Tanya Lee | A good decade of sports for Jamaica

As promised last week, I’ll take a walk down memory lane to look at what was largely a legacy-building decade in sports. 

Jamaica had a phenomenal sporting run from 2010 to 2019, with the decade squarely belonging to Usain Bolt, who captured the hearts of fans everywhere he went and sealed his immortality with both his world record performances and two-peat of his 100m and 200m glory. Bolt amassed six individual Olympic gold medals over four years and became the undisputed king of the track.

The decade saw Jamaica’s men shining brightly on the world stage thanks to the Racers Track Club, which also produced the second-fastest man in history, Yohan Blake. Glen Mills’ camp made it as easy as 1,2,3 when Bolt, Blake, and Warren Weir stood on the podium sweeping the 200m medals in the London 2012 Olympic Games. Most memorable of all was how easy and how fun they made it. 

Jamaica’s women were equally impressive on the track.
The iconic Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce followed up her 2008 gold medal finish in the 100m by winning gold again in London 2012, making her only the third woman in history to successfully defend her title. She reigned supreme in the World Championships, copping three world titles over 100m in 2013, 2015, and again after childbirth in 2019, when she became the oldest World Champion over the distance. Fraser-Pryce now has the distinction of being the only sprinter to be crowned World champion four times over 100m. 

Elaine’s historic breakthrough

Beside Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce, the latter half of the decade also belonged to Elaine Thompson, who made quite a historic breakthrough in Rio 2016 when she became the first woman in Jamaica’s history to win both the 100m and 200m at the same Olympic Games. The feat hadn’t been achieved globally in 28 years, not since the USA’s Florence Griffith Joyner in Seoul 1988. Thompson’s career only spanned half of the decade and she’s already double Olympic Champion and joint national record holder.

In high school athletics, Jamaica produced a bevvy of outstanding talent from the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships. Calabar High dominated Champs with all of seven championships over the decade, making a clean sweep from 2012 to 2018 and staving off the likes of Kingston College time and again. 

Michael Dyke has created an enviable dynasty at Edwin Allen. The girls from Clarendon have had a superb run, literally, with seven titles in the Girls’ championships from 2012 to 2019.
The true blues from Old Hope Road extended their legacy in schoolboy football, amassing numerous titles to make Jamaica College (JC) the winningest school in schoolboy football history. 

Thanks to Miguel Coley, JC started on a winning note in 2010 and went on to win eight titles, and adding icing on the cake to close the decade as Champions under new coach Davian Ferguson. Quite impressive what the school has been able to achieve in football.

In cricket, the T20 has captured the world and has surpassed the test format in terms of spectator interest. Leading that charge has been the West Indies who historically made three World Cup finals over the last decade. They won in 2012 and 2016, the only team in the world to have repeated a victory over the decade. 
Chris Gayle has also made an indelible mark over the decade, earning the title “Mr T20” for smashing 175 runs from 66 balls and reaching the fastest century in any format of cricket from just 30 balls. Gayle also has the highest individual score in a T20 match, and the most sixes scored in a single innings in the IPL.

And for the most innovative sporting events over the decade, I must give kudos to FLOW for the Super Cup, which created fireworks to the schoolboy football season.

Also impressive was SportsMax as promoters of the WBA title fight ‘Rumble on Jamrock’ in 2012, which saw Nicholas ‘Axeman’ Walters win Jamaica’s first world boxing title on home soil. Kudos as well to Mark Kenny for TV gold in the Wray & Nephew Contender. Novel idea with lots of fans enjoying boxing again. A well needed shot in the arm of boxing to cap off a great decade in the sport. One Love.

Tanya Lee has over 10 years’ expertise as a Caribbean sports marketer and is also an athlete manager and publicist.