MIke McCallum - FILE
THE fact that track and field was the only sport to win medals at the XVIII Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia must be a cause for some concern among the leaders of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), the body which oversees the island's participation at these Games.
Only four years ago in Manchester, England, Jamaica had two bronze medals in swimming and a bronze in netball. This time no swimmer reached a final while the netball team was beaten in the third place play-off by archrivals England.
In other sports at this year's Games, Jamaica failed to feature in the medal rounds. Swimmer Alia Atkinson showed a lot of promise in reaching the semi-finals of the 50 metres and 100 metres breaststroke. Ricardo Lynch did fairly well in cycling in reaching the quarter-final round of his event, featherweight boxer Nicholas Walters also won his opening fight while the shooters, David Rickman and Dennis Nelson, finished a creditable 13th in the open full bore pairs event. Rickman was also 13th in the individual open full bore.
The level of play by Jamaica's participants in team sports such as table tennis, squash and badminton was never better than fair. Although team members won matches in pool play they were never close to the medal rounds in any of the events.
In past years Jamaica won numerous medals in other sports including two gold in boxing from middleweight Cephas Colquhoun in 1962 and welterweight Michael McCallum in 1978.
Jamaica has been getting some help from foreign coaches in sports such as table tennis and boxing in recent months and it is hoped that in future Games we will see Jamaican players getting to the quarter-finals, semis and finals of these sports.
An effort was made to include young players in the badminton, table tennis and squash teams and the experience gained at the prestigious meet should be reflected in the future performances of the young male and female national representatives.
In squash, for example, young Chris Binnie is seen as the future of the sport locally and he should have gained a wealth of experience as all the top players in the world are usually in action at the Commonwealth Games. The 17-year-old Binnie has been playing well locally and in the Caribbean and if he gets the needed encouragement, may be able to make his mark at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India.
The Commonwealth Games may, however, have come a bit too soon for some of those who have just been exposed to the foreign coaches. The next big regional Games is the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Colombia this summer. The swimmers have already earmarked these Games as a stepping stone to future competition and other sports such as table tennis, cycling and boxing should do the same.
The standard of competition at the Commonwealth Games was too high for a number of the local sports teams but they should be able to hold their own among regional competitors.
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