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with Leighton Levy
Going into these IAAF World Championships, many Jamaicans were expecting a rich bounty of medals as our athletes took on the world over there in South Korea. What was to stop us? Nobody can. Didn't we win 11 medals at the Olympics in Beijing and returned a year later to dominate in Berlin? Surely, we were going to 'run things' in Daegu.
We expected a 1-2-3-4 finish in the men's 100 metres but that never happened. We expected two medals in the women's 100 metres. That never happened either. Kaliese Spencer and Melaine Walker were supposed to take gold and silver in the women's 400-metre hurdlers but somebody forgot to remind the USA's Lashinda Demus and Russia's Natalyah Antyukh.
As you read this, the women's 200 metres should have already been settled and hopefully Veronica Campbell Brown would have won Jamaica another medal which would take our tally to four with only a few prospects remaining for individual medals. As things stand, Jamaica might leave these championships with between seven and 10 medals, far from the 15 many people thought the athletes would be returning with.
As I head home daily from the radio coverage I have been a part of since the beginning of competition last Friday night, I see puzzled people wondering what went wrong, why was Jamaica's short reign as sprint kings of the world seemingly coming to a rapid end?
The answer is pretty simple. For many years we have accused Americans of being arrogant. We used to think they felt they expected to win every event they entered. We even got annoyed when they expressed disappointment when they did not win. Many times we accused them of taking performance-enhancing drugs. However, since 2008, we have been living it up as our athletes gained ascendancy in the short sprints and led by the indomitable Usain Bolt, our athletes seemed set to rule the world for years to come. In three short years, we became the very Americans we hated.
We now know what the Americans were feeling in '08 and '09. And we cringe whenever someone points an accusing finger at our athletes accusing them of using banned substances. If what has happened in Daegu so far doesn't prove to be a reality check for us all, then I don't know what will. What we need to understand is that staying at the top is even harder than getting there.
The good news is that we are not done. Many of our athletes are still the best in the world and there are many around to replace them when they are gone. Think about it. Before the start of the championships, we lost Steve Mullings, one of the fastest men in the world this year, to doping. We lost Asafa Powell, the fastest man in the world this year, to injury. We lost Usain Bolt before the 100-metre finals even got under way to a false start and we still won gold. Then when you look at the talent that abounds: the Melaine Walkers, Kaliese Spencers, Yohan Blakes, Jura Levys, and the rest, we will be competitive for years to come.
And even before these championships end, Jamaica could still end up with a few gold medals, so all is not lost. We need to appreciate, though, that the world is gunning to topple our athletes and, as we have seen so far, some will succeed.
The reality we face is that we have to come to accept that our athletes will experience moments like these; times when the luck does not run with us and we will trip and fall. But as long as our athletes continue to strive for success, we will get back to the top.
In the meantime, we need to stop taking so many things for granted and appreciate the accomplishments of our elite ambassadors. Moments like the ones we are suffering through now in Daegu will make the good times even sweeter.
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