Are Jamaica’s Male Sprinters Falling Behind?
The world’s fastest man – Usain Bolt hung up his spikes for good shortly after competing in men’s 100m final at the World Championships in 2017.
And since his departure from the sport of track and field, Jamaica’s male sprinters have struggled to keep pace with their counterparts from the United States and other countries.
The dip in dominance should not come as a major surprise as we live in a cyclical world and for a small Caribbean island have been punching well over our weight for quite some time.
Jamaica, for more than a decade has consistently dominated most male and female sprint events, at least the ones that truly matter.
There is an ample amount of optimism regarding the future of our female sprinters but many questions remain unanswered for the males. Remember when Usain Bolt pulled well ahead of the field, looked over his shoulder and beat his chest before setting a new men’s 100m world record (9.69) at the 2008 Olympics Beijing Games. The following year he then went on to set the current world record (9.59).
Remember when Jamaica pulled off the 1-2-3 finish in the men’s 200m final at the 2012 Olympic games? Usain Bolt ran a season’s best 19.32 seconds to lead a sweep of the medals for Jamaica.
Yohan Blake was second with a time of 19.44 seconds and out of nowhere Warren Weir shocked the world to finish third with a massive personal best of 19.84 seconds.
Blake seemed poised to take over the reign as the world’s most prominent male sprinter from Usain Bolt but was sadly hit by serious hamstring injuries in the years that followed and has been unable to replicate his impressive performances of previous years.
He finished fourth in the 100m final at the 2016 Summer Olympics and with Bolt out of the picture now, he may be relied upon more heavily as a medal contender. It might be in his best interest to try wearing the controversial Nike Vaporflys to get that extra edge.
The prospects for Jamaica’s male sprinters might seem quite bleak at the moment but as promising youngsters continue to develop there is little doubt that they will once again dominate on the global stage.
Photo by Tim Gouw from Pexels
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