The IAAF World Championships concluded in Moscow with Jamaica finishing third in the gold medal table, behind hosts Russia and the United States of America. The week of athletics produced many performances by – among others – Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Warren Weir and the youthful men’s 4 x 400 metres relay team that exhilarated the country. Nowhere was this more evident than in Half-Way Tree, the transportation hub of the capital, Kingston.  Giant screens were placed that enabled passers-by to view the races and it eventually became the mecca to view the races. Here are images of the joy and pride of Jamaicans as we celebrated our athletes’ performances. [zooeffect AIKApNLk17FD]

Jamaica’s national senior athletics championships were held between June 20 – 23, with the top athletes competing for a place on the team to the IAAF World Championships in Russia in August.

Usain Bolt winning the men’s 100 metres in a time of 9.94 sec. ahead of Kemar Bailey-Cole (17) in 9.98 sec and Nickel Ashmeade (13) in 9.99 secs.

Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce led the way with many youngsters following closely in their wake to show the depth of of Jamaica’s track & field talent. Here are highlights from the weekend.

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Last Friday June 7, Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz football team played the United States in a vital world cup qualifying match in Kingston. Jamaica came into the match at the bottom of the six-team CONCACAF qualifying group with two points from four matches and had to win to have any chance of progressing to Rio 2014, either as one of the three automatic qualifiers or as the forth-placed team that will play-off against New Zealand.

The Reggae Boyz played with more purpose and passion than in their previous match three days earlier that they lost 1-0 to Mexico.  Against the United States they attacked with purpose and were unfortunate to go into half-time behind by 1-0, thanks to a 30th minute goal from Jozy Altidore. In the second half, Jamaica kept up the pressure and  equalised through Jermaine Beckford in the 89th minute which gave faith to the remaining faithful supporters that Jamaica  would not leave empty-handed. This was not be however, as Brad Evans scored the winning goal in the 92nd minute. The win put the USA into second place in the CONCACAF zone with 7 points from four matches, tied with Costa Rica and Mexico while Jamaica remain at the bottom of the group with two points from five matches.

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