BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE WORLD’S Top Sportsmen and Sportswomen from 204 countries gathered in East London to participate in the Opening Ceremony of the 30th Olympiad on Friday evening 27th July, 2012 and seven of them were from our proud Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
All races, all colours, all sizes and varying nationalities descended on to the Olympic Stadium but what they all had in common were their smiles of pride.
Excitement and expectation were clearly written on their faces. They had earned the opportunity to represent their countries in this global competition and in doing so had truly become ‘planetary beings’.
Right there among them were seven of our own: Delwayne Delaney, Jason Rogers, Antoine Adams, Brijesh Lawrence, Lestrod Roland and Tameka Williams and leading them holding proudly our red, green, yellow and black flag displaying its two white stars of Hope and Liberty, was Kim Collins, our veteran sprinter and world champion attending his fifth Olympic Games.
Kim Collins has truly become a phenomenon at the Olympic Games maintaining his position as a finalist in all four appearances and causing the Telegraph UK to admit that he is still a contender for a medal.
“He is a perennial strong starter and at the age of 36 he remains with an outside chance of a medal, although he will have to contend with Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Yohanne Blake and Tyson Gay,” the Telegraph reported.
His record deserves to be applauded here once more:
He was the country's first athlete to reach an Olympic final, and finished 7th in the 100m in 2000, 6th in the 200m in 2004 and 6th in the 200m in 2008.
100m sprinter Kim Collins won the world championships in Paris 2003 and has a personal best of 9.98sec.
But even if this is Collins’ final appearance at the Olympics, all is not lost for following in his footsteps are his fellow relay partners who claimed bronze at the Daegu World Championships in 2011 - Delwayne Delaney, Jason Rogers, Antoine Adams, Brijesh Lawrence and who have been improving steadily since they stepped on to the world stage.
Our lone female Tameka Williams has had a triumphant reign in US College Championships and improving at each meet.
Lestrod Roland has been also building an impressive record, winning the OECS Invitational Meet in the 200 m. He has been able to record a personal best of 10.30 sec in the 100m and 20.67 sec in the 200m. Clearly he is world class material
The Opening Ceremony in its displays depicted the milestones, highlights and significant people that made important contributions as Britain evolved from olde England to its present state as one of the modern capitals of the world.
The 30th Olympiad like the others will create history as it is already recording several historical FIRSTS.
FIRSTS
• London is the first city to host three Games —1908, 1948, 2012
• For the first time, all Olympic events will be available for live viewing — 5,535 hours of coverage — on NBC and its networks
• For the first time The Games also will be officially broadcast on YouTube, allowing fans living in countries without television deals (42 sub-Saharan territories and some Asian nations) to watch live events online.
DID YOU KNOW?
62% of last night’s Flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London were from the sport of Athletics?
SKNVIBES will be bringing you a daily blog covering our athlete’s progress in the London Olympics and commenting on any special highlights at the Games.
