By the clock, from the nadir of (on paper) the fastest women's 4x100m team ever assembled failing to finish the race, to the zenith of the men's team destroying the world record at the Beijing Olympics, it took less than an hour yesterday.

In that time, though, between the fumbled change between Sherone Simpson and Keron Stewart, and Asafa Powell, steaming across the finish line, there was a wealth of lessons to be learnt by what is still a very young nation.

One, which we may have forgotten in the euphoria surrounding an unprecedented run of success (literally and figuratively) for Jamaica at the ultimate test of track-and-field prowess, is that great joy is often balanced by great sorrow. Certainly, the stunned crowds in Half-Way Tree, beamed live on television, remembered that it is 'sometimes coffee, sometimes tea' after the baton failed to take the second bend.

And it is something that we would do well to keep in mind when the sorrow of our persistently high murder rate threatens to overwhelm us. For while there certainly is the geographically highly concentrated spate of murders, we have daily triumphs in what may sometimes seem to be ordinary things, but which add up to many times the sum of their apparently humble components.

We must learn to celebrate our achievements, which will naturally be less spectacular and publicised than the bursts of sheer speed that have been laid down in the Bird's Nest Stadium in China, as much as we mourn our well-known failings.

Obvious lesson

An obvious lesson is, of course, that without overall coordination, brilliant individual efforts amount to nothing. However, collectively, we may not see our role in the baton exchange, from the success of the Olympics, to the country as a whole; it is key that we apply the principles of discipline, training and focus, which are behind not every podium appearance, but every athlete making it to Beijing in the first place.

Pride in the black, green and gold is fine, but it is simply not enough.

We must also integrate Asafa Powell's selfless attitude into our lives. After he had anchored Jamaica to the world record, Powell said that he had wanted the team to break the mark so that Bolt could leave the Olympics with an unprecedented clean sweep - three events, three victories, three world records. This is a man who experienced a massive disappointment in the individual shortest sprint, failing to medal when he was expected to be part of a Jamaican one-two finish.

Yet, at his point of possible redemption, to earn his first-ever Olympic medal, Powell thought not of himself but his teammate. And, in putting out his best for his colleague, he achieved something for himself.

It is a cause-and-effect relationship we would do well to understand and replicate.

Finally, the minutes between the baton falling in one race and being hoisted triumphantly in another would naturally have seemed interminable to a disappointed nation. But such is the nature of the changing fortunes of life. And while our current economic and social crisis may seem unending and unbearable, there is sure to be a turnaround.

As Jimmy Cliff sang, "it's going to be a bright, sunshiny day".

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