Three recent happenings involving Jamaican athletes have gotten much attention; one has sparked negative comments, while the headlines about the other two, in our view, have undermined their outstanding performances. In discussing and analyzing things from a Caribbean perspective, we like to point to the angle that news stories generally tend to downplay or not mention at all.

There’s a tendency to overlook the obvious news and focus on the performances of big-name non-Caribbean stars if there’s no Usain Bolt or Asafa Powell in the race as well as a readiness to put a negative spin on what some Caribbean athletes do. Such approach simply diminishes the accomplishment and achievements our region’s athletes, simply because headlines can easily become stories when readers run with them. Recent blogs, headlines and reports about Jamaicans Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Nesta Carter have illustrated our point.

‘ Gay Brings Carter to Earth’, ‘Tyson Gay Overwhelms Nesta Carter To Win…’

At the Zagreb World Challenge Meeting on Wednesday, September 1, American Tyson Gay won the 100m in 9.92 secs ahead of Jamaican Carter in second with 10.07. Gay later apologized to Carter at the post-race conference for a collision of his and Carter’s hands during the race. In addition, he contends that he (Gay) could have gone faster if it were not for the collision. Buy why did Gay apologize if he did not accept responsibility for what happened?

Carter has since talked about the clash-of-hands incident as well as Gay’s tendency to sway in races and has truly accepted Gay’s apology.
 
While Gay could very well be right about running faster, we ask: what about Carter? Couldn’t he have gone faster (9.8s), too? After all, Carter has been in fine form recently, lowering his personal best to 9.78, which equals the world leading time by Gay this season. So how fitting are the foregoing headlines when obviously Carter slowed down after the connection?

One must give Gay credit – the fierce competitor that he is – for staying focused and not backing down despite the infraction. But we cannot lose sight of the fact that Carter, the Beijing Olympics sprint relay gold medalist who clearly backed off when the incident occurred, though far less-raced than Gay is also talented and is certainly no flash in the pan. Carter has acknowledged that he needs to work on his last 20 meters, where Gay is strong.

In the heat of competition the goal is to finish ahead of one’s rivals.  Gay did just that. But let us not lose sight of the fact that Carter himself was also a victim of the infraction, which prevented him from posting a faster time.  Headlines such as: “Gay Brings Carter to Earth” and “Tyson Gay Overwhelms Nesta Carter to Win…” paints the incorrect picture that Carter was demolished quite easily.

‘ Blake Gets by Gatlin in 10.06 seconds’

What an understatement the foregoing headline was. Not many athletes running the 100m can feel a pull muscle, decelerate while holding his hamstring and stop the clock at 10.06 secs. This was the case with Yohan Blake when he competed in Rovereto, Italy on Tuesday (Aug. 31). The American Justin Gatlin finished 2nd to Blake in a season best 10.09.

The story here was not the personal best of Gatlin or the fact that it was his first defeat since his return but the remarkable concentration of Blake to stay focused and finish his race -- ahead. Blake’s injury was “serious” enough to warrant his laying on the track to get treatment after the race and his withdrawal -- as a necessary precaution -- from the Continental Cup schedule the weekend of (Sept 4-5).

Not taking anything away from Gatlin, who is back from a 4-year ban and was doing his season best, but he was competing against a 21-year-old rising star, who also posted personal and season bests of 19.78 (200m) in Monaco in July and 9.89 (100m) in London in August.

Despite the much slower 10.06 time by Blake’s standard, this was a valiant performance by the injured Blake who should be commended.  However, several reports down-played the injury and highlighted more of what Gatlin did. Blake didn't just get by Gatlin. This, again, is another case of the headline potentially becoming the story.

Bolt: “Deep down I think he (Tyson Gay) probably hates my guts”
 
Bolt reportedly made this statement in a September 1 interview with BBC Radio.  Since then, there has been an avalanche of negative comments ranging from Bolt needing anger management to Bolt and Gay being “arch-enemies” to Bolt being bitter over his recent defeat by Gay.

Come on people; wake-up and stop rushing to judgment. Aren’t you simply reading too much into this statement?

In the Caribbean, we oftentimes use the expression “I hate you” loosely to friends who might get/achieve something that is always desired. Of course, this is said without any animosity and without thinking that every word is potentially explosive and therefore has to be politically correct.
 
We are not aware of any need for Gay to hate Tyson or vise versa in the true sense of the word, yet their rivalry on the track is nothing new. Whenever an athlete steps onto the track to compete, everyone else is his/her rival. There’s more camaraderie among the top athletes than we even realize. For example, Gay and Bolt are associates; Bolt and Wallace Spearmon are friends, Gay and Veronica Campbell-Brown (VCB) went to Barton County College and the University of Arkansas together and Gay was even a guest at VCB’s wedding. Gay, Asafa Powell and Bolt also hang out at the Jamaican Invitational last year, when the latter two were on stage showing Gay the latest reggae dance moves.

Perhaps Bolt and Gay aren’t friends the way Bolt and Spearmon are, hence Bolt’s statement that “we are cool but aren’t the best of friends”, which one blogger saw as an indication that one person cannot stand the other.

He wrote: “Wow. Not sure about the rest of you, but where we come from, saying that we're not best friends with someone is basically a polite way of saying we would rather gargle rancid mayonnaise than spend 10 minutes in the company of that person. And it's certainly possible that's the case with Bolt and Gay.”

Tyson’s response supports Bolt’s point. "Our relationship is cool. I've known him since 2005... 2006, since we've been competing against each other in Jamaica. I've always had a cool relationship with him on the track and off the track. We've never gone to a club together or anything like that, but it's always been a mutual respect on my part. So that's how it's always been for me."

All along Bolt has said that this, a non-championship year, was the year to beat him since he wouldn’t be training so hard.  Yes, Gay defeated Bolt in a race which wasn’t crucial;  both athletes know this as much as how Bolt’s defeat has stirred up further discussion about the two.

“Deep down I think he probably hates my guts” is nothing more than an expression; let’s not make something out of nothing or a mountain out of a molehill.