Grange was referring to Jamaica’s participation in field events such as the shot put and discus throws, as well as the high, long, and triple jumps.
“We are showing that as a country, we have the determination, the talent, the ability and capacity to excel. So I’m extremely positive about the future, as the minister and as a Jamaican,” Grange said.