Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah has been unveiled as one of the five finalists for female athlete of the year.

Thompson-Herah has been nominated on the back of a phenomenal season on the track which saw her achieve new heights in the sport.

She ran 10.61 to win the 100 metres in Tokyo and followed that up with 21.53 to win the 200 metres, becoming the only woman to win the Olympic sprint double on two occasions after also doing so in Rio five years ago.

She was also a part of Jamaica’s victorious Women’s 4x100 metres relay team.

After the Olympics, Thompson-Herah went on to achieve even more success.

At the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on August 21^st, Thompson sped to a personal best and national record time of 10.54 seconds, the second-fastest time ever in the women’s 100 metres.

She broke 10.7 seconds four times this season, including in the Diamond League final in Zurich where she ran 10.65 to win.

Thompson-Herah has been nominated for the award alongside Dutch distance runner, Sifan Hassan, American hurdler, Sydney McLaughlin, Venezuelan Triple Jumper, Yulimar Rojas and Kenyan middle-distance specialist, Faith Kipyegon.

Hassan won the 5000, 10,000 metres double in Tokyo and also broke the 10,000 metres world record this season.

McLaughlin set two new world records in the women’s 400 metres hurdles on her way to winning gold in Tokyo.

Rojas set a new triple jump world record to win gold in Tokyo, and Kipyegon set a new Kenyan record in the women’s 1500 metres while also winning gold in Tokyo.

The winner will be announced at the World Athletics Awards to be held virtually on December 1^st.

Bahamian two-time Olympic 400m champion, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, has expressed pride that Bahamian athletes won gold medals in both the men’s and women’s 400 metres at the Olympics in Tokyo this past summer.

Two-time Olympic 400m gold medalist Shaunae Miller-Uibo has revealed that injuries significantly impacted her Olympic preparation throughout the 2021 season when she had planned to focus on the 200m.

Speaking on Sportsmax TV’s On Point, Millier-Uibo said an injury she sustained while running 49.08 to win the 400 metres at the USATF Grand Prix in Eugene on April 24^th prevented her from doing any speed training in preparation for Tokyo.

“We were supposed to start our speed training after Eugene at the end of April and that’s when I got hurt so we never really got a chance to jump into speed work. It’s unfortunate sometimes in track,” she said.

As it turns out, the injury was more serious than she initially thought.

“At the end, we found out that it was a tear in my gluteus medius. I actually stalled for a bit with trying to fix it because I didn’t quite know what it was at first. It just felt as though something was jammed so I figured maybe I could go to the chiropractor and get it sorted out. We tried that and it didn’t help,” she said.

The gluteus medius is a muscle located on the outer surface of the pelvis.

The three-time World Championship medalist says the pain started to ease going into the rest of the season until she went to compete at the Adidas Boost Boston Games in May.

“It started to get a little softer going into the rest of the season and then I went to Boston to compete and realized this is something really bad and the minute we get back home I’m going to check and see what it is. Took an MRI and found out there was a slight tear in my gluteus medius so we decided to rest it off and go slowly from there to try and build it up in time for Tokyo,” she said.

Injuries also affected her in Tokyo as was evident in the final of the Women’s 200 metres where Miller-Uibo finished eighth in a time of 24.00.

“I went into Tokyo nursing an injury and right before the heats, I felt really good. Everything was going really well and it was after the heats that I got a little banged up where I started to feel my right hip. I went and raced on it because it was still light at the time, raced into the semis and really hurt it then.”

In addition the trouble with her hip, Miller-Uibo also felt pain in her hamstring in her 200 metres semi-final.

“In the race itself I actually didn’t feel the hip. It was my hamstring that ended up grabbing on me and it was just a wrap from there.”

The Bahamian champion overcame her struggles and returned days later to storm to a new personal best 48.36 and win her second consecutive Olympic women’s 400 metres title.

The full interview with Shaunae Miller-Uibo can be seen on Sportsmax TV’s YouTube channel.

As she continues to prepare to compete at next summer’s World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Olympic bronze medalist Megan Tapper has signed a sponsorship agreement with plant-based nutrition brand ATAQ.

Tapper has been using ATAQ products since 2019 when they first entered the Jamaican market, to support her training and recovery but has now formalized her relationship with the start-up company.

“Competing at the highest possible levels getting nutrition right can make all the difference. I’ve been using ATAQ’s products for several years now and I feel a huge difference in my performance and recovery,” said Tapper.

With the agreement, Tapper joins a diverse group of athletes who are onboard with ATAQ. They include Julie Ertel, the 2000 Olympic silver medalist in water polo, USA Triathlete and two-time Pan Am Gold medalist in Individual Triathlon, who is a member and athletic advisor to ATAQ.

 Tammo Walter, Co-Founder and CEO of ATAQ, said the company was thrilled to have the affable Jamaican hurdler on board.

“We are super excited to have Megan be part of the ATAQ family. When you organically find someone that uses and believes so much in your products then that’s the best position to be in and working together,” Walter said.

 “We are excited to not only help fuel her efforts and journey with our products but to get her insights, thoughts and feedback.”

As a road cycling enthusiast Walter himself is no stranger to the challenge of fueling training and competition the right way.

ATAQ was born out of his own need for clean, plant-based sports nutrition, providing healthy products specifically developed for athletes with high-performance goals.

“Understanding the athlete’s needs, demands and challenges make engaging with athletes like Megan crucial to provide effective products that athletes want to use. And that’s what is most important to us,” Nikki Halbur, Co-Founder and COO explained.

Tapper started out as a gymnast, representing Jamaica when she was only eight years old. As a teenager, she switched to track and field and finished her junior/under 23 list of accomplishments as National Collegiate Champion and record holder before making it all the way to the semi-finals in the 2016 Olympics in London. She was also a finalist at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Being 5’ 1” tall, she acknowledges that her size can be a disadvantage in clearing hurdles. However, she isn’t fazed by it and focuses on advantages like being faster between each hurdle and she has proven that she can defy the odds over and over again.

Bahamian superstar sprinter Shaunae Miller-Uibo has her sights set on establishing a new world record in the women’s 400 metres.

Olympic bronze medallist, Candice McLeod, says her success on the track this season was due mainly to getting more rest and a proper diet during the pre-season.

Jamaican 400-metre sprinter, Candice McLeod, says her dip in form on the athletics circuit after the Olympics was due to fatigue and cold weather.

“The weather wasn’t me at all. I’m not used to competing in the cold because I’m always in Jamaica and Japan was just perfect. I did not know how to get my legs to feel normal again. They felt really tight I was not recovering the way I should be,” said McLeod while speaking on Sportsmax.TV’s On Point.

The Olympic Bronze medallist competed in 15 400-metre races this season, including eight before the Tokyo Olympics, three in Tokyo, and four on the circuit after the Games ended.

At the Tokyo Olympics, McLeod ran a personal best 49.51 in her semi-final and followed that up with a 49.87 clocking in the final.

In her four races after the Olympics, McLeod ran times of 51.26 to finish 5^th at the Lausanne Diamond League, 51.41 to finish 7^th at the Paris Diamond League, 51.88 to finish 3^rd at the World Athletics meet in Chorzow and 50.96 to finish 5^th at the Diamond League Final in Zurich.

McLeod explained that the short time between meets on the Diamond League circuit was also difficult to manage.

“It is definitely challenging. When I finished the first Diamond League and had to travel within the next day to compete the other day, I’m not used to it. I tried my best to stay within the reigns but at some point, I decided, well, I think this year is definitely for the experience.”

The former Vere Technical and Papine High student said her fatigue in the first Diamond League meet after the Olympics took the biggest toll on her.

“My first meet I literally cried tears from my eyes because I was so cold. I saw people walking and asked myself; Am I in the same place as them? I was so cold. I was definitely not prepared for that.”

McLeod praised athletes who are able to still perform near their best on the circuit despite the quick turnaround between meets and the difficult conditions.

“I don’t know how they do it but if this is what I want to be doing every year I need to get a grip of this because I was fatigued to the point that I was frustrated. I didn’t feel like I was giving my best.”

She also said she expects the experience to make her better in the future.

“Next year, now that I know that I have a lot of things to do while traveling, then I think it will be better.”

The full interview with Candice McLeod can be seen on the Sportsmax YouTube channel.

Olympic bronze medalist, Candice McLeod, has opened up on her friendship with fellow Olympian Shericka Jackson, whom she describes as the driving force behind her athletic success.

McLeod, who returned from the Tokyo Olympics with her first Olympic medal as a member of Jamaica's 4x400m relay team revealed that her friendship with Jackson started 12 years ago while they were both students at Vere Technical High School where Jackson, who was one of the older students at the time, took her under her wing.

Speaking on Sportsmax.TV's On Point published on YouTube last Friday, McLeod said Jackson saw something in her that she didn’t see in herself.

“Shericka has been a very supportive friend. I was at Vere Technical, on the dorms for my first half of high school and the older students would choose one of the new ones to mentor. She chose me and stuck by me ever since,” she said.

McLeod opened up about Jackson always finding time to motivate her despite the gap in performance throughout high school.

"In high school, she was running 52 and I was running 63. I've been running 63 for three years and she'd get up every day and motivate me the same way she did every single day knowing she's running 52 and I'm running 63. That's a very special friendship," she said. 

The now 25-year-old McLeod, (November 15 is her birthday) who ran a personal best 49.51 in her Olympic semi-final said that in addition to her goal to win an Olympic medal in mile way, was to ensure that Jackson got a third medal after her mentor and friend failed to advance in the Olympic 200m after badly mistiming her run in the preliminary round and was eliminated on time.

“I was her roommate (in Tokyo) and missing out in the 200 definitely took a toll on her. I did not go out there with the aim of getting myself a medal because it was a team event,” she said.

The former Papine High student said the key to their friendship is being able to hold each other accountable.

 “She has someone who’s going to tell her she’s wrong when she’s wrong or right when she’s right and that she needs to work harder. We both want the same thing for each other, regardless of if we’re in the same race.”

 You can watch the full interview with Candice McLeod on the Sportsmax YouTube channel.

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.

After an illustrious career that spanned more than two decades, St Lucian high jumper Levern Spencer has called time on her athletic career.

A four-time Olympian, Spencer is a multiple CAC and Pan Am Games champion, who created history in 2018 when she became the first St Lucian to win the high jump gold medal at the Commonwealth Games held on Australia’s Gold Coast.

However, after failing to make the finals of the high jump at the Tokyo Olympics in August, the 37-year-old St Lucian star, has decided it was time to hang up her spikes.

“After 23 consecutive years of representing St. Lucia in the sport of track and field, I have, after careful consideration and analysis, made the tough decision to retire, effective 31st October 2021,” she said in a statement released on Wednesday.

“It was a challenging journey laced with lots of literal blood, sweat, and tears, but a very rewarding journey as well, which led me to four consecutive Olympics, eight consecutive World Championships, five consecutive Commonwealth Games, and gave me 16 Sportswoman of The Year titles.

“So as I hang up my spikes as Commonwealth Champion, Central America & The Caribbean Champion, Pan American Champion and North & Central America and the Caribbean Champion, I say a big thank you to the Government and People of St. Lucia for the privilege of flying our flag regionally and internationally for all these years, and for your support on this journey.”

She thanked corporate St. Lucia for its support and the media “for consistently reporting on all that I did for my country.”

“As I say farewell to a sport that I love so much, I do so with a great sense of pride and joy knowing that I did my best to, against all odds, give our tiny nation the best representation possible, on and off the field.”

Spencer, whose personal best was 1.98m, a national record, had her best performance at an Olympic Games in Rio 2016 when she cleared 1.93m to finish sixth in the final.

When Joel Ricketts places his foot on his board in Cali, Colombia at the Junior Pan American Games later this year, he will have created history as the first Jamaican to compete in skateboarding in international competition but it will be only his first steps to representing the black, green and gold at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Since its entry into the Olympic Games in London in 1948, Jamaica has been represented at the Games in athletics, cycling, swimming, diving, gymnastics, judo, taekwondo and boxing. If Jamaica gets there, skateboarding would be the latest addition to the growing list of skills that the land of wood and water have paraded on the largest of sports’ global stages.

The gravity of such an accomplishment is not lost on the 16-year-old Ricketts.

"I'm glad that I could be given this opportunity to represent my country doing what I love. I would also like to thank the JOA and the SJL for giving me the said opportunity," he said.

Joel is an honour-roll student at Wolmer’s Boys School. The first of two children for project manager Joel Ricketts and his wife Loretta, a school teacher, Joel ran track, played football and basketball growing up but it was skateboarding that lit the cauldron of passion within him.

“Standing out vividly in my mind was the day I got a skateboard,” he said. “It was the most joyous day of my life. My passion for this particular sport led to my connection with Jamaica Skateboarding Federation and the Olympic body, Skateboarding Jamaica Ltd.

“This yearning of passion and exposure through the association has helped me to be a better team player and a more confident and disciplined individual. I am motivated and driven to excel in this sport and in other areas of my life. With the new-found self-determination and discipline gained as a result of skateboarding, this has allowed me to improve and own the skill and enjoyment of skateboarding.”

His declaration sounds like music to the ears of the Skateboarding Jamaica Limited (SJL) President Ryan Foster, who is also the Secretary-General and CEO of the Jamaica Olympic Association.

“The Junior Pan Am Games in Colombia will be historic for Skateboarding Jamaica Ltd as it will represent the first time that Jamaica will be represented in skateboarding in an international tournament,” Foster said.

“As the president, I am extremely elated that our athlete will be allowed to showcase his talent and this will be used as a stepping stone to many great things to come. Tournaments such as these are seen by the Skateboarding Jamaica Board as the beginning to the pathway to qualification to the 2024 Olympic Games.”

Joel is currently in California for a training camp courtesy of the JOA and SJL to get much-needed practice with some of the best young skateboarders in the world that Foster believes will help lay the foundation for a successful campaign towards Paris in 2024.

 “We have a core of skateboarders currently, which will form part of our Olympic squad and the board of SJL will be working with our strategic stakeholders to ensure that Jamaica will have representation in 2024 Olympics," the president said.

Meanwhile, Joel revealed that he is learning a lot in California.

“I am learning a lot, really, but what I am really working on is breaking the lines together and getting over the fear factor of skateboarding, which is falling but the basics are down so what we are working on is putting the basics together and formatting them into my trick system,” he said.

Creating history for Jamaica in the sport, he said, is both terrifying and satisfying.

“It’s a bit nerve-racking but I am also excited. I got this opportunity to do what I love, there is nothing better than that so I am just going to do the best I can,” he said.”

“To make the Olympics in skateboarding would be amazing. It is one of my goals.”

To get there, Joel has to successfully navigate a pathway filled with challenges that come in the form of qualifying tournaments across the globe. The equation is simple; do well and Paris awaits.

“You have the Street League, which is a skateboarding contest, which has aligned with World Skate and they organize contests in different parts of the world – France, Japan, Brazil and Italy sometimes. That’s where most of the points are earned and then there are other meets like the OISTU Open in Brazil,” Joel said.

His focus after the Junior Pan Am Games is getting better.

“More contests, more practice, getting better and getting over that fear and it would mean a lot to me,” he said.

“I go by the rule, ‘If it has been done it is achievable and there is always room for growth. The best is yet to come.”

The journey has begun.

The Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) and the Guatemalan Olympic Committee (GOC) recently signed a historic Sports Co-operation Agreement that will see both bodies cooperating in the areas of applied sport sciences, sports medicine, technology, Olympic values, anti-doping, community and recreational sport, as well as sports administration.

The agreement will also facilitate the exchange of athletes and coaches who will benefit from educational and technical programmes.

The agreement was signed during the XXV General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committee (ANOC) in Greece.

JOA President Christopher Samuda declared that the signing of the agreement signifies an abiding commitment from the JOA and GOC to deepen their already strong bi-lateral relationship under which athletes, coaches, administrators and member federations will benefit from initiatives of capacity building and institutional strengthening, in research, training and education, sports-specific skills and the sciences and technology of sport.

President of the Guatemalan Olympic Committee, Gerardo Aguirre, also endorsed the historic partnership in regional sporting history.

"For us, Guatemala's NOC, we identified this as an opportunity to generate a connection with sport and athletes between Jamaica and Guatemala,” he said.

“Jamaica has specific strengths in sport and Guatemala has developed others, making these useful for us all to share. Therefore, this makes the signing of this agreement a marvellous opportunity and from it can come various avenues of activities so that Jamaican and Guatemalan athletes can come together."

Secretary-General and CEO of the Jamaica Olympic Association, Ryan Foster, who announced the agreement between the two Olympic organizations, explained that both Olympic bodies understand that efforts and relationships in sport must first be athlete-centric and dedicated.

 “Then, for stakeholders' engagement and empowerment and this agreement which we have signed is written testimony of that fact and the reality that friendships and unity in sport defy language barriers and the breadth of seas and oceans," he said.

Director of International Affairs of the Guatemalan Olympic Committee, Neville Steins, emphasized the importance and high value of the agreement in the context of bringing “not only our countries together through sport, but more still, bringing together the Caribbean and Central America in eliminating the absence of communication owing to language differences through the use of sport and thus bring our countries' athletes together for the common good."

The JOA's foreign policy supports strong and strategic partnerships in providing enabling opportunities for athletes, coaches and administrators.

 "The JOA will continue to build strong partnerships across borders and continents. We started in December 2017 when we inked in Japan with the Tottori Prefecture Government an agreement which is facilitating collaboration beyond the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games as for us sport development and diplomacy go beyond events and are life-changing experiences spanning generations. We will continue in earnest as sport is an enabler, equalizer and unifier" President Samuda said.

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.

Consolidated Bakeries Jamaica Limited through its Purity Bakery brand is in discussions to formalize a professional relationship with Olympic relay gold medalist and 100m bronze medalist Shericka Jackson.