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Last Updated: Dec 29, 2011 - 2:18:31 AM |
With the 2011 track and field season winding down, athletics supporters are looking forward to the selection for the 2011 World Athlete of the Year award.
Ten male and female candidates have been selected by an IAAF panel of 8 athletics experts. An email poll involving the World Athletics Family has already begun and will close on Sunday 23 October, midnight CET.
Photo: Kermit Taylor, Bahamas Athletics
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At the conclusion of the voting process, three male and three female finalists will be selected and announced by the IAAF.
The Council of the International Athletic Foundation will then select the male and female winners from the finalists with the announcement taking place live, on stage, during the 2011 World Athletics Gala, on 12 November 2011.
And as expected, the Caribbean is in the mix with four athletes in the running for the coveted titles.
On the women’s side, Veronica Campbell-Brown, defending two-time Olympic champion and now World Champion at 200m, leads the way for the region.
Her performance throughout the season prior to the world championships had been stellar, having ran under 11 seconds on six occasions and running a personal best 10.76s in the 100m, which is also the second fastest for the season.
In the 200m, her specialty and most successful event, Campbell Brown came into the competition with the seventh fastest time in the world, a season’s best of 22.44s done at the Jamaican National Championships.
Though she was unable to capture the sprint double in Daegu, finishing second in 10.97s to the USA’s Carmelita Jeter who won in 10.90s, the Jamaican did not let the narrow defeat get to her.
The Olympic Champion stormed her way through the 200m rounds and in the final, held off Jeter and arch-nemesis Allyson Felix to win the gold in 22.22s. She then ran a brilliant anchor leg for the Jamaican relay team to capture silver and a new national record of 41.70s, second to that of the USA who won in 41.54s.
Having won three medals in Daegu, Campbell-Brown is now a nine-time world championship medalist, having won two gold and seven silver medals between 2005- to present.
On the men’s side, Jamaica’s Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt are among the ten men after the title. Blake became the world champion at 100m after his countryman (Bolt) false started and was disqualified as a result, failing to successfully defend his title. Blake’s 9.92s victory was a sound one as he stomped his nearest competitor, USA’s Walter Dix by a .16s margin, into a 1.4mps headwind. Kim Collins won the bronze in 10.09s.
Days later, Bolt, the sprint double world record holder, made up for the false start by successfully defending his 200m titles in 19.40s, 0.30 seconds ahead of Dix and 0.40 seconds ahead of Frenchman Christopher Lemaitre. It was the fourth fastest time ever ran by any man at the time.
The two, in a combined effort along with Nesta Carter and Michael Frater, secured another gold for Jamaica in the men’s 4x100m relay in a time of 37.04s and new world record. Their brilliance did not end in Daegu however. At the Berlin and Zurich Diamond League events, Blake ran 9.82s twice in a row cementing his status as World Champion.
In Brussels, the last DL event, Bolt sought to end his initial struggling season on a high note with a victory and world leading time in the century dash. He did just that when he ran way with the win in 9.76s. However, minutes afterwards, Blake ended his season in grand fashion and upstaged Bolt with a huge victory in the 200m.
The 21 year old, though not having a strong start, the slowest reaction time in fact, won the race in 19.26s ahead of Walter Dix (19.53s) in the second fastest time ever over the half lapper. This performance not only shocked the world, but Bolt himself who embraced his training partner after the spectacular performance. Could he have broken the world record time of 19.19s set by Bolt two years ago if he had a better start?
The world will have to wait and see but no one could deny that Blake has shocked the world and put the rest of the athletes, including Bolt on notice.
However, perhaps the real Cinderella story of the season is that of Grenada’s Kirani James, who started off his season in the indoors, immediately catching the world’s attention. The 19 year old (18 at the time) produced the third fastest 400m time ever ran in the indoors. His personal best of 44.80s is only slower than Kerron Clement’s 44.57s and Michael Johnson’s 44.63s.
He later went on to dominate the collegiate outdoor season with victories in the SEC and then the NCAA titles. In his first professional race and diamond league event, the humble Grenadian ran a personal best of 44.61s, beating a number of the world’s top quarter milers.
From that point on, many had predicted that he would win Grenada’s first gold medal at a major championships. And even with a returning Lashawn Merritt to defend the world title, James ran smoothly throughout the 400m rounds until he won the final in a huge surge to beat out Merritt, running a personal best of 44.60.
He closed out his outdoor season with a win at the Zurich diamond league nine days later, running a personal best, national records and second fastest time of the year (44.36s), 0.01s slower than Merritt’s time ran in the 400m heats in Daegu.
As you can see, the contest will be tough as track and field fans will have to determine which three male and female athletes deserve the top award before the two lucky winners are determined by the IAF Council.
Four of the 20 eligible candidates are from the Caribbean and while the Bahamas may not have
an athlete in the running, as a neighbouring country to Jamaica and Grenada, we are proud of the accomplishments the two countries have achieved through these four athletes.
No doubt, the performances will serve as inspiration for Bahamians and other Caribbean athletes alike to train hard for the 2012 track and field season where all roads will lead to London for the 2012 Olympic Games.
And after the region’s spectacular performances over the last two decades more so at Beijing Olympics, the world will be watching to see if the Caribbean can bring the same intensity it has brought to the sport throughout the years.
© Copyright 2011 by thebahamasweekly.com
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