OTTEY
ASAFA Powell's spectacular 9.77 seconds for 100 metres makes him the latest Jamaican to set a world outdoor individual record, but the first in almost 30 years.
The great all-round sprinter, Herb McKenley, was the first Jamaican to hold a world athletics record. In the years 1947 and 1948, McKenley set hand-timed world records in both the 400 metres and 440 yards. He was the first man to run the 400m under 46.0 seconds (45.9) and the 440 yards at 46.0.
Two years before the epic gold medal relay run by Jamaica at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics 4x400m, George Rhoden set a world record 45.8 seconds in the one-lap event.
RECORDS EQUALLED
Jamaican men have also set or equalled world records at the shorter sprints. In 1961, current sports director at the University of Technology, Dennis Johnson, equalled the then world record for 100 yards (9.3 seconds) three times.
Ten years later, Donald Quarrie clocked 19.86 seconds to equal the world 200m record held then by American Tommie Smith. In 1975, Quarrie also broke the world mark for the 220 yards before equalling the 100m world record of 9.9 the following year.
Although Merlene Ottey, Jamaica's greatest ever female sprinter, has set many indoor world records. The only Jamaican woman to set a world outdoor athletics record is Marilyn Neufville.
Based in Britain but running in Jamaican colours, Neufville ran a world record 51.0 seconds to win the gold medal over 400 metres at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Elton Tucker
