Perspective: Penn Relays

April 29, 2022 | By Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie |

The Jamaican athletic team are burning up the track in the US at the annual Penn Relays. These relays were suspended for the last 2 years due to the Pandemic.

Despite the extremely cold weather, the Jamaican high school teams are keeping the flag flying high. The four by one eight hundred relay team has already mined gold.

There are more gold’s to come. The triple jump and high jump gold’s have already been secured by the Jamaicans.

9 degrees

Temperatures have slumped to very low levels compared with what the Caribbean team is used to. When you come from 25 degrees Celsius and temperature drops to 9 degrees. That is enough to shock your system.

Commentary

We are proud of the Jamaican athletes. They have been doing very well. There is a big debate as to how the athletes been doing after high school track experience. Many of these athletes are more interested in obtaining a scholarship and not to go professional. Many feel some of the standouts should go pro. Jamaicans seem more interested in academic excellence than going to become professional athletes.

We hope this trend will change. There is a lot of cash to be made. What will happen after track and field? This is likely their thinking. Why not?

What is your perspective? This is mine.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is a poet, elegist, author and senior international journalist who writes for Vision newspaper.