Showing posts with label Jamaica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jamaica. Show all posts

Wednesday 4 April 2018

Jamaica v Ireland dominoes fundraiser & more at Watkins Folly on Saturday



AMAZING NIGHT OF CULTURE ON SAT 7th APRIL. MONTSERRATIAN DIASPORA & FRIENDS OF IRELAND 1999 ARE HOSTING A FANTASTIC EVENING OF MIXED CULTURE, IRISH DANCING, TRADITIONAL FOOD, DOMINOES COMPETITION AND LIVE CULTURAL EVENTS. LATE BAR AND MANY DJS. COME AND JOIN IN. STARTS AT 6PM. AN EVENING NOT TO BE MISSED.

CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS FANTASTIC STORY 


WE ARE ALSO LOOKING FOR 8 DOMINOES PLAYERS TO REPRESENT IRELAND. EXPERIENCE NOT REQUIRED. WILL BE GREAT FUN. CONTACT 02089029944 OR EMAIL

Saturday 20 August 2016

Jamaican Olympic success began in Wembley - in 1948

Guest blog by Philip Grant

GREAT JAMAICAN OLYMPIANS - No 1: Arthur Wint
 
The headlines from the Olympics are full of the achievement of Usain Bolt, in winning three sprint gold medals for the third successive Games. But Bolt was only following the giant strides of one of his predecessors. For a “small island”, Jamaica has produced some fantastic athletes, but where did this Olympic success begin? The answer is: Wembley.

The first time that a team from Jamaica took part in the Olympics was at the London Games in 1948. The people of the island had raised the money by public subscription to send them, and most of their athletes reached England after a 24 day voyage on a banana boat. There was no specially-built athletes village for the competitors at these post-war “austerity Games”, and while the men were housed, along with some other Commonwealth teams, at Wembley County School in Stanley Avenue (now part of Alperton Community School), the women stayed as guests of local families. You can read more about this on the Brent Archives website  LINK

The Jamaican Olympic Team at Wembley County School, July 1949 [Courtesy of the 'Old Alpertonians']

The Jamaican team captain, Arthur Wint, was already in England, having just finished his first year as a medical student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Born into a middle-class family at Plowden, Manchester County, in 1920, his life had already been interesting. At 17 he was named Jamaica’s “Boy Athlete of the Year”, and in 1938 he won the 800m gold medal at the Pan American Games in Panama. The Second World War put an end to international competitions, and when the RAF started to recruit from the British colonies, he joined up with his brothers, Lloyd and Douglas, in 1942. Along with many other Jamaicans, they were trained in Canada. He gained his “wings” in 1944, and saw active service as a Spitfire pilot until 1947, when he left the RAF having won a scholarship to train as a doctor.

At Wembley Stadium, the Jamaicans showed the world what their athletes were capable of. Wint won silver in the 800m, then went head-to-head with his team-mate Herb McKenley (who had finished 4th in the 200m) and several top Americans in the 400m final. McKenley was the favourite, having recently broken the world record, but the long-striding, 6’5”, Wint overtook him in the home straight to win Jamaica’s first Olympic gold medal. McKenley took the silver medal, and they were both hoping for gold in 4x400m relay. However, disaster struck when Wint pulled a muscle while trying to chase down the leading USA runner on the final lap. 

Arthur Wint taking gold ahead of Herb McKenley in the 400 metres final [Source Brent Archives - 1948 official Report]

Arthur Wint promised his disappointed relay team-mates that they would have a gold medal at the next Olympic Games. At Helsinki, in 1952, that promise was delivered. In the individual events Wint again won silver in the 800m, while McKenley took silver medals in both the 100m and 400m. As part of the Jamaican 4x400m relay team they then won gold, in a world record time of 3:03.9.
 
The 1952 Olympic 4x400m relay champions, Jamaica. L-R: Arthur Wint, George Rhodon, Herb McKenley and Les Laing

 

After qualifying as a doctor at Bart’s in 1953 (and running his final race, in an athletics meeting at Wembley Stadium in the same year), Wint went back to Jamaica in 1955. He worked as the only doctor and surgeon in Hanover Parish for many years, and in 1973 was awarded the Jamaican Order of Distinction for his service to charities, schools and business. He returned to England in 1974 for four years, as his country’s High Commissioner in London, before working as Senior Medical Officer at Linstead Hospital in Jamaica from 1978 to 1985. He died at Linstead in 1992.

Usain Bolt is a modern giant of athletics, but Arthur Wint, who was known as “the Gentle Giant”, set a high standard for Jamaica’s Olympians to follow. If Bolt can follow his glittering career on the track with a life of service to his country and people like that of his predecessor, he will rightly be remembered as a true Great.


Philip Grant.

Sunday 12 August 2012

So what is the Olympic legacy for the people of Brent?


Harlesden street stall
One of many T shirt designs
Kingston
There was a fantastic atmosphere in Harlesden yesterday after Usain Bolt's performance in the Olympics. Along with the recent celebration of 50 years of Independence there was evidence of renewed pride in Jamaican heritage.  Jamaican colours were everywhere in shop windows, street stalls and especially on people,  young and old. Small children carried Jamaican flags and one woman proudly showed me matching green, yellow and black flip flops, t-short and beads.  A grandmother told me how she had let her grand-daughter  stay up to watch Bolt compete and another said that she had recorded everything so that her grandchildren could view the historic moments again and again.

Perhaps what was most impressive was that non-Jamaicans were also celebrating, somehow with Jamaicans such a vital part of Brent's community, we were suddenly all Jamaicans and sharing in the joy.

As last week the euphoria was accompanied by anger by militancy over the potential closure of Central Middlesex Accident and Emergency with many of those signing the petition people who have used the facility and a good few who were also workers at local hospitals.

Mohamed Farah

With daughter Rihanna
 Mohamed Farah's two gold medals are  likely to impact on the Somali community in Brent (putting aside disputes over rival claims from Somalia and Somaliland) and its status in Britain. Farah like many of his generation came to Britain  as a child (at the age of 8) and has built a successful life in London.  Children are likely to identify with his daughter Rihanna as she danced and ran around joyously after her father's victories. Mohamed's self-identification as a UK citizen of Somali origin has significance for the many Brent Somalis who have gained citizenship.

Greeting the Olympic Torch in Forty Lane
When children get back to school in September it will be interesting to see what impact the Olympics have made on them from the initial excitement over the Torch procession (above) through the opening ceremony to the actual events.  I was e-mailed by a German journalist a week or so ago asking about the 'Olympic legacy' in local schools. I am afraid I never replied but I guess the real answer is that it remains to be seen - it is not just the sporting legacy (which must include the success of women athletes) but something much more about children's motivation, how different groups feel about themselves and each other, and the nature of our diverse community.

It is good that these aspects, perhaps sign-posted in advance by the opening ceremony have far out-weighed the impact of the corporate sponsors.

In her poem for the Guardian, Carol Ann Duffy, went further to link the Olympics with broader political issues.

Translating the British 2012

A summer of rain, then a gap in the clouds
and The Queen jumped from the sky
to the cheering crowds.
               We speak Shakespeare here,
a hundred tongues, one-voiced; the moon bronze or silver,
sun gold, from Cardiff to Edinburgh
               by way of London Town,
on the Giant's Causeway;
we say we want to be who we truly are,
now, we roar it. Welcome to us.
We've had our pockets picked,
               the soft, white hands of bankers,
bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;
we want it back.
We are Mo Farah lifting the 10,000 metres gold.
We want new running-tracks in his name.
For Jessica Ennis, the same; for the Brownlee brothers,
Rutherford, Ohuruogu, Whitlock, Tweddle,
for every medal earned,
we want school playing-fields returned.
Enough of the soundbite abstract nouns,
austerity, policy, legacy, of tightening metaphorical belts;
we got on our real bikes,
for we are Bradley Wiggins,
               side-burned, Mod, god;
we are Sir Chris Hoy,
Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton, Kenny, Hindes,
Clancy, Burke, Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas,
               Olympian names.
We want more cycle lanes.
               Or we saddled our steed,
or we paddled our own canoe,
or we rowed in an eight or a four or a two;
our names, Glover and Stanning; Baillie and Stott;
Adlington, Ainslie, Wilson, Murray,
               Valegro (Dujardin's horse).
We saw what we did. We are Nicola Adams and Jade Jones,
bring on the fighting kids.
               We sense new weather.
We are on our marks. We are all in this together.