Tony Becca, Contributor

CHRISTMAS IS a time for giving. It is also, however, a time for celebration and for merry-making and as far as this Christmas is concerned, when it comes to sport, there should be a lot of celebration and much merry-making.

This year has been wonderful for Jamaica and particularly so in cricket, track and field and netball.

In cricket, Jamaica won the regional youth one-day limited-overs title and finished second in the four-day championship. Five members of the youth team - Andre Creary, Jason Dawes, Horace Miller, Nkrumah Bonner, Shacoya Thomas - have been selected to the West Indies team for the Youth World Cup in Malaysia next year. Meanwhile, the senior team, after finishing fifth the previous two years, won the regional one-day limited overs title with a perfect record, and that was good.

With Jamaica finishing third at the World Championship, the netball girls were even better and because track and field is one of the biggest sport in the world, because the World Athletic Championships is one of the biggest event in the world of sport, with Jamaica, boasting 10 medals, finishing fourth in the medal standings and in the ranking, track and field was the best of all.

Lest it be forgotten, Jamaica, little Jamaica, finished only behind the United States, Russia and Kenya and ahead of the likes of Germany, Great Britain, China, Australia and Cuba in total medals.

To me, however, as brilliant as Veronica Campbell was in winning the gold in the 100 metres and the silver in the 200 at the World Athletic Championships, the performances of the year were those of Maurice Smith and the Sunshine Girls.

Special performance

Smith's performance was special to me for the simple reason that while sprinting is second nature to Jamaicans, the decathlon is not, and yet this talented and dedicated Jamaican went to the World Athletic Championships in Osaka, Japan, tallied 8,644 points, and won the silver medal after finishing a mere 32 points behind Roman Sebrle - the gold medal winner from the Czech Republic.

That, to me, is class and worthy of a special toast.

An theirs was a different story, the Sunshine Girls of 2008 deserve no less.

After they were written off by almost every Jamaican following some disappointing performances leading up to the World Champion-ship, the Sunshine Girls went to New Zealand, and after knocking off the teams in the preliminary round one by one, after marching into the semi-finals and losing a close and exciting encounter to New Zealand - the home team and defending world champions, they knocked off England, the team that had defeated them in the warm-ups before the championship, and walked away as the third best team in the world - behind only champions Australia and runners-up New Zealand.

Great stuff

That was great stuff, and once again congratulations to coaches Connie Francis and Annette Daley, to the players, and especially so to Romelda Aiken, Simone Forbes and even though she was injured and did not play much, to Elaine Davis.

Special congratulations must also go to Marva Bernard - the Jamaica Netball Association's president who, along with her team, has worked hard, very hard, in providing the best possible training facilities for the girls and in grooming them to represent this country on and off the court.

Third is not first, nor is it even second.

When compared to the money available to netball in Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa, however, Jamaica is poor, and when it is remembered that those countries are blessed with all the things that money can buy, that because of the money that is available to those national associations their players can afford to train all day, every day without thinking of where the next dollar is coming from, third is a wonderful achievement. In fact, it is a great achievement.

Those who criticise the Sunshine Girls for finishing in third position should remember that. They should look at the Australians, the New Zealanders, and the English, they should look at the Jamaicans, and if they do they will see, for example, the difference, because of the money available, in the preparation of the teams.

Against the odds, the Sunshine Girls are number three in the world, and despite the odds, Maurice Smith finished number two in one of the big events at one of the world's biggest event.