Jamaica is a 3rd world sporting powerhouse

[Sir X]

That regularly punches above its weight and put 1st world nations to shame.No other 3rd world nation matches up against us , except Cuba with its communist propogated ,regimented and supported sporting system.

Who can deny this or belittle this as not being a sporting powerhouse ?
We are ! Ask the Africans who envy our records ask the Indians, Canadians & Chinese.

[Gamma]

ah my son ... you have much to learn ... i mean "ah Karlsson, yuh have much to learn!"

[Sir X]

I guess so, waiting for the other 3rd world nations to do what we have done.Cuba pre Castro wasnt in the class of Jamaica pre independence.

But I will sit at Historain feet , so he can tell me his- story from his - context.

[HL]

X, whenever a word or statement has to be qualified...then that statement or word cannot stand on it's own: [obviously]

[Sir X]

Would 3 Jamaicans in a 200m final in the 1948 Olympics, 2 running for the Empire and one for Panama with the Jamaican from Panama copping Bronze be considered a qualified statement ? How many medals did Cuba win ?

Final[edit]

RankNameNationalityTime (hand)Notes1 !
Mel Patton United States21.11!
Barney Ewell United States21.11!
Lloyd LaBeach Panama21.2
4Herb McKenley Jamaica21.3
*5Cliff Bourland United States21.3*
6Les Laing Jamaica21.8

[Historian]

Completely Missing the Point!

Would 3 Jamaicans in a 200m final in the 1948 Olympics, 2 running for the Empire and one for Panama with the Jamaican from Panama copping Bronze be considered a qualified statement ? How many medals did Cuba win ?

We ALL know that Jamaica is currently the greatest sprint powerhouse on the planet, a fact that I have emphasized in my posts!

I had no intention in engaging in another debate on whether Jamaica is a “Sporting Power,” but I’m making this post to clear up something: In every post I’ve made on the matter, I have ALWAYS made it clear that Jamaica is, unquestionably, a “world class” sprinting power! How can anyone deny that? I have also constantly recognized our prowess in netball.

My contention, and the facts will back that up, is that Jamaica’s record in recent times have been less than stellar or even remotely impressive in MOST other sports! Having a Jamaican individual or team in various events does not make one a powerhouse; it is the results that matter.

If we could only simultaneously achieve the dominance in, say, two other sporting disciplines as we are having in the sprints and in netball, then we would not be having this discussion!

And, unlike what two other posters implied, I do not “know it all,” and I don’t pretend to do so. But what I do know is that I follow a wide variety of Caribbean sports and the performance of Caribbean and Latin American sports men and women fairly closely (and not just in track and field, cricket and soccer)!

Even looking at the Caribbean region, when was the last time we have been a force to reckon with in lawn tennis, swimming (aside from Alia Atkinson), boxing, T&F field events, basketball, volleyball, etc?? For example, at the multi-sports Olympic Games, do we win any type of medals other than in track distances shorter than 400 meters and in relays?

Please let’s just let this topic rest, because the facts speak for themselves!

[Sir X]

lol....find it odd you want to be selective on what constitutes a sporting power house,keep in mind you referenced Cuba and its rich history from the early 1900s which had its sudden boom post communism.That doesnt factor into your social context in evaluating Jamaicas scenario ?

Jamaica was a table tennis force ,was a boxing force and i suspect that given our 3rd world predicament alot more wuzez are plausible,we dont concentrate on atlethics like cuba does for propoganda purposes,our accomplishments come out of a sheer unpredicatble economic nature where resources are scarce,not concentrated for any propoganda purposes.

We concentrate on it out of a cultural nature ,which took decades to be ingrained.Given our resources thats remarkable.

My question stands ,is it a qualified statement ?

[HL]

We ALL know that Jamaica is currently the greatest sprint powerhouse on the planet, a fact that I have emphasized in my posts!

I had no intention in engaging in another debate on whether Jamaica is a “Sporting Power,” but I’m making this post to clear up something: In every post I’ve made on the matter, I have ALWAYS made it clear that Jamaica is, unquestionably, a “world class” sprinting power! How can anyone deny that? I have also constantly recognized our prowess in netball.

My contention, and the facts will back that up, is that Jamaica’s record in recent times have been less than stellar or even remotely impressive in MOST other sports! Having a Jamaican individual or team in various events does not make one a powerhouse; it is the results that matter.

If we could only simultaneously achieve the dominance in, say, two other sporting disciplines as we are having in the sprints and in netball, then we would not be having this discussion!

And, unlike what two other posters implied, I do not “know it all,” and I don’t pretend to do so. But what I do know is that I follow a wide variety of Caribbean sports and the performance of Caribbean and Latin American sports men and women fairly closely (and not just in track and field, cricket and soccer)!

Even looking at the Caribbean region, when was the last time we have been a force to reckon with in lawn tennis, swimming (aside from Alia Atkinson), boxing, T&F field events, basketball, volleyball, etc?? For example, at the multi-sports Olympic Games, do we win any type of medals other than in track distances shorter than 400 meters and in relays?

Please let’s just let this topic rest, because the facts speak for themselves!

Historian: Last time. To be right is over-rated.

[Sir X]

Thank yuh sah,just a question ?

Ping Pong's Days Running Out
Published: Sunday | September 22, 2013 2 Comments
Haslam
Haslam
1 2 3 >
Tony Becca, ON THE BOUNDARY

In 1930, a Jamaican, George Headley, shot to cricketing prominence with a century, 176 in his first Test against England, 114 and 112 in the third Test, and 223 in the fourth to become the youngest batsman, at the time, to score four centuries before his 21st birthday in Test cricket.

Since then, many Jamaicans have flirted with and have achieved greatness in many sorts, including Alfred Valentine, Lawrence Rowe, Michael Holding, Courtney Walsh and Christopher Gayle, Lindy Delapenha, Herb McKenley, Arthur Wint, George Rhoden and Don Quarrie, Michael McCallum, Merlene Ottey, Deon Hemmings, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and the incomparable Usain Bolt.

And from the look of things, there are many, many more to come.

There is, however, something strange happening in sports today, something which Jamaica should look at if one sport, a sport which for years was one of Jamaica's top five, is to be nursed back to life, and quickly at that.

Cricket, football, track and field and boxing have always been around in Jamaican sports. In fact, for many years they were the Jamaican sports, plus one.

That other one, the number five sport, was ping-pong, or to be more modern, table tennis.

In those days, in the 1940s, in the 1950s, in 1958 when the West Indies Championship was first played and leading into the 1960s and 1970s, table tennis was one of the sports to play.

In those days, boys were seen walking the streets with a racquet in their back pockets and looking for a place to play, for other boys to challenge, and to beat.

In those days, names like Arthur Joseph, Noel Murray, Danny O'Connor, Bunny McLean and Willie Estwick, Fuarnado Roberts, Leo Davis, Glen Mitchell, Jasper Adams, Jeff "Butterfly" Lewis and Ken McLachlan, Maurice Foster, Dave Foster, Sammy Wright, Ronnie Wills, Cupidon Murray and Orville Haslam, Madge East-Bond, Pat Loi, Myrth Hall, Joy Foster, Monica DeSouza and Anita Belnavis were household names.

In the years from 1958 onwards, Jamaica dominated the Caribbean region.

In those days, the men were unbeatable, winning in the early days 9-0 almost every time and the women won much more often than they lost, especially in the glorious days of Joy Foster and DeSouza, when they too dominated play.

Those were the days, the days when Roberts won the Caribbean men's singles three times, Mitchell one time, Davis one time, Haslam five times and, up until the 1980s, Stephen Hylton won it two times and Carl Morgan and Garfield Jones won it one time each.

women were not as dominant

The women were not as dominant, but three women left their mark. Foster won the women singles three times, DeSouza five times and Belnavis one time.

And after that, Jamaica, though not winning nearly as much, were good, with players like Richard Stephenson and Michael Tenn, Roberto Byles, Colin McNeish, David Marshalleck and Courtney Wilson, Nadine Senn-Yenn, Ingrid Mangatal and Sandra Riettie, Sharon Becca and Sophia Virgo.

Gradually, however, from 1990 onwards, the sport has been going downhill and now, but for the efforts of a desperate few, the sport is almost dead and waiting for the last rites.

Whereas once upon a time there was a flourishing league and regular tournaments, including a national tournament, whereas there was a Lovebird International tournament which brought to Jamaica players like world champions Istvan Joyner and Stellan Bengtsson, top-rated players like Kjell Johansson, Dragutin Surbek, Anton Stipancic and Jacques Secretin, and the Chinese themselves, and whereas tournaments were played at the National Arena, today these are things of the blessed past.

This year, the Nationals was played at the National Arena for the first time in a long, long while, but that was the only thing which approached times gone by.

This year, for example, the runner-up to the national men's singles champion was a former president of the association, and a former champion of a long time ago, and while that may be good for the player, it certainly does not augur well for the growth of the game.

This year Jamaica's table tennis dropped to a new low. For the first time, Jamaica did not participate in the Cadet Tournament in Guyana, nor did they turn up for the Caribbean Championships in St. Lucia a month or so ago, and that, for many reasons, was disappointing.

As the biggest of the English-speaking countries, as the country behind the formation of the tournament in 1958 and as the once-dominant country in the region, that was also embarrassing.

One of the reasons for the country's non appearance at both tournaments was the lack of money, and whether that was justifiable or not, it shows a lack of thought in what the association does or does not do, where it goes and does not go.

better to miss out

The Jamaica men's team, for example, went to the World Table Tennis Championships this year, and while it is true that the team may have been subsidised, it might have been better to miss out on that to go to the regional championships.

Even if one cannot win, it must be better to go to the regional championships for the sake of participation and development than to go to international championships where one has no chance of winning anything, even before a ball has been served.

Jamaica's presence at the World Table Tennis Championships, at least for now, is only to make up numbers, or to satisfy someone's ego.

The game that was once one of Jamaica's favourites is dying fast. Probably, it is also dying in the rest of the Caribbean, where Dexter St Louis of Trinidad and Tobago, of long ago fame and who has been playing in the championships for at least 30 or so years now, won the men's singles title easily in St. Lucia.

Players like national champions Shane Watson and Yvonne Foster and young Simon Tomlinson, must be wondering what is happening to the sport they love, to the one to which they have devoted their time and to the one at which they are good, very good.

[Sir X]

To help with my query , Cuba had 53 athletes and copped a silver in 1948 , Ja 3 medals with 1 being gold , guess how many athletes ?

[HL]

X, I actually support Historian's view on this topic. The facts support everything he has said.......

Over the years I have discovered that if you are right about anything (that the facts support), it's not necessary to get bent out of shape to convince others. It's quite ok for folks to believe what they choose.

Best wishes for the new year X. Hope you are positioning yourself to take economic advantage of weed legalization in Amerkah.

[Sir X]

O.K suh dis was just fluff....ah see wid yuh !..whenever a word or statement has to be qualified...then that statement or word cannot stand on it's own:

[Jangle]

"The game that was once one of Jamaica's favourites is dying fast. Probably, it is also dying in the rest of the Caribbean, where Dexter St Louis of Trinidad and Tobago, of long ago fame and who has been playing in the championships for at least 30 or so years now, won the men's singles title easily in St. Lucia."

This is a damn shame. I was a very decent Table Tennis player when I attended Calabar. Actually, during my time there, TT was maybe the number one sport. Many fights used to "bruk out" because boys used to hog the tables. We loved the game so much that we would play across the corridors with a piece of board in the middle to act as the net. I remembered Stephen Hylton and how we used to dominate along with KC. Almost every year it would be the same two schools making the finals. Yes Jamaica was a Table Tennis powerhouse.

[Sir X]

I remember those days in hughenden ,it was a Bar stronghold and I dusted out quite a few Bar men in T&T ,then one day,balls and rackets got expensive.

I can imagine now.

[Jangle]

I remember saving my lunch money to buy my first sponge racket for $30. That racket was like my girl...use rubbing alcohol to wipe it down and put it back in it case. Everybody had a little special strength.