I imagine that the whole of Jamaica must be celebrating at the successes of their athletes in the Olympics. This week Usain Bolt got gold and broke the world records in both the 100m and 200m, whilst the Jamaican women scooped up all top three places in the 100m race and Melanie Walker won the 400m hurdles. I’m sure the Jamaicans that have made it to Beijing stood very proudly as their National Anthem has been repeatedly played in the stadium.

As I surveyed the finalist line-ups for the men’s 100m I was really impressed by the representation of the Caribbean athletes in these events. Only the United States had places, with all the other athletes hailing from the Caribbean islands of Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and the Dutch Antilles. Locally, the success of Caribbean athletes is wryly explained by the saying “It’s the fastest that survives” with reference to the history of slavery and colonialism in the region. However for the present day their success is surely attributed to lots of hard work and training and I am certain that if further investment was made into supporting upcoming athletes from the smaller islands we would see much bigger Caribbean victories in future Olympics and indeed all sports events.