Reggae Boy striker, Shamar Nicholson, will reportedly not be overly concerned by the noted issues of racism and xenophobia that have plagued Russian football for several years.

The 24-year-old forward recently secured a move to Russian Premier League club Spartak Moscow after spending two years at Belgian club Charleroi.  The move will represent a step up for the Jamaican player, with the Russian club routinely taking part in Europe’s top competitions.

Football in Russia has, however, been plagued by controversy in recent years with fans often known to direct racist and xenophobic chants towards players of different races who represent various clubs.  The issue had become so prominent in recent years that there was a campaign to address the issue ahead of the country's hosting of the 2016 World Cup.

However, according to Nicholson’s agent Kevin Cowan.  Issues pertaining to racism impact players everywhere.

"There is racism everywhere," Cowan told Voetbalkrant.com.

“That shouldn't be a factor. Shouldn't all players be playing in Italy or Russia otherwise?"

"Spartak came and wanted Shamar, then we are not concerned with possible racism. In the long run, he wants to go to an absolute top competition, but this is a nice step and a very nice club."

Jamaica Reggae Boy defenders Alvas Powell and Damion Lowe are the only players to be included in the annual CONCACAF Team of the Year, announced by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).

Based on the statistics accumulated for the period Powell, who spent the majority of the season with Major League Soccer (MLS) club Philadelphia Union, before moving to FC Cincinnati, was selected as as the region’s best right back.

Lowe, who plies his trade for the Egyptian club Al-Ittihad was named as part of the team’s reserves.  Back in August, the defender was named as part of the CONCACAF Gold Cup Best XI.

The list was dominated by Mexican players, with four members of the El Tri squad named to the line-up.  Club America goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa was named in goal, Edson Álvarez takes his place in the backline, Hector Herrera was put in midfield, and Hirving Lozano upfront.  Three Canadians Cyle Larin, Jonathan Davis, and Bayern Munich’s Alphanso David have also been included in the XI.  The list is completed by three players from the United States who are represented by Bruce Aaronson, Weston McKenie, and Miles Robinson.

Named among the substitutes, alongside Lowe, are Matt Turner (USA), Tajon Buchanan (Can), Rogelio Funes Murray (Mex), Ricardo Pepe (USA), Julia Araujo (USA), and Sebastien Vargas Mexico.  Lowe and Powell have been crucial parts of Jamaica’s World Cup squad.  The team, who would best be suited for a 4-3-3 formation, would be coached by Mexico’s Javier Aguirre.

Jamaican double-double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah was named by Diamond League Most Consistent Athlete in the women’s sprints for the 2021 season on Monday.

Thompson-Herah won four races on the Diamond League circuit for the year, in addition to her three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics in July.

She ran times of 10.54 and 10.72 to win the 100m at the Eugene and Paris Diamond League meets on August 21^st and August 28^th, respectively, before winning the event at the Diamond League Final in Zurich in 10.65 on September 9^th.

The former Manchester High School student also finished second in the 100m, at the Lausanne Diamond League, in 10.64 on August 26^th.

Her only 200m win on the Diamond League circuit this year came in Gateshead where she ran 22.43 on July 13^th.

The honour follows the trend of a trophy-filled festive period for the sprinter as she has already been named World Female Athlete of the Year by World Athletics, Athletics Weekly’s Female Athlete of the Year, and the NACAC Female Athlete of the Year in the month of December.

She is also widely favored to be named the RJR Sportswoman of the Year for 2021.

The local Track & Field community is in collective mourning after the passing of John Messam.

Messam passed away at 61 on Sunday after a long battle with illness.

The Calabar High School Old Boy was an IT professional, working as an Oracle Database Administrator at the Porth Authority for 22 years.

At the same time, Messam was a respected Track & Field coach, specializing in hurdles events.

A former Florida International University and Seton Hall University student, Messam was also the founder of Hurdles Crew Jamaica, an organization, which was created to enhance the lives of at-risk youth by allowing them to engage in voluntary work at Track & Field meets each year.

Messam was often the man to who Track & Field coaches would send their hurdlers when they needed someone to fix their technique.

Funeral arrangements will be made at a later date.

Jamaican Cyclist Llori Sharpe has made history by signing a one-year contract with German cycling team Canyon-SRAM Generation.

The former St. Andrew High School track & field athlete, who first came to prominence nationally as a triathlete, is the first Jamaican cyclist to sign with a team in Europe.

She won several awards as a triathlete, including the RJR Gleaner VMBS Youth Award, and represented the country in the event at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Sharpe is one of 239 riders from around the world to sign with the developmental cycling team and the contract, which takes effect on January 1, 2022, will see her participating in training camps with world tour riders as of January 16.

“Well, I’m obviously elated, excited, overjoyed, all those adjectives and I’m definitely looking forward to what is to come next year and I do think this is a step in the right direction, not just for me but for local cycling and regional cycling. I believe we can look forward to bigger and better things as time progresses,” Sharpe said in an interview with Television Jamaica Sports.

The 21-year-old, who is presently reading for a Degree in Sports Science at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus, pointed to how her recent move will improve her cycling.

“I think this opportunity will provide me with the platform for greater exposure and greater developmental cycling experience. I’m definitely looking forward to what’s to come,” she said.

Sharpe will be based in Germany but will be traveling across Europe during her attachment and is expected to leave the island after the Christmas holidays.

The communities of Paradise and Norwood, in Montego Bay, experienced some Christmas cheer as the destinations for Jamaican sprinter Briana Williams’ 2nd annual Christmas Treat on Thursday.

300 children in the communities were gifted toys and food items from her sponsors Digicel and Grace Foods.

Transportation for the gifts was provided by KIG Jamaica.

The 19-year-old was a member of Jamaica’s gold medal-winning Women’s 4x100 team at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, running a blistering first leg to help the team achieve a national record of 41.02.

Williams also won the sprint double at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland with times of 11.16 in the 100m and 22.50 in the 200m, her current personal best.

Her 100m personal best stands at 10.97 done in Florida in June this year.

Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited today signed a historic agreement establishing themselves, along with Trinidad’s Arima Racetrack, as the first two Caribbean Track and Pool Operators to participate in The Caribbean Pool. 

The Caribbean Pool is a Caribbean inter-island commingling platform that allows for Caribbean Tote operators to bet into each other, thereby creating bigger pools, bigger profits for its member partners, and most importantly, bigger payouts to its punters. 

The Pool will also facilitate greater cooperation and participation between the Caribbean Pool Operators with the aim of growing local racing both regionally and internationally.

 Chairman of SVL Gary Peart outlined what this agreement means for the company. 

“As we have been able to do for many of our other SVL brands, our goal for SVREL in 2022 is to continue our revenue growth through local, regional and international expansion. The Caribbean Pool aligns perfectly with our vision for the company and as such we are happy to participate as lead partner,” he said. 

With the two largest regional racetracks onboard and an expectation that the Barbados Turf Club will sign on as early as January 2022 and the Royal St Lucia Turf Club joining in as soon as they resume racing in 2022, the Caribbean Pool is set to delight Caribbean racing fans. 

Founder of The Caribbean Pool Kimani Robinson of the Kisero Group also reacted to the agreement.

 “Our vision was to create a new and exciting regional simulcast portal that would generate greater returns for the Caribbean track and pool operators as well as their punters,” Robinson added. 

Robinson, who noted that he first discussed the idea with SVL’s Chairman Peart where both men hammered out the constructs of the legal and technical structure required to make the platform a reality, added that regional merging is the future of horse racing in the Caribbean. 

“Regional commingling is the future of Caribbean horse racing. A regionally commingled platform will create greater relevance and awareness for the sport which means greater economic benefits for all. There is no reason why the Caribbean Pool shouldn’t replicate for horse racing what West Indies Cricket did for regional cricket,” he said. 

In terms of awareness, The Caribbean Pool has formed an alliance with the perfect regional media partners, the Caribbean's Home of Champions, SportsMax, who have agreed to become the home of all things Caribbean Pool and Caribbean Horse Racing.  

SportsMax CEO Nicolas Matthews confirmed that “racing fans will be in for a treat as SportsMax beefs up its Caribbean horse racing coverage via the Caribbean Pool. Given our regional strength, especially in the participating Caribbean Pool countries being contemplated and our ambition of providing our audiences with more of what they want, the Caribbean Pool is a perfect fit for us”. 

Along with coverage on their linear channels SportsMax and SportsMax2, SportsMax will include a dedicated channel within the SportsMax App called "SportsMax Racing" that will provide most of the Caribbean Pool’s racing content. 

“Our team has worked side by side with the Kisero Group for months in making the Caribbean Pool a reality,” commented SVREL CEO Lorna Gooden. 

“We are aggressively on a growth path for 2022 and though we have made significant headway in simulcasting our content internationally, we believe that regional growth for us will be faster and more responsive due to existing familiarity,” Gooden added, before expanding further on what the agreement demonstrates. 

“This agreement is a further demonstration of the commitment and drive of the Board and management at Caymanas Park to expand the product offering available to our punters, to promote and establish Caymanas Park as the horseracing mecca of the Caribbean,” she said. 

The Caribbean Pool is set to start in short order and is hoping to get all clearances and approvals granted for a soft launch over the Christmas holidays.

Tsenaye Lewis is a proud teen table tennis player after she picked up a couple of titles and two other podium finishes at the recent Carmel Barrau Open Tournament at the Broward Table Tennis Club (BTTC) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Lewis was entered in seven categories in which she played 29 matches, winning 22 against 20 males and two female players ranked from 679-2477 by USA Table Tennis (USATT).

“This was a good opportunity to practice my skills and test my abilities against a variety of players – ranging from females my age to grown men. I think I represented myself well and learnt a lot,” she said afterwards.

That, she did.

She placed first in Under-1150 beating 954-rated Damian Casanova in three straight sets, 11-8,11-8,11-8 and first in Under-1350 silencing 1325-rated Jose Renator Goncalves 11-8,11-8,8-11,11-8.

She snagged third place in the Under-1800, losing to 1569-rated Angel Luis Nunez then another third place in the Under-1550, going down to the unusual navigations of 1495-rated Efrain Perez in the semi-finals.

 “I am very proud of her performance at the Broward Open as this was her first individual international victory,” said her coach Dale Parham of Skills Unlimited Table Tennis Academy (SUTTA).

“With more international exposure, the right support and training facilities, she has tremendous potential to go far.”

Coach Parham noted that her ability to make quick mental adjustments allowed her to compete against the male players was especially impressive.

Jamaica’s Men’s Champion Simon Tomlinson attended the tournament and was pleased with what he saw from the talented teen.

“Tsenaye played really high-quality matches against players equal to or above her level,” he said.

“I have had a chance to do some work with her along with Coach Dale Parham over the past few weeks and she has continued to show tremendous potential. I am excited to see what the future holds for her.”

Prior to her entry into the tournament, Lewis did not have a USATT rating, but this performance will get her on the USATT scale.

At the Jamaica Table Tennis Association’s (JTTA) National Table Tennis Tournament held in August 2021, Lewis was the U15 champion and the runner-up in the Women’s Open competition as well as the Under 21 category.

Olympic double sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah has roped in another award on the back of her stellar 2021 season.

The 29-year-old sprinter was on Wednesday named the Track and Field News Female Athlete of the Year.

Thompson-Herah was voted the winner of the award by a 35-member international voting panel of the highly-respected track and field magazine, narrowly edging Venezuela's Olympic triple jump gold medalist and world-record holder, Yulimar Rojas.

The remainder of the top-five in voting included Dutch distance runner Sifan Hassan, American 400m Hurdler Sydney McLaughlin and Kenyan middle-distance runner Faith Kipyegon.

During her history-making season, Thompson-Herah became the first woman to win the 100m, 200m sprint double at consecutive Olympics, winning the 100m in a time of 10.61, an Olympic record, and the 200m in 21.53 in Tokyo in July.

She would go even faster in the 100m at the Prefontaine Classic in August, recording a 10.54-second clocking, the second-fastest time in history.

Thompson-Herah was also named World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year and the British Journal Athletics Weekly’s Female Athlete of the Year this month. She was also named NACAC Female Athlete of the Year and is favoured to be the RJR Sportswoman of the Year for 2021.

Jamaica’s sports minister Olivia Grange has lauded Sara Misir, who created history recently by becoming the first Jamaican to compete in the Formula Woman Competition.

Reggae Boyz striker Shamar Nicholson has signed a four-and-a-half deal to play with Russian Premier League Club Spartak Moscow. The deal that completes his transfer from Belgium to Russia was signed on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old Nicholson, who spent the last two seasons with Belgian club Charleroi where he scored 30 goals in 76 appearances including 13 in 18 games this season, put his signature to his new contract on Tuesday that will see him play alongside teammates Quincy Promes of the Netherlands, Argentina’s Ezequiel Ponce and Nigeria’s Victor Moses.

Nicholson has enjoyed a steady climb to the top of club football globally.

Starting out at Boys Town FC in Jamaica’s Premier League in 2014, Nicholson left for Slovenian club Domazale in 2017. In two seasons there he scored 18 goals in 47 appearances before signing with Charleroi in 2019.

Since he made his debut for the Reggae Boyz in 2017, Nicholson has scored 10 goals in 29 appearances.

Elaine Thompson-Herah is now being represented by Andisportsmanagement after parting ways with Adrian Laidlaw late last year. The management agency revealed their new client on Instagram on Monday.

Saturday and Sunday were good days for residents of the communities of both Waterhouse and Ewarton as they were the sites of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s Pocket Rocket Foundation 14^th annual Christmas Treat.

Residents of Fraser-Pryce’s hometown of Waterhouse were the beneficiaries on Saturday and Ewarton, the hometown of her husband, Jason Pryce, enjoyed the festivities on Sunday.

The treat, which wasn’t held on Boxing Day for the first time in 14 years, was aided by a team of sponsors and volunteers who provided the residents with a variety of goodies ranging from food bags to toys and treats.

"We’re going to be giving our adults food bags courtesy of Grace Kennedy and then for the kids, they’ll be receiving toys and other goodies from Excelsior, Digicel, Nike and others,” said Fraser-Pryce, who also thanked Toyota Jamaica for providing transportation for the event.

The nine-time World Championships gold medallist said the aim was to bring some joy to the communities in the midst of a difficult year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also thanked her sponsors for helping to make it happen.

“It has been a crazy year for all of us because of the pandemic and I’m hoping that as a foundation we can bring some cheer to the community of Waterhouse and also Ewarton so I want to thank all my sponsors for what they do for me and my community year after year. We could not have done it without you guys, so thank you so much,” Fraser-Pryce said.

Reggae Boyz head coach Paul Hall says being reactive in transition and circulating the ball quickly will allow the team to get the forwards more involved.

Jamaica has struggled offensively in their World Cup Qualifying campaign so far only managing six goals in their first eight matches.

Hall says getting the ball forward is a priority but a balance needs to be found.

“What we need to think about is a balance with everything. We need to be able to get the ball forward, obviously. We’ve been using our full-backs to get forward and try to get crosses in,” Hall said.

One approach that the team has tried is to use a target-man approach with West Ham striker Michail Antonio. This was evident in the team’s 3-0 loss to Panama on September 5.

Panama countered that approach by putting two centre backs on Antonio and essentially taking him out of the game.

Hall, however, sees progress from his team where that style of play is concerned.

“I think you’re starting to see the team take shape. The ball is going up to Michail Antonio and it’s starting to hold. He’s starting to get some players to support him. We’re able to build a little bit more,” said Hall.

When questioned about the formation of the team going forward, Hall said his emphasis will be on style rather than position.

“I like to build play. I like to get midfield players on the half-turn, playing it forward. It’s not necessarily a formation, it’s a style so whether you play 3-4-3, 3-5-2, 4-3-3, the players all know what style they’re playing in. They want to be able to play one and two-touch, circulate the ball really quickly and make it difficult for people to get close to you so it’s really important that we get the work into the players,” he said.

Hall reiterated that while it will be difficult to implement all his proposed changes in the short term, there are still some general ways his team can improve their offensive output.

“Like I said, in the short term it’s quite difficult to make that happen straight away but there are things like reacting in the transition, winning the ball back quickly and getting the ball forward as much as we can in a controlled manner and really just being attacking-based. That for me is the way how you do it,” said Hall.

The Reggae Boyz have also conceded 10 goals in their eight matches and Hall says limiting mistakes on the ball is a way to solve the Reggae Boyz defensive woes.

“We have players who can keep the ball and receive the ball in those deep-lying midfield areas. We’ve just got to make sure we create situations for us to be able to not lose the ball and focus on that. Really focus on keeping the ball,” Hall said.

Jamaica currently sits sixth in the standings in the final round of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying with seven points from their eight matches.

Each team has played eight games so far with Canada atop the standings with 16 points ahead of the USA with 15.

Mexico and Panama are third and fourth with 14 each while Costa Rica is fifth with nine.

The Reggae Boyz next take on Mexico on January 27, 2022.

The top three teams at the end of 14 matches will advance to the 2022 FIFA World Cup while the team in fourth will advance to a playoff against a team from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).

New Reggae Girlz Interim Coach Vin Blaine says defence must be the focus to bridge the gap between his team and the better teams in the CONCACAF region.

Speaking at his introductory press conference on Tuesday, Blaine was critical of the team’s defensive organization under the previous coaching staff.

“It’s a concern of mine, from I’ve been watching the team. What I’ve recognized is that defensively, we don’t have bad players but our organization was poor. If I was to criticize the past coaching staff, I would say our girls weren’t playing defensively well. That’s the area I want to sure up first,” said Blaine.

When asked about the fact that the Reggae Girlz have not fared well against the top teams, Blaine said that had more to do with team rotation rather than an inability to compete.

“The team that played against Costa Rica recently; they have not played against the USA, really, because what the coaching staff was doing before, was an assessment of the players, so you found that in the US game, he had a different squad, in the Nigeria game he had a different squad and in the Costa Rica game he had a different squad,” Blaine said.

He was referring to three friendlies the team played against Nigeria, Costa Rica and the USA. In those games, Jamaica won 1-0 against Nigeria, lost 4-0 to the USA and played to a 0-0 draw against Costa Rica. Blaine said the team should not be judged on those recent performances.

“It’s hard to judge how these present girls that have come from the USA and are playing professionally would have matched up,” said Blaine.

“It’s hard to say they did badly because in the past we played a Costa Rica team and I think we got something like 11-0 way back when. They’re still competitive.”

The Reggae Girlz will begin the first round of the CONCACAF Women’s Championship on February 17, 2022, against Bermuda.

They are in Group C alongside Grenada, The Dominican Republic, The Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

The tournament also serves as qualifying for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 - August 20.

The Reggae Girlz are looking to qualify for their second straight FIFA Women’s World Cup.