From hero to zero in 9.77 seconds! Well, Justin Gatlin has run so fast he run into trouble.
Having tested positive for a banned substance, he now faces a life ban. Both his 'A' and 'B' samples have come up positive. So, unless God (and I don't mean the good Jamaican doctor) intervenes, the only sprinting he will be doing is if he runs for office. Oh sorry! I forgot. He is running from the responsibility for the failed drug test.
Now, his coach Trevor Graham has joined the list of banned substances and has taken his athletes with him. Among them is top Jamaican sprinter, Dwight 'Bigga' Thomas who everyone is now casting doubts on.
Graham, himself a former Olympian, having won a silver medal for Jamaica in the 4x400 metres relay in Seoul in 1988, was the one who 'spilled the beans' on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) and American drugged-up athletes. Interestingly, it was he who supplied the syringe to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Yet, no one asked where he got it from.
Graham has had seven drug violators prior to Gatlin. These include Marion Jones' ex-husband C.J. Hunter, who looks as if he trains in a food court, and her 'baby father' and also ex-man, Tim Montgomery, and 400 metres twins Calvin and Alvin Harrison, who doubled up their testosterone levels.
Add to these, Michelle Collins, the 2003 world indoor 200 metres champion, 'Green Machine' Dennis Mitchell, the 4x100metres Olympic gold medallist in 1992, and Jamaican-born Jerome Young, the 2003 world 400 metre champion and you find either a rogues gallery or a hospital dispensary.
I am not sure who injected the athletes but this just shows how a little prick can destroy the lives of young people. Of course, it is even sadder because Graham is Jamaican and we have had just too many stereotypes regarding our use and distribution of illegal drugs.
The only comfort is that the one home-grown drug we have makes people less inclined to run. Rather, it stimulates them to talk and write foolishness and make illogical utterances, many of which are 'above my head.'
Stretch of roadway
Anyway, enough about Gatlin, Graham and guile. Let's see how fast I can get to Portmore. There is a wonderful stretch of road that takes one from the Mandela Highway to the Spanish Town Roundabout.
For a toll of $50, I get the most pleasant ride from Cromarty. In contrast, by the time I get into fifth gear after getting off Marcus Garvey Drive, the drive is quickly over - like a 100 metre sprint or Gatlin's career.
What is interesting about both stretches of road is that each is named after a great black leader.
Driving on the Mandela, so aptly named, is like being in captivity for 27 years for no other crime than the injustice of the political directorate. Garvey Drive, on the other hand represents the end of high hopes and aspirations as the Black Star Line folded in the 1920s.
More so, one gets the feeling of something promised that was suddenly terminated by a reality check. Considering the amount of road the Portmore residents get for their $60, it is not value for money. True, those who travel from Spanish Town via Portmore benefit immensely but that means nothing to those who live beyond the causeway. The whole Portmore toll issue lacks transparency and forethought. Whatever the judges might have said, the Mandela is not a suitable alternative route for those who live in the largest community in CARICOM.
A sell-out
Still, what alarms me is a recent document that I acquired, which is supposed to be a copy of the contract between the Government and the developers of Highway 2000.
In summary, it stipulates that government is bound to increase the toll or compensation to the developer if there is any reduction in traffic levels on the toll road due to "the carrying out of works by or on behalf of the Government of Jamaica which: (a) provides a new rail public transport passenger link between Spanish Town and Kingston; or (b) enhances the speed or capacity of competing roads within the transport corridor served by the toll road."
Simply put, if the Government improves the Mandela as promised, or develops the railway, it must compensate the owners of Highway 2000 or increase the toll.
If this document is true, then the stretch of highway from Marcus Garvey Drive to the toll booth should be called 'Bag-a-wire Boulevard', because like the fabled betrayer of Marcus, it is a sell-out.
This saga has handed to the Opposition JLP a matter that really is not partisan at all. Of course, since it is bells that toll, they have jumped on the bandwagon with Reverend Al 'Ivan' Miller in full tow to ensure probity and transparency. With his usual emotive performances he should be on TVJ's Rising Stars.
Speaking of which, it is the third year running and I am very pleased with the entrants.
It is still too early to know if there will be an epic battle as that which obtained between Christopher Martin and Noddy Virtue but some obvious talents have emerged.
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
