London Log: Athlete accessibility

Monday morning started bright and early as Ricardo Makyn and I made a trip across town to scout the United States (US) track team at their training base.

It's not like we have been able to speak to our (Jamaican) athletes anyway, so instead of complaining, we decided to use the lemons to make some ice cold lemonade and make the most of a challenging situation.

We only learned about the open session that the US team was hosting (their third in a week) in the wee hours of Monday morning. That didn't stop us from getting approval from the US authorities and within hours we had all our security clearances and full access.

While I understand, to some extent, the position taken by the Jamaican officials towards athlete accessibility, perhaps the deeper reality is that the 'other guys' have a better appreciation and understanding of the role that media plays in sustaining their product and telling the stories that need to be told (and the ones that they don't necessarily want to be told).

And the atmosphere was quite conducive to such.

"Nice shoes, wait ... those are Jamaica's colours. Where you from?" asked American relay runner Trell Kimmons, before he walked over for his interview.

"Yow Wallace, gimme a link," was the somewhat informal reaching out to Wallace Spearmon, the former World Championships 200m silver medallist. He was not expecting a Jamaican reporter among the mix, but being a close friend of Usain Bolt, he's quite familiar with the lingo, and obliged, in his usual cool manner.

No problems getting to the US athletes.

However, there is a media day for the Jamaican camp today, so I'll let you know how it goes.

On another note, remind me never to cross a Tottenham fan while I'm here.

I didn't know that there were Tottenham fans outside of London, to begin with, much less borderline insane ones miles away in Birmingham.

Quite amusing

Now, I'm certainly no 'fan' of any English club, as my love is only reserved for Juventus, which, of course, just won the Italian league (La Liga) without losing a game. I do, however, hold a soft spot for Arsenal and found it quite amusing when an obvious fan of their rivals (Tottenham) seemed to have taken issue with a certain player.

I almost ran across the road after I saw the gentleman set a newspaper on fire before stomping madly at the ashes, all the while cursing Tottenham player Luka Modric to someone on his phone. It's amusing and scary at the same time to hear someone curse in the British accent.

Seems Modric is on his way out of the club and this fellow didn't quite agree with Mr Modric's decision.

By the way, I'm expecting to run into LA Lewis any day now. After all, he did say that he and the Queen are good friends so he shouldn't be too far away.