With about 400 care packages distributed and the resulting engagement from the community, the FastElaine Foundation’s treat in Banana Ground, Manchester on Saturday has been deemed a success; so much so that Elaine Thompson-Herah and her husband and partner, Derron, have been motivated to do even more.
Many members of the community turned out to receive packages containing household items and with the help of Mario Mitchell the councillor for the Bellefield Division that includes Banana Ground in the Manchester Northwestern constituency, packages were also distributed to other members of the community who were unable to show up.
Councillor Mitchell explained that Elaine decided to deliver packages to the elderly members of the community after having a conversation with her grandmother, ‘Miss Hyacinth’ who brought to her attention the fact that there were a number of people who were bedridden and were particularly vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus.
Otherwise, the event was well needed and was successful, Mitchell said.
“It was well-received. The children came out. The mothers came out. Banana Ground is a farming community so the farmers were in the fields but they came out later. There was music, there was food. All who came out got a token as well as a care package,” Mitchell said.
Notwithstanding her international fame, Elaine has always remained rooted in the community. Her family, including her father, uncles and grandmother, still live in Banana Ground and hence the residents were glad to have been beneficiaries of her initiative.
“They were happy to see Elaine. They were happy they had something, the care packages and educational toys for the kids as well as supermarket vouchers that were won by people who participated in a quiz about Elaine,” Derron told Sportsmax. TV.
The quiz, he said, was particularly enjoyable because so many from the community were able to correctly answer the questions about Elaine. In some instances, they were awarding prizes to as many as three people for each question.
In short, the people of Banana Ground loved it.
“I think it was a good idea and she did a very good thing, giving back to the community,” said a female resident of Banana Ground. “I know the community appreciated what she has done and I hope she keeps up the good work and I wish her all the best. I wish her long life and prosperity.”
Packages were also distributed to members of the nearby Bellefield community, who were grateful for the largesse.
Mitchell said he delivered care packages earlier but didn’t have enough “so her effort helped out a lot,” he said.
Derron said they were planning another similar event for Lakes Pen in Spanish Town, St Catherine but was unable to say when and where that would take place.
Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah has been named among the nominees for BBC Sports Personality of the Year’s World Sports Star award.
This follows her being named Female Athlete of the Year by World Athletics at their virtual award show held on December 1st.
The triple gold medallist from the Tokyo Olympics this year has been nominated alongside Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, Rachael Blackmore, Tom Brady, Novak Djokovic and Max Verstappen.
Thompson-Herah will face stiff competition from her fellow nominees as Alvarez became the first undisputed super-middleweight champion in boxing history with an 11th round finish against Caleb Plant last month.
Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Grand National back in April.
Tom Brady led the Buccaneers to their first Superbowl in franchise history and his seventh overall, having won six previously as a member of the New England Patriots.
Novak Djokovic won three Grand Slam titles this year at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon to take his overall tally to 20, joining rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at the top of the all-time leader board.
Verstappen is in a fight for his first F1 title and has won nine races so far this season.
Voting is now open for the award on the BBC’s website and closes on December 14th with the winner being unveiled at the BBC Sports Personality of The Year Ceremony on December 19th.
Triple Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah on Sunday announced the birth of The FastElaine Foundation that will focus on helping vulnerable children from mainly under-served communities as well some students from Christiania High and Manchester High Schools, educational institutions she attended during her childhood.
Plaudits have come in from Jamaica's sports minister and the Jamaica Olympic Association for Olympic champion Elaine Thompson who was named World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year earlier today in Monaco.
Olivia Grange, Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, said it did not come as a surprise that Elaine Thompson-Herah would have won the prestigious award.
The 29-year-old Jamaican, who successfully defended both 100m and 200m titles she first won at Rio 2016 came out on top of a quality field of candidates that included the USA’s Sydney McLaughlin, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan and Venezuala’s Yulimar Rojas, to win her first AOY award.
“We expected it,” Minister Grange said in a statement.
“This nation is so happy for Elaine and proud of her for winning the top award for women in track and field for 2021. But she put her hands up with her performances in the Olympics and World Games. In fact, she has enjoyed one of the finest sprint seasons in history, retaining her 100m and 200m titles in 10.61 seconds and 21.53 seconds in Tokyo as well as adding another gold medal to her collection in the 4x100m relay, which she and her colleagues won in a national record time of 41.02 seconds.
“Elaine did not just stop there; in her first race after the Olympics, she won the 100m in a world-leading time of 10.54 seconds which makes her second on the all-time list for the 100m and 200m.”
The minister said Thompson-Herah joins two other Jamaican greats to have won the prestigious award from the sports’ world-governing body.
“ It is so great, Elaine now makes it a trio of Female Athletes of the Year for Jamaica; following in the footsteps of Merlene Ottey and Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce,” Minister Grange said.
“We salute Elaine Thompson-Herah. She is just awesome!”
JOA President Christopher Samuda described the accomplishment as a reward for her outstanding year.
"The Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) congratulates our Olympian, Elaine Thompson-Herah, for being selected Female Athlete of the Year by World Athletics," Samuda said in a statement.
"It is indeed an admirable accomplishment, the reward for exemplary performances and a testimony to her valour in transforming the challenges of a year bedevilled with the
pandemic into inspiring feats.
"The Jamaica Olympic Association salutes her and exhorts her to continue to be driven in her athletic pilgrimage of excellence."
Meanwhile, Thompson-Herah said winning the coveted award was the best way to end her historic season. Posting on her social media pages, the fastest woman alive said, “Way to cap off a magnificent historic season with my first world Athletics athlete of the year award.
“I am just amazed with how the Lord piloted me throughout this year.”
She expressed gratitude to her supporters and sponsors who were behind her on the historic journey.”
“Thanks to all my sponsors @ncbjamaica @flowjamaica and @nike for your continued support. Thanks to all my longstanding supporters family, friends and fans always with me through the ups and downs love you all.”
Jamaica’s Olympic 100m and 200m champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah and the USA’s Ryan Crouser have been named 2021 Female and Male Athletes of the Year for the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, the fastest woman alive and a triple Olympic gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been named among 10 women contending for World Athletics’ Female Athlete of the Year.
The 29-year-old Jamaica, who became the first woman to successfully win 100 and 200m titles at consecutive Olympic Games, stunned the world this past summer in Tokyo when she ran an Olympic record of 10.61 to win gold in the 100m and then followed up with a 21.53-second run to take a second gold medal in the 200m. The 21.53 was also a Jamaican national record and, is the second-fastest time ever by a woman in the 200m.
She added a third gold medal when she ran the second leg of Jamaica’s victorious 4x100m relay team that ran a national record of 41.02, the third-fastest in history
Following the Olympics, Thompson-Herah ran times of 10.54, 10.64 and 10.65 to win the 100m Diamond League title and which made her the first woman in history to run faster than 10.70 on four separate occasions.
However, notwithstanding her record-breaking performances, Thompson-Herah will not have things her own way because the nine other candidates also had incredible seasons.
Valarie Allman, USA of the USA is the Olympic discus champion and Diamond League champion and set a North American discus record of 71.16m.
Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn ran unbeaten during the season winning the Olympic title with a new Olympic and National record of 12.26, equaling fourth on the world all-time list.
Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won Olympic titles in the 5000m and 10,000m champion and was the silver medalist in the 1500m. She also broke the 10,000m world record during the season.
Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon is the Olympic and Diamond League 1500m champion and set the Kenyan 1500m record of 3:51.07 in Monaco.
Mariya Lasitskene won the Olympic high jump and the Diamond League and set a world-leading 2.05m.
Sydney McLaughlin of the USA set two world records in the 400m hurdles on her to win her first Olympic title in Tokyo where she also won gold as a member of the USA’s 4x400m relay team.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas won her second Olympic title in an area and national record 48.36. She joined Marie Jose Perec as the only woman to win 400m gold medals at consecutive Olympic Games.
She also set a North American Indoor 400m record of 50.21 in April.
Athing Mu of the USA won gold medals in the 800m and 4x400m relay in Tokyo. She also set a World U20 indoor 800m record and North American U20 records at 400m and 800m.
Yulimar Rojas set a new World and Olympic record of 15.67m while winning the gold medal in the triple jump in Tokyo. She was also the Diamond League champion.
A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.
The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week; a 'like' on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.
The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50 per cent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25 per cent of the final result.
Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Saturday 6 November. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.
The female and male World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 in December.
MVP head coach, Stephen Francis, is content to take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to reports that track star Elaine Thompson-Herah could be planning to leave the club.
According to reports earlier this week, the double Olympic champion had submitted a letter to the club that stated her intentions to sever ties ahead of the new season. Later in the week, however, the athlete denied the reports suggesting that they may have arisen out of her not starting training as yet.
The athlete is, however, not back due in training as yet and Francis insists that while he is not jumping to conclusions the future remains uncertain.
“From my perspective, we start back training sometime in October, the 18th or 19th…and my philosophy, as usual, is to see who turns up,” Francis told Jamaica television station TVJ.
“What my experience tells me is that sometimes athletes, in general, especially those that come from a lower expectation level. In other words, not much was expected from them, they are usually unable to separate themselves from people who hop on to their bandwagon,” he added.
The 29-year-old is coming off her best season to date. Thompson-Herah successfully defended both the 100m and 200m title at the Olympics and joined with former MVP athlete Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson, and Briana Williams to win the 4x100m relays. The sprinter later went on to record a blistering time just outside Florence Griffith-Joyner’s longstanding 100m record.
The MVP track club is no stranger to athletes leaving the club at the peak of their career with Fraser-Pryce and Melanie Walker also having secured moves away after years of success.
Elaine Thompson-Herah has poured cold water on reports that she is leaving MVP Track Club.
She has described those reports as rumours and said she is on a well-deserved break following her record-breaking season during which she became the first woman to successfully defend 100 and 200m titles at the same Olympic Games.
Reports emerged on Thursday that following her outstanding season, Thompson-Herah had taken a decision to leave MVP and going forward will be coached by her husband, Derron Herah.
Late Thursday, the 2021 Diamond League 100m champion appeared on the Brother from Another show on NBC Sports, denouncing the reports.
"I am the fastest woman alive so they are going to create some sort of news to distract the world so it's rumours of course. I have seen articles in the media that I have died before, more than once. There are always rumours in the media, they are always targeting me, I don't know why,” she told hosts, Michael Smith and Michael Holley.
"It's probably because I didn't show up at practice. I am still on my rest period, so maybe they are just speculating why I am not at practice, but I just came back from the international circuit and we normally get like a month's rest and I am in my second week.”
Thompson-Herah set a new Olympic record of 10.61 while defending her Olympic 100m title and 21.53 to win back-to-back titles in the 200m. She won a third gold on Jamaica’s 4x100 relay team. After the Olympics, she ran the fastest series of times in history – 10.54, 10.64, 10.72 and 10.65 – to close out the season as the only woman to run four wind-legal times faster than 10.70.
On the heels of her record-breaking, history-making season Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah is reportedly parting ways with MVP Track Club, just under 18 months after Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce departed to join Elite Performance.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, the three-time gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan in August, is to be rewarded with a Jamaican diplomatic passport, Minister Olivia Grange announced on Wednesday.
Jamaica track and field star Elaine Thompson-Herah has her eyes set on eclipsing the long-standing women’s 100m record, but after adding the Diamond League trophy to her list of outstanding accomplishments this year, she is content to leave that feat until next season.
Once again, the Olympic champion proved to be in a class of her own on Thursday's Diamond League finale, in Zurich, pulling well clear of a quality field to stop the clock at 10.65. The time was the athlete’s fourth run under 10.7s this season, the most times done by any female athlete in history.
The performance marked yet another outstanding achievement for Thompson-Herah who a few weeks ago claimed the sprint double in Tokyo, and also in the process broke American Florence Griffith-Joyner’s longstanding 100m Olympic record.
However, it was a performance a few weeks later, a jaw-dropping 10.54 set in Eugene, Oregon, that set tongue’s wagging and raised expectations for a world record challenge. The time was not only the second-fastest ever run over the distance but just 0.5 seconds outside of Griffith-Joyner’s world record, for many years believed to be unapproachable. After a long, tiring but extraordinarily successful season, however, the athlete is more than content to leave that pursuit for another time.
“It has been a crazy season, a long one and a tiring one. I was so consistent because I was just keeping the faith in me and did not allow any negativity,” Thompson said following the event.
“I am really happy and grateful. I am tired now but this is my job. I would describe this season with one word: amazing, yet it had ups and downs. I have to give God thanks that I am healthy and that I could finish such a long season…This year, it was a long season with ups and downs, but next year, the world record is definitely on my mind.”
Elaine Thompson-Herah was the only Caribbean athlete to win on the final day of the Diamond League season in Zurich on Thursday but a few others came very close.
As she looks forward to what could be her final race this season on the final day of the Diamond League season in Zurich on Thursday, double, double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah said she kind of surprised herself with the incredible success she has experienced this year.
Since she won her first sprint double in 2016, the first woman to do so since Florence Griffith-Joyner at the Seoul Games in 1988, Thompson-Herah failed to win a medal at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships. However, at the Toyko 2020 Olympics this past summer, Thompson-Herah became the first woman in Olympic history to win back-to-back sprint doubles.
She set a new Olympic record of 10.51 in the 100m and set a lifetime best of 21.53 to win the 200m titles. She added a third gold medal as a member of Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team that set a new national record of 41.02, the third-fastest time in history.
Weeks later she won the 100m at the Prefontaine Classic in 10.54, the second-fastest time ever run and then followed up with 10.64 to finish second to Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in Lausanne and then 10.72 in Paris.
Speaking at a press conference this morning before she takes to the track on Thursday, the history-making Olympic champion said she has not yet had time to take it all in.
“It hasn’t sunk it as yet. I think because I knew I had a long season I don’t want to get too carried away, too excited and the focus is still continuing the season for next year and the years to come. After the season ends I can say hurrah, hooray and I watch back my videos and see what I have done and say yes, I did it,” she said.
“Being the fastest woman alive, I think I still haven’t known what I have done yet. Because I have put in all the work and I have achieved, it is not something I never expect myself to do but my expectations were not high but I think I surprised myself this entire season with everything that I have done so far.”
On Thursday, Thompson-Herah will line up against Dina Asher-Smith, Natasha Morrison, Javianne Oliver, Daryll Neita, Marie Jose Ta Lou and the Swiss pair of Ajla Del Ponte and Mujinga Kambundji in the 100m.
Decorated Jamaica sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will not compete in the final of the Wanda Diamond League in Zurich on Thursday.
The two-time 100m gold medallist had qualified for the 100m final, along with reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and bronze medallist Shericka Jackson. Since the Olympics, where Fraser-Pryce placed second, the trio has competed together in two 100m Diamond League events, in Eugene and Lausanne, with Jackson and Thompson-Herah going on to compete in a third in Paris.
At current, it is Fraser-Pryce who leads the qualifiers for the final of the 100m Diamond race with 28 points, tied with the Côte d'Ivoire’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou. Thompson-Herah is third on 23. However, Fraser-Pryce is not listed among the participants for Zurich and it has been confirmed that she will not compete. Jackson, on the other hand, is only registered to compete in the 200m.
Fraser-Pryce and Thompson-Herah have pushed each other to record-breaking performances this season and have recorded the fastest and second fastest times over the distance so far. Thompson-Herah has clocked a best of 10.54, the second-fastest all time, with Fraser-Pryce next with 10.60.
Diamond League women’s 100m final (Entrants)
GBR - ASHER-SMITH, Dina
SUI - DEL PONTE, Ajla
SUI- KAMBUNDJI, Mujinga
GBR- NEITA, Daryll
USA- OLIVER, Javianne
CIV - TA LOU, Marie-Josée
JAM - THOMPSON-HERAH, Elaine
Jamaica track and field star Elaine Thompson-Herah has made it clear she is more than satisfied with her accomplishments for this season, without breaking Florence Griffith-Joyner’s longstanding record.
On Saturday, it was a familiar sight as the Jamaican coasted to the line in a time of 10.72, fast by any standards, except perhaps her own recent lofty achievements.
Thompson-Herah clocked 10.61 to claim the 100m at the Olympics, but it was a 10.54 clocking two weeks later that set tongues really wagging as the mark was just 0.5 seconds outside of the American’s immortal time. For now, however, the Jamaican is happy to be healthy and more than content with her achievements so far.
“I am thankful I crossed the line healthy. I am already in the books, so I am happy about that. I am just focusing on myself - on my start, on my execution and to be confident,” Thompson-Herah said.
“Obviously, it is more about the time after all these events and my health always comes first. I know everybody is thinking I am targeting the world record, and... I know it is close but for this season I am already super happy."
At the Lausanne Diamond League on Thursday, Thompson-Herah finished second in 10.64, an unfamiliar position in recent weeks but it was her decorated compatriot Fraser-Pryce who clocked a new personal best 10.60 for first place. For her part, she believes it would have been nice to have her compatriot and fiercest competitor in Paris.
"It is a pity that she is not here, because we push each other to be better. She is the only athlete on the planet who can approach 10.5,” Thompson said ahead of the race.
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