Everyday Sprinter

Usain Bolt, 2011 World Athlete of the Year

It's pretty cool to see a fellow Jamaican receiving this honor. Ya Mon!

The hype continues with Puma's 'Chasing Bolt.' My question is, how can you leverage your passion for track & field, particularly sprinting? Any ideas?

This is the first in a series by Puma. I'm looking to forward to seeing following episodes. But what do you think? Is there too much hype around Usain Bolt?

“Talent, training and tradition,” Desmon Brown, Jamaica’s Chef-de-Mission says is what has made Jamaica a spiriting powerhouse. “We are good in other track and field events too but understandably we are most famous for producing sprinters. Our netball team are world beaters and football is big, but hardly anyone talks about them,” Brown said.

Sprinting has dominated the minds of budding athletes in Jamaica.

“We have a tradition of spiriting, starting from Herb McKenley (400 metres world-record holder; 1948) but we have not allowed our talent to go waste. The GC College of Physical Education and Sports in Spanish Town is a centre of excellence which produces world-class coaches who in-turn mould raw talent. The secondary annual sports competition is 100 years old today and draws the largest number of athletes in the world at a single school meet,” Brown said trying to dispel the belief that Asafa and Bolt just sprung out of the blue and became world champions.

This is a great article which speaks to what can happen with focused national pride. Jamaica has a rich tradition in sprinting that every sprinter would do well to make note of.

10 August 2010 - Munich, Germany - After an assessment from his medical team we can confirm that Usain Bolt will close his 2010 track season and cancel his participation in the Samsung Diamond League meetings - Weltklasse Zurich and Memorial van Damme, Brussels, said a satement issued by the World and Olympic champion's management.

"Usain Bolt was examined yesterday (Monday, August 9) by Dr Hans Müller-Wohlfahrt in Munich who found a problem in his lower back. He has a tightness that restricts his ability to generate power in his stride and continuing to race in this condition could risk injury to his hamstrings or calf muscles. With a view to his future career we believe further treatment to loosen his back followed by a period of rest will be in his best interest. We are delighted to report that the MRI scan on his Achilles tendon showed that it has now completely healed."

Let's hope it's a full and speedy recovery.

This is a good clip of the race. I believe the commentary is in Portuguese but that's ok by me. Based on what I saw on Universal sports, there's one feed so it's great to see this one already posted. Enjoy!

While I didn't get to watch is live, I certainly enjoyed watching this match up. Can you imagine what could happen if he didn't drag his feet at the start?