Atkinson had earlier swum a games record 2:33.64 seconds to advance to the final. Brad Hamilton finished eighth of eight competitors in the boys 100m freestyle in a time of 51.87 seconds, as Albert Subirats of Venezuela clocked 49.70 for victory.

Hamilton had earlier advanced to the final with a time of 52.24 from heat four, while his team-mate Brian Forte failed to make the final after clocking 55.51 seconds for second in heat two. Victoria Ho was also eighth in the first 400m freestyle, clocking 4:34.04 in the final won by Venezuela’s Adreina Pinto, who clocked a games record 4:11.36. Ho advanced in third place from heat two in a time of 4:33.73.

Meanwhile, Jason Vincent-Adams and Ramon Walton both failed to make the final of the boys 100m backstroke. Vincent-Adams was fourth in heat one (59.78), while Walton clocked 1:01.33 four fifth in heat two.

Dominic Walter was third in the consolation final for the boys 1,500m freestyle in a time of 17:11.60 with winner Juan Prem Biere of Guatemala timing 16:44.64. Jamaicans will once again be in action in the swimming pool today. Victoria Ho lines up in the girls 100m freestyle event, while Jason Vincent-Adams and Brad Hamilton are down for action in the boys 50m breaststroke.

Alia Atkinson and Kendese Nangle will both compete in heat three of the girls 50m butterfly. Nangle is also down for action in the 50m backstroke, while Atkinson returns later for the 200m Individual Medley. The Jamaicans also qualified for the final of the boys 4x200m freestyle event.

Meanwhile, yesterday, Jamaica beat Guatemala in the women’s basketball competition 63-56 after quarterly scores of 17-11, 22-15, 15-13, and 9-17 and will now face the Dominican Republic in their second group match today. In badminton action, the quartet of Charles Pyne, Gareth Henry, Garron Palmer and Kashif Bernard stopped Mexico 4-1 in the men’s team event, while Alya Lewis, Krystal Karjohn and Christine Leyow edged Barbados 3-2 in the women’s equivalent.

The Jamaican girls were beaten 4-1 by the Dominican Republic (DR) in their other team encounter, while the men’s team defeated DR 3-2 in their second group match.

Adopted from the Jamaica Observer

“It wasn’t the best race I’ve ever had in my life,” said Bolt, who returned to competition in Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 9 following an Achilles injury. “My first part was awful. At the 50 metres, I thought he (Asafa) had me. I had to work a little bit harder to get back in the race.”

Bolt, the world-record holder in the 100m and 200m, pulled away in the final metres to stay unbeaten in the 100m for 14 consecutive finals.

“It’s all about determination,” he said. “I want to be the best, to stay on top. When you run against the best, it always pushes you to do your best all the time. I’m happy, I escaped injuries and I won the race.”

Bolt and Powell, who share the fastest time this year at 9.82 seconds, met for the first time this season. Powell is the last man to have beaten Bolt in the 100m, two years ago in Stockholm.

American David Oliver posted the fastest time this year in the 110-meter hurdles, clocking 12.89 seconds, just 0.02 short of Dayron Robles’ world record.

Extended Record

American Jeremy Wariner extended his unbeaten record in the Diamond League this season to four races, setting a season best of 44.49 seconds in the 400 metres. The 2004 Olympic champion, who underwent knee surgery last September, easily won ahead of Jermaine Gonzales of Jamaica, who finished in 44.63 to beat his personal best. Belgium Jonathan Borlee was third with 44.77.

After taking the US 100 metres title and the 400 in Eugene, American Allyson Felix won the 200 metres in 22.14 ahead of fellow American Shalonda Solomon, who finished in 22.55. “It’s a decent time, but I wanted to go a little bit faster,” Felix said. “But without Veronica Campbell-Brown in the race, it’s always hard to push myself.”

“I can test the field and run on the track, so I can determine what I should work on for next year,” Bolt said. It will be Bolt’s first 100 of the year after he skipped the opening Diamond League meet in Doha, Qatar, last week. He is due to run in Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Shanghai.

Veronica Campbell Brown, Carmelita Jeter, Lolo Jones and Dayron Robles are among other athletes who will test the conditions of the Daegu track ahead of next year’s worlds. Bolt said he will run “as hard as always,” adding, “That’s always my intention, to please the fans. Hopefully, it will be very fast time.”

Bolt lowered his world record in the 100 last year to 9.58 seconds at the worlds in Berlin.

Two-time Olympic champion Campbell-Brown will be competing in the women’s 100. She arrived a week ahead of the meet to recover from jet lag.

Robles and Ryan Brathwaite will run the men’s 110-metre hurdles, with Americans Jones and Dawn Harper in the women’s 100 hurdles.

Eight boys schools scored points this year compared to seven last year while four girls schools, one less than last year, scored points. Additionally western schools combined for 188 points in the girls’ section and 216 in the boys compared to 127 and 150 last year.

Western Jamaica girl teams scoring points this year were:

* Herbert Morrison-80;

* STETHS-78;

* William Knibb Memorial-22 and

* Frome Technical-6 .

Western Jamaica Boy teams which scored were:

* Munro-100.50;

* STETHS-34;

* Herbert Morrison-27.50;

* Petersfield-25;

* William Knibb Memorial-10;

* Balaclava and Green Island-7 and

* Cornwall College -5.
Herbert Morrison Technical High’s Antonique Campbell won four medals while her teammate Seidatha Palmer and St Elizabeth Technical’s Rochelle Farquharson both won three medals each to be the outstanding individual athletes.

Campbell, who won gold in the girls Class 1 100m and 200m, got the silver in her favoured 400m event while picking up a fourth medal, a silver in the 4x100m relay.

Farquharson retained her triple jump Open title on the first day but was beaten for the second straight year in the long jump Class 2 this time by a brilliant 6.43m record by Manchester High’s Chanice Porter-and took third in the seven event Heptathlon after being second last year.

After promising much over the past two years, Palmer had a breakout ‘Champs with two silver medals in the 100m and 200m before a stunning anchor leg on the Class 2 4x100m team, taking the baton in third place to land gold.

Meanwhile after a recalculation of the points tally folowing a mistake in the girls’ heptathlon Open, STETHS’ Farquharson should be declared the Class 2 champion with 24 points if points from the Open events are included.

Campbell scored 25 points in Class 1 but finished behind Edwin Allen’s Ann-Marie Duffus and Manchester High’s Natoya Goule, both of whoM won Open events and were tied on 27 points.

In addition to Campbell and Farquharson, other girls winning gold medals were STETHS’ Peter-gay Reid in the Class 2 high jump, and Opal James in the Class 3 long jump while on the boys side Petersfield’s Oshane Turner in the Class 2 1500m and Munro College’s Jodi-Rae Blackwood in the 400m hurdles Open were also winners.

Teams taking part:

Boys — Balaclava, Cambridge, Cedric Titus, Cornwall College, Frome Technical, Grange Hill, Green Island, Green Pond, Herbert Morrison, Holland High, Hopewell High, Irwin High, Knockalva Technical, Lacovia High, Maude McLeod, Munro College, Muschett High, Petersfield, Rhodes Hall, Rusea’s, Spot Valley, STETHS, William Knibb

Girls

Balaclava, Cambridge, Cedric Titus, Frome, Hampton High, Herbert Morrison, Holland High, Hopewell High, Irwin, Knockalva Technical, Maldon, Mannings School, Muschett, Petersfield, Rhodes Hall, Rusea’s, Spot Valley, STETHS, St James High, William Knibb.

At last week’s Milo County of Cornwall Athletics Association’s (COCAA) Western Champs, Westmoreland schools finished in the top four of both boys’ and girls’ sections, and made their presence felt throughout the three-day competition. Petersfield was fourth in the boys’ section with 199 points behind winners Munro College, Herbert Morrison and St Elizabeth Technical, while Godfrey Stewart and Frome Technical also scored well. Frome was third in the girls’ section on 172 points while Godfrey Stewart and Maude McLeod High also featured prominently.

Up to a few years ago when Mannings School abruptly pulled the plug on their track and field programme, the parish was always well represented.

From three Girls Champs titles in the 1960s, dozens of national representatives and Western Champs titles through the preceding decades, Mannings was represented by one athlete at Western Champs this year, Omesha Locke, who won the Class 3 discus.

The parish is never short of talent and the top two female sprinters at the primary school level in 2008 — Diana Johnson and Antonika Drummond — represented Holmwood Technical last year. There is a revival in the sport in the parish, however, and schools such as Frome Technical, Godfrey Stewart High and Petersfield, known more for football, are beginning to impose themselves on the track and field scene.

At last year’s Grace Kennedy Champs, Frome Technical was voted the most improved school after scoring five points in the boys’ section and 11 in the girls’.

Later in the year, an unknown, Waynee Hyman of Petersfield, stunned the track faithful at the National Junior Trials at GC Foster by winning the Under-17 200m and making the team to the IAAF World Youth Championships in Italy.

Andre Moodie of Frome was also at the Trials and made the team to the Pan-Am Juniors in Trinidad.

Both Hyman and Moodie were creating history for their respective schools.

The success does not translate into overall acceptance, however, as Westmoreland is still a football-crazy parish and occupies the first three rungs on any sports ladder, relegating everything else to second-class status.

Roderick Myles who guides the Frome programme is not employed to the school and only works with the track team in the afternoons and on weekends.

“At first it was challenging but after the first year we had some success,” said Myles who has been at the school for four years. He is mindful, however, that it is not the first time that a track and field programme has been tried there.

Rochelle Clayton was their first success story, and despite not being able to take part at Champs one year due to late entry, he says the success, especially at Western Champs, is tangible.

Next month at Champs he says he is expecting points from the versatile Daneel Thomas in the javelin and Class 2 discus as well as Stephanie Barrett in the Class 3 800m/1500m after she placed fourth in both events last year.

Barrett, he said, has struggled this year with a knee injury but thanks to the care from physiotherapist Karey Lewis, should be in top condition for Champs.

The success at Petersfield is not by chance, says coach Machell Woolery who has built the programme “from scratch” by first selling the concept to the academic staff.

Once they bought into it, he said, the next step was looking at what the successful programmes in Kingston did. Despite not even having a throwing circle and having to teach on grass, he scored big with Cornelius McIntosh who will leave the island later this year to take up a track scholarship.

Since then, Petersfield has produced a stable of decent throwers with Steven Crooks, who won the Class 3 discus/shot put double last week with a new record 12.77m in the latter, set to be the best among them.

Oshane Turner, who won three events on Saturday, the Class 2 800m and 1500m as well as the Open 5,000m, won the award for the Overall Boys’ Champion. Woolery says he had to sacrifice the girls’ programme early on to concentrate on the boys but says the girls’ team is now coming along nicely. His next step is to start scouting the primary schools for new talent, but while he is enjoying full cooperation from principal Eugenie Spence, he says she is leaving soon and he is not sure who will replace her.

True to their spirit, the Reggae Boyz will be looking to counter such belief when they tackle football giants Argentina in a real David vs Goliath friendly international showdown for the Copa Loteria de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Lottery Trophy).

“First of all, I believe it’s a tremendous opportunity to play Argentina,” said Jamaica’s captain, Shavar Thomas. “This doesn’t come everyday. No matter who they bring they will be good and we’re very prepared and ready for the challenge.

“We see this as man against man as opposed to the world football power Argentina vs Jamaica,” Thomas added.

The clash takes place at the José Marilla Minella Stadium in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, at 10:15 p.m. (8:15 p.m. Jamaica time).

Caribbean champions

Jamaica won their last game 1-0 against Canada at the National Stadium two Sundays ago, while Argentina beat Costa Rica 3-2 here in their last game, last month.

Argentina, the two-time champions and almost a permanent fixture at the World Cup Finals, are ranked eighth in the world. Jamaica, the Caribbean champions, have made it to the World Cup Finals once – 1998 in France.

In France, they contested their last international meeting at senior level and the South Americans emerged with a huge win, 5-0 on a hat-trick from big forward Gabriel Batistuta and a double from midfielder Ariel Ortega.

Then, both teams had pretty much their best talent. Today, it is far from the same as both seek pointers for selections geared towards their World Cup programme, which is at contrasting junctures.

Having missed out on 2010 qualifying for South Africa on goal difference to Mexico at CONCACAF’s semi-final group phase, Jamaica, with head coach Theodore Whitmore and his assistant Bradley Stewart, currently seek potential for a pool to lead the charge for a place in the 2014 championship.

The Jamaicans arrived on Sunday after a 26-hour travel schedule. They did light training the same evening, and went through other practice sessions Monday and Tuesday nights.

Whitmore was not too worried about the lingering effects of their travels, but appeared more concerned with their transitional play when moving into attack.

Training session

“This evening we saw a more game-like situation training session and it has gone down well,” Whitmore noted after training on Monday night. “We wanted to keep possession of the football and we wanted to close down our opponents more quickly and try to be more compact.”

He added: “Not all the areas we were satisfied with … I guess in midfield,” he said, noting his concerns. “I guess because we didn’t have a lot of players in midfield, we got the football and just broke away, I don’t want that; and the defensive area, I don’t think we came up quick enough in transition.”

With a high-calibre team that was expected to formalise its place easily, Argentina reacted with last-gasp efforts to secure a spot at the 11th hour for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Head coach Diego Maradona has been quite haphazard in his selections and his picks for this match have swelled the number of players he has drafted in just over a year to over 100.

They had their final training session yesterday morning in Buenos Aires and were due to fly into Mar del Plata near 9 p.m. (7 p.m. Jamaica time) last night.

Only six among Maradona’s squad have never been in the national set-up previously.

Veteran striker Martin Palermo, who did himself and the much-criticised Maradona a huge favour by scoring a winner in injury time that practically sealed their spot at the World Cup Finals in their second-to-last qualifier, is one of their biggest names for this Jamaica match-up.

Though six of their squad includes players born in Mar del Plata – a clear marketing ploy – the proliferation of local-based players summoned with World Cup spots beckoning guarantees a high-energy contest.

The situation is no different for Jamaica, with many of this squad’s members young and on the fringe of a team that already has several established players, who are also near 23 years and playing professionally in Europe and the United States.

Most of those attached in Europe are unavailable, thus opening the door for a starting place to several local-based stars.

Chief among them are the Tivoli Gardens goalscoring duo of Navion Boyd and Keammar Daley, who have shown potential to create the star attraction necessary to lift the programme.

“It’s not everyday you get to play a team like Argentina,” said Boyd. “My expectation is to go out there and do my best, hopefully score, but to try and win the game.”

Premier League scoring ace Devon Hodges, who continues to produce the goods despite his team’s lowly status in the local competition, is sure to figure, while the diminutive and pacy Dane Richards, who is definitely starting material, is very likely to provide offensive spark off the bench.

They will work in tandem with the dangerous and established MLS sharp-shooter, Omar Cummings, a cunning, hard-working striker who beats the ball hard with either foot; as well as belatedly recalled Ryan Johnson, a 25-year-old MLS striker who has been getting goals and looking to play his way into the reckoning following four years of non-selection. Last season, he was voted Most Valuable Player at San José Earthquakes after netting a season-high 11 goals for the MLS outfit.

Central midfield is expected to be patrolled by Richard ‘Shortman’ Edwards, who is not so established in the team but has shown in top level internationals previously that he possesses a level head and can cope; while the bustling Rodolph Austin is a scoring threat from range and ball-winner who really drives the team, but needs to discharge his energy proportionately for a finely-tuned game.

Quality

That quality, from the team all-round, will be necessary to counteract the skilful, fast-playing style of the Argentinians, who generally attack in numbers.

While the Jamaica team in general is fortified in defence by captain Shavar Thomas, Dicoy Williams, Adrian Reid and the outstanding keeper Dwayne Miller, and will be tested by pace and numbers, the door will certainly be opened for counter-attacking, which could be used by the Boyz as a real weapon.

Likely Jamaica starting XI: Dwayne Miller, Shavar Thomas, Dicoy Williams, Jermaine Taylor, Richard Edwards, Rodolph Austin, Navion Boyd, Keammar Daley, Omar Cummings, Lovel Palmer, Ryan Johnson.

“Usain will probably go down as the ultimate sprinter ’cause his 100m is going to get faster, his 200m is going to get faster and if he decides to run the 400, he will shatter that record too,” said Greene, who is in Jamaica as a special guest for tomorrow’s sixth staging of the Douglas Forrest Invitational Meet at the National Stadium.

Bolt established new world records of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds in both events while becoming the first Jamaican to win the double at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Berlin last year.

Greene believes Bolt will lower those marks in years to come, even if he doesn’t improve his sprinting technique.

“We haven’t seen his true capabilities… He still has a boy’s body (and) I believe once his body starts changing and starts to be a man’s body, about 26, 27, if he decides he’s going to keep on running, who knows what he’s going to do then,” Greene said.

The American argued that once Bolt starts running five or six competitive 200m races per season, his speed endurance will improve, which will in turn help him to run even faster in the 100m.

Meanwhile, the current 400 metres world record is 43.18 seconds set by American Michael Johnson in 1999, and Greene thinks it’s only a matter of time before the 23-year-old Bolt breaks that mark as well.

“He will shatter that record also, but that’s only if he wants to do it,” the five-time (three 100m, one 200m and one 60m) World Champion reasoned.

“We’ve seen him jog 19 seconds, so just say in the 400 metres he comes through the first 200 at 20-flat… he just jogged so he’s really not that tired, he’s not that fatigued, so just put a little bit on it, you’re going to tell me he can’t come back in 21-flat or 22 seconds, what will that time be? It’s going to be crazy!” Greene posited.

Just last month, Johnson — a two-time Olympics 400m champion — also backed Bolt to become the first athlete to simultaneously hold world records over 100, 200 and 400 metres.

“I think we can say that records will be broken, but I would venture to say that nobody is ever going to hold the world records at 100, 200 and 400 again if he (Bolt) does it. I don’t think there will ever be a person that could do that,” Johnson said during a visit to Jamaica to shoot a documentary of the Jamaican sprinter.

In the meantime Greene, who posted 52 sub-10 clockings in the 100m during his glittering career, has criticised the new false-start rule introduced by the IAAF, saying it will result in slower times.

“When people hear of a Jamaican skier, they expect dreads hanging out the back of my helmet and a smoke stream following me down the mountain,” Kerr said. This is no joke, though.

Less than two years since Bolt brought world records and world renown to the island nation with his sprinting, Jamaica’s latest winter star is hoping to put his country on the map in the new Olympic sport of skicross. “It’s more than just a country,” Kerr said. “It’s in my blood, in my DNA.”

In this photo taken on December 14, 2009, skier Errol Kerr, who will represent Jamaica in the Vancouver Olympics,

Born to an American mother and a Jamaican father, Kerr grew up a dual citizen between Lake Tahoe in California, where he moved with his mother as a child, and Westmoreland, Jamaica’s westernmost parish.

He has felt most at home on the slopes since he was a kid watching a ski race on TV.

He rolls with the jokes, most of which inevitably draw comparisons to the Jamaica bobsled team, a fan favourite in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary that inspired the comedy movie “Cool Runnings”.

In fact, one of Kerr’s sponsors is a beverage company called Cool Runnings.

“There’s no running away from it,” Kerr said of the bobsled team. “I embrace it. They laid the groundwork.”

But while the bobsled team was initially a novelty, Kerr enters the Vancouver Olympics — his first — as a serious contender.

The hybrid style of skicross draws on Kerr’s extensive background in Alpine skiing. It also makes good use of the rougher edge he picked up in motocross and BMX, and the 200-plus pounds (90-plus kilogrammes) he has to throw around, said American Jonny Moseley, an Olympic gold medallist who will be a TV commentator for the freestyle events — moguls, aerials and skicross — in Vancouver.

“Errol’s got a good shot at the Olympics,” Moseley said. “He’s cut out for the sport.”

Kerr’s background helps in an event that is rowdier than Alpine ski racing, where one athlete races against the clock. In skicross, four competitors speed down a steep, winding course together, taking on banked turns, berms and each other along the way. The first one across the finish line wins.

“It’s very pure, very simple that way,” said Moseley. “But there’s a lot of contact, a lot of strategy and jockeying.”

To viewers, it is dynamic, and anyone who has raced friends down a mountain can relate to the scramble. Snowboardcross drew big crowds and good ratings when it made its Olympic debut at the 2006 Turin Games. Adding skicross will continue to draw younger athletes and fans, said Joseph Fitzgerald, the International Ski Federation’s freestyle race director.

“You watch it on TV and it pops, there’s so much activity,” said Fitzgerald, speaking from San Candido, Italy, site of the skicross World Cup.

Kerr is taking nothing for granted. He spends his days training at Alpine Meadows, a resort at Lake Tahoe that has sponsored him, and in his mother’s front yard, where he built a starting gate with the same specifications as the one in Vancouver and rigged up his own snowmaking machine.

His mother, Catherine Kerr, once a ski racer herself, stands behind the practice gate, counting down: “Racers ready… attention… ”

She lets the gate fly. Errol Kerr springs out, strides. He plants his poles once, and crouches for the first tabletop jump, staying tight and close to the ground. Another stride, another jump. Then he circles back, and goes through it all again… and again… and again, shaving off the precious fractions of a second that could land him ahead of the pack in Vancouver.

Errol Kerr’s late father never strapped on a pair of skis, Errol’s mother said. It would have moved him to see how far his son has come, and to know that he is competing for the island, she said. Kerr said part of his dream was always to race for his father’s country — under the black, green and yellow flag of Jamaica.

“To be able to see Errol grab a hold of that and say, ‘let’s take it a step further, put Jamaica on the map of skiing’, it’s beautiful,” she said. “He would just be so proud.”

In a quick response to the Games’ chief organiser’s announcement that Bolt will compete at the October 3-14 event, the Olympic champion’s handlers said his appearance is not yet certain.

Bolt’s management team has not ruled out his appearance for the New Delhi event, but declared the double sprint world record holder was yet to make a final decision on his plans.

Bolt’s manager Ricky Simms said a decision should be made by next summer.

“I’ve spoken to Glen Mills (Bolt’s coach) who confirmed that no decision will be made about Usain’s participation in the Commonwealth Games until May-June 2010,” Simms said.

Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Commonwealth Games organising committee, had declared at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain last weekend, that Bolt would take part in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Although Bolt’s management has made clear its position, Kalmadi remained steadfast and reaffirmed his confidence that Bolt will compete.

“I personally had a word with him (Bolt) and I am positive that he will participate,” Kalmadi said.

“No one gives a confirmation so much in advance. All the athletes confirm a month or even 15 days before the event,” he added.

Bolt’s participation in New Delhi would be considered a huge boost for the Games.

In the past two years, the 23-year-old sprint ace has emerged as track and field’s biggest world star.

He won the sprint double in world record times at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and lowered his records when he clocked 9.58 seconds (100m) and 19.19 (200m) to land the sprint double at the IAAF World Championship in Germany in August.

Last month, track and field’s world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, named him as repeat-winner of the Male Athlete of the Year award.

Bolt never got close to his world record of 19.19 seconds in Berlin last month, but clocked a decent 19.57 to win in bad conditions for a meet record.

World bronze medalist Wallace Spearmon of the USA finished second, a massive 0.62 seconds behind.

Meanwhile, Jamaicans Asafa Powell and Brigitte Foster-Hylton also won their events.

Powell clocked 9.90 second in victory in the men’s 100 metres, defeating American Tyson Gay, 10 seconds flat and Foster-Hylton won the women’s 100-metre hurdles in 12.48, beating Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, 12.49.

In the women’s 100 metres, Olympic and World Champion gold medallist Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser, 10.98, finished second behind American Carmelita Jeter, who won in 10.88.

Jamaicans Kerron Stewart was third in 11.05 and Veronica Campbell-Brown fourth in 11.10. The other Jamaican Sherone Simpson finished eighth in 11.39.