Tony Becca

The sportsman and the sports-woman for 2007, according to the RJR Sports Foundation and their selectors, have been crowned, and congratulations to sprinters Asafa Powell and Veronica Campbell-Brown.

The handclaps, the fanfare, and all the toasts, however, should be less, a little less, for one than for the other. As well, and as brilliantly as they performed throughout 2007, as great as they both are, while one truly deserves the honour, the other may have been a bit fortunate.

There can be no question about it: as the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association agreed, Veronica Campbell-Brown, third in the Olympic women's 100 metres in 2004 and first in the 200, second in the 100 at the 2005 World Championships in 2005, deserves the crown. She deserves it for her outstanding performances at last year's World Championships where, apart from her splendid run on the anchor leg of the sprint relay team which won the silver medal, she won gold in the 100 metres in a tight finish and the silver in the 200.

Why Powell?

On the other hand, however, as the JAAA may agree and should agree, questions can be asked and should be asked why the men's crown went to Powell and not to Maurice Smith, and it can be asked for a few reasons.

After running 9.77 seconds three times in 2006, and for which performance, in a year of no Olympic Games or no World Championships, he undoubtedly won the 2006 Sportsman of the Year award as the fastest man ever.

Powell returned last year, posted a blistering 9.74 to underline his speed, and after going to the World Championships and disappointing his fans by failing to win the gold medal, or the silver medal, in the men's 100 metres, that, despite his contribution in Jamaica winning the silver medal in the sprint relay, must have been the reason why he won the award as the top sportsman for 2007.

Smith's performance

Smith

After going to the World Championships with nobody, not even his team members, giving him a chance and probably only his mother and father and close family members backing him to do anything at the games, however, Smith put on his spikes, and in a glorious performance, in a surprising performance, won the silver medal in the decathlon.

With a little luck, but for an injury, he may well have won the gold in one of the toughest events in track and field and at the second biggest event in track and field.

The 100 men's metres may well be the glamour event of track and field. To many, however, and especially so in other parts of the world, the marathon apart, the decathlon - the event which tests the versatility and the all-round skill of an athlete, the event which calls for prowess in the 100, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400, 110 hurdles, discuss, pole vault, javelin, and 1,500 - is the event of the Olympic Games and the World Championships.

In contrast to Smith's brilliance, Powell, the hot favourite for the 100 metres, not only finished third, but in placing third, he was not only behind Tyson Gay, but also behind the relatively unknown Derrick Atkins of The Bahamas. He buckled under pressure.

In his own words, the man who finished down the track at the Olympic Games in 2004 when, based on his performances in the earlier rounds, he was expected to win, or at least to fight for the gold medal, the man whose best performance at the big games is a bronze medal, failed to win, or even to finish in second place, at the World Championships because, or so it seemed, after his apparent invincibility leading up to the event, he surrendered.

A world record is great, and it shows that a man, even running against no one and in an empty stadium, can run fast - faster than any man who ever lived.

Victory, however, is sweeter, and it is sweeter because it is competition, because it is one against one, or rather one against many, because it is winning against the best, and when it comes to an occasion like the Olympic Games and the World Championships, it is also because of the pressure.

All things being equal, Powell may win and should win in Beijing this year, and, hopefully, next year he will be crowned Sportsman of the Year for his performance this year.

'One tough amigo'

Based on the performance of Powell and the performance of Smith last year, however, based on the fact that one competed, never succeeded, and also failed to run as fast as he did before that and he has done after that; that one competed, succeeded, bettered his best and surprised everyone while finishing a mere 32 points behind Olympic champion, Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic, Powell, regardless of his world record run a short time after that, did not deserve the crown this time around - definitely not as long as Smith was around.

There must have been a reason, and a good one at that, why Smith was described by DECA, the Decathlon Association's newsletter, as a "tough amigo in Osaka".