Well done, and walk good, my friend

Tony Becca, Senior Sport Editor

WHEN we look back on the achievements of Jamaicans in sport, every Jamaican should be proud.

Starting back in the 1930s when George Headley burst onto the scene as one of the world's great batsmen, this little country has produced some of the world's greatest sportsmen and sportswomen, and through them it has recorded some of the world's finest performances.

Apart from Headley, the roll call of champions includes the likes of Alfred Valentine, J. K. Holt Jnr., Collie Smith, Roy Gilchrist, Franz Alexander, Jackie Hendriks, Lawrence Rowe, Michael Holding, Jeffrey Dujon and Courtney Walsh as cricketers, Herb McKenley, Arthur Wint, George Rhoden and Les Laing, Cynthia Thompson, George Kerr, Don Quarrie, Lennox Miller, Bertland Cameron, Winthrop Graham, Grace Jackson, Merlene Ottey, Juliet Cuthbert and Deon Hemmings as athletes.

It also includes the likes of Bunny Grant, Percy Hayles, Trevor Berbick and Michael McCallum as boxers, Lindy Delapenha, Allan "Skill" Cole, Selwyn Murphy and Syd Bartlett as footballers, and Patricia McDonald and Oberon Pitterson as netballers.

Because of these great sportsmen and sportswomen, there have been many magnificent performances, and apart from the centuries scored, the many wickets taken and the part played by the cricketers in making the West Indies team the best in the world for some 14 years, they include not only a world record run (the 4x400 relay at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki) but also gold medals, silver medals and bronze medals at the Olympic Games. The World Championships include world boxing titles - including the heavyweight title - a consistently high ranking in world netball, and an appearance in the finals of the World Cup of football.

Jamaica, however, have also produced some outstanding coaches and sports administrators, men and women like Ted Lamont and G. C. Foster, Glen Mills and Dennis Johnson as coaches, Herbert Macdonald and Tony Bridge, Allan Rae and Pat Rousseau, Mike Fennell and Horace Burrell, Leila Robinson and Molly Rhone as administrators, and in toasting the great sportsmen and sportswomen, we should remember them.

In L.D. "Strebor" Roberts, Jack Anderson, Baz Freckleton and Errol Townsend, this country has also produced some fine sports journalists - men who, through their coverage and their presentation, not only recorded and informed the world of Jamaica's greatness, but who through their incisive writing, and like Foggy Burrowes in his many ways, also motivated and inspired young sportsmen and sportswomen to greatness.

We should also raise a toast to them, and in doing so raise one in memory of Raymond Sharpe - a stalwart who passed on last Sunday.

Sharpe, a former Sports Editor of the Gleaner and Public Relations Officer at National Sports (now the Institute of Sports), loved sport, he was a devoted servant of sport, and sport will miss him.

Like so many of the country's cricketers, track and field athletes, footballers, boxers and netballers, Raymond Sharpe, as a sports writer, was numbered among the best, at home and abroad.

On behalf of Jamaica, its athletes and those who followed their progress through your extensive coverage, those who basked in their glory through your wonderful writing, thank you my friend, and walk good.

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