Appreciate Asafa Powell

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Asafa Powell has come in for some harsh criticism from some folks lately for how he fared in the men's 100m finals in London. I can understand it because the feeling was that, his groin issues notwithstanding, we were led to believe that he was relatively sound medically.

It's probably fair to say that most Jamaicans were envisioning our men doing in the 100m finals in London what our women sprinters did in Beijing in 2008. Alas, it was not to be.

While Asafa has had a history of coming up short at athletic meets that matter the most, in terms of garnering individual gold medals, he helped the men's relay team set a world record in the 4x100m relays in 2008 in Beijing and garnered Olympic gold.

American Tyson Gay, Asafa's contemporary and the second fastest man ever, has no Olympic gold medals to his name. Perhaps the best thing that could have happened to Asafa is the rise to prominence and dominance of Usain Bolt in terms of the pressure that comes with performing on the big stage.

In the end, Asafa has contributed to Jamaica's prowess on the track and he's just one more in a line of Jamaican athletes, going back to Wint, Rhoden, Laing and McKenley, and now Bolt, Blake, Fraser-Pryce and VCB, who have done us proud.

TREVOR DAWES

tmdawes@charter.net

McDonough, Georgia