Germaine Mason - FILE
THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT national high jump champion Germaine Mason has decided to switch his allegiance to Great Britain is a big blow to the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA).
At age 22, Mason is not only one of Jamaica's leading international athletes, he is also one of the world's top high jumpers.
His best performance to date would have been a fifth place finish at the 2003 IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Paris, France. He followed that up with a bronze medal at the World Indoors last year.
NEW GROUND
Mason had earlier broken new ground for Jamaica with a silver medal in the event at the World Junior Championships in Santiago, Chile. He followed that up with a bronze at the 2002 World Junior Championships which was hosted by Jamaica at the National Stadium.
The Wolmer's old boy missed last year's Athens Olympics because of injury and also opted out of this year's World Championships in Helsinki, but he was expected to be one of the island's leading medal prospects at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, next March.
FIELD ATHLETES IN SPOTLIGHT
James Beckford, Mason and world triple jump gold medallist Trecia Smith have been putting national field athletes in the spotlight in recent years. They are expected to inspire a new generation of long jumpers, high jumpers and triple jumpers. Mason is by far the youngest of the trio and he would have carried the baton when Beckford and Smith decide to retire from the sport.
Mason's switch will hurt the island's track and field programme much more than the defection of sprint legend Merlene Ottey and 400m runner Brandon Simpson.
With all due respect to the outstanding performances of Ottey, and to a lesser extent Simpson, there is no shortage of female sprinters or 400m runners in Jamaica. Each year, Jamaica has been able to produce several sprinters of note, both male and female.
In less than two years after Ottey's departure, Jamaica had its first female Olympic sprint champion. Simpson did very well at the World Championships in Helsinki and also had an outstanding season on the Grand Prix circuit, but he had earlier been upstaged at the National Championships by a newcomer, 22-year-old Lansford Spence.
One is able to count on one hand the number of world-class high jumpers, male or female, who have been developed locally. Each year, there are very good high jumpers performing at the annual Boys' and Girls Championships. Very few of them, however, make it past that level.
STAND-OUT
Desmond 'Zelly' Morris,who was an outstanding high jumper at 'Champs' for Kingston College, held the former national high jump record (2.26m) for almost 20 years before it was broken by Mason.
Mason is the only Jamaican high jumper to clear 2.30m or more, both indoors and outdoors. His national record outdoors is 2.34m, while outdoors it stands at 2.34m. Both marks were set in 2003.
Based on the high jump talent locally, it will take some time before Mason's marks are broken.
The JAAA could, however, help by getting advanced training for local coaches who have shown an interest in the field events.
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