On to London - Jamaica closes Daegu World Champs in style

With the IAAF World Championships in Athletics now history, Jamaica's track and field luminaries will be looking to continue the nation's rich vein of international performances at next year's Olympic Games in London, England.

The island's sprinters yesterday closed out the World Champs in Daegu, South Korea, in explosive fashion, with the men's 4x100m team clocking 37.04s to win gold and better their own world record. Minutes earlier, the women set the tone with a shiny new national record, earning themselves a silver medal.

The results left Jamaica in fourth position in the final medal table, after the team recovered from a lacklustre start to the Championships, to close this chapter with nine medals - four gold, four silver, one bronze.

Two hundred-metre champion and double world record holder, Usain Bolt, already has his eyes set on London and is looking to repeat the successes of the last Olympic Games where he won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay, setting world records on each occasion.

"For me, I'm looking forward to the Olympics, definitely, and I will be going to my other meets hoping to end injury free so that I could start preparing for the Olympics in the best possible condition," said Bolt, who got going a bit late this year due to injuries.

Dethroned 100m hurdles champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton has endured a lot this season, with injuries taking a big toll on her preparation coming into Daegu. The 100m hurdler is, however, hoping to turn the tide a year from now when she will be hoping to secure her first medal at the Olympic level.

"I have won three medals at the World Championships and I am grateful, but I need that Olympic gold medal. I don't have a medal at the Olympic Games and I will be going for that next year," said Foster-Hylton, who only started serious training for the World Championships a couple of weeks ago.

Things did not go exactly to plan for Kerron Stewart, who, like Foster-Hylton, has had to deal with a string of injury issues this season. The sprinter, however, won a silver (100m) and bronze (200m) at the last Olympic Games, and will be hunting similar individual success come next year.

"I'm confident for next year and I think the only setback is injury, and I will do my very best to overcome that. Other than that, I always expect to go out there and compete. That's all I do; that's all know," Stewart said.

Meanwhile, Bolt, who led Jamaica to only its fourth 4x100m medal and second gold medal in the event, was pleased to be ending the Championships on such a positive note given his inauspicious start having false-started in the 100m final.

"It's a wonderful feeling to end the Championships on a world- record note. The guys gave it their all, and I give thanks to them. I'm very proud of the team," Bolt said. "I wouldn't say it was a great one, but I'm looking forward to the Olympics. I'll be training even harder next season because I didn't start this year on a positive note, so hopefully, it'll be better next year."

The women have done much better in the event over the years and were winning their 11th medal in the event at these Championships.

Jamaica's other competitor yesterday, Kenia Sinclair, finished seventh in the 800m final with a time of 1:58.66.

Sinclair went out strongly, but could not find the legs to close out the race, and faded badly over the last 100m.

andre.lowe@gleanerjm.com