The active will be at home among Jamaicans who are passionate about sports. Football fever has taken the Reggae Boyz to the World Cup finals.  Jamaican netballers known as the “Sunshine Girls”, our boxers and even bobsledders are intrepid in international competition.  Few countries of any size can match Jamaican athletes’ record-breaking exploits. Most recently in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China and the IAAF championships in athletics in Berlin, Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Shelly-Anne Fraser, Melanie Walker and their team mates have been the darlings of the world.  At a somewhat slower pace, community cricket teams still bowl off on a Sunday afternoon.

By Simon Hart in Monaco Published: 8:00PM GMT 22 Nov 2009

 

Usain Bolt: rivals can push me to go even faster

Usain Bolt believes the prospect of more head-to-head confrontations with his biggest rivals could spur him to lower the world records he set at the World Championships in Berlin.

 

The triple world and Olympic champion is one of nine athletes who have signed up for a minimum of seven appearances in next year's inaugural Diamond League series, along with fellow sprinters Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell.

 

The three men met in the same race only once this summer, the World Championships 100 metres final, in which Bolt shattered his own world mark and second-placed Gay set an American record.

 

But the new 14-meet Diamond League format is designed to bring them together at least three times next year, and Bolt, who won most of his races at a canter this summer, believes the competition will force him to run flat out.

 

With no major championship in 2010, there will also be no issue of having to conserve energy to peak at a certain time of the season, and Bolt does not rule out taking his world records into uncharted territory. "For me, I think it is possible because there are going to be a lot of head-to-heads next season, so I'll have to be prepared because I know these guys are going to be gunning for me and trying to beat me," he said.

 

"I'm definitely going to have to stay focused and that's what's going to make it so exciting next season. "Last season there weren't really a lot of head-to-heads. Tyson and I didn't do any running together until the World Championships.

 

"But when there are three great athletes in one race, anything is possible."

 

The 23-year-old Jamaican pulled off his final victory of the year last night when he and American Sanya Richards were crowned world athletes of the year by the International Association of Athletics Federations at an awards ceremony in Monte Carlo – an honour that also enriched them by $100,000.

 

Richards, 24, who took the world 400m title from Christine Ohuruogu in Berlin and outshone the British athlete all season, set the four fastest 400m times in the world and won a share of the Golden League million-dollar jackpot.

 

Bolt was praised by IAAF president Lamine Diack for having taken his events to "an unimagined level" and bringing prestige to the sport.

 

"It's been an amazing year for me," said Bolt. "I did extremely well and I'm very proud of myself."