GC Foster legacy and local track and field history celebrated in print, film
Published:Saturday | November 5, 2022 | 12:09 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
In chronicling Jamaica’s top track and field performances in the island’s history, author Michael Grant said that he hoped that it would honour the current high status that the country enjoyed worldwide, as well as pay homage to a trailblazer who he said had paved the way for the success that Jamaica had consistently produced.
Grant was speaking at the launch of Fifty Days Afire: Inside Jamaica’s Long Sprint to Freedom, a book co-authored by track and field analyst Hubert Lawrence, at G C Foster College on Thursday night.
The book features 50 of the greatest performances by Jamaica’s athletes, as well as looking at the life of Gerald Claude Foster and his impact, not only on Jamaican athletics, but other sports. Grant said that the book seeks to paint the rich history of Jamaican track and field, continuing the framework from his first two projects.
“This book does a lot of what we wanted to do with the first two. The first two are really about the details. Who won what, when and a zillion photographs. This book focuses on what we think are the greatest times on the track. So we are looking at cultural significance, not just fame,” Grant told The Gleaner. “So it is a way of looking at Jamaica which is moving ahead in progress, in modernity, and what have you, and comparing that to how we have performed on the track, where the teams get bigger, the fame gets bigger, the performances are more famous.”
The performances were ranked from 1908 when Foster travelled to England in his attempt to compete at that year’s Olympics to last year, with double- sprint Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah’s standout performances in the 100 metres being the highlights. Through the book, Grant says that readers will have an appreciation of the growth the sport has taken since Foster’s exploits more than a century ago.
“It’s very easy for the reader to see progress. You can see how our teams have grown, how many stars we have at one time and how much we are respected by our rivals. I suspect they didn’t think much of us 50-75 years ago. But we are definitely ahead of or with the best right now,” Grant said.
Coinciding with the book was the premier of the 30-minute documentary, ‘Finding Foster: The Search for Jamaica’s Lost Sprint Hero’, examining Foster’s life after the 1907 earthquake and his journey to England where it would shape his destiny not only as an athlete, but later as a coach.
“He definitely paved the way. The whole story comes through him. Everything that is happening now comes through him, because the idea of feeling like you can and doing it that early is very important to everyone who is a star right now. So it is something that students, athletes, retired athletes should see and be proud of,” Grant said.
Former Olympic 400m-hurdles champion Deon Hemmings-McCatty was honoured at the launch for her sterling contributions to the sport. Hemmings- McCatty said that she was pleased that her career is still being celebrated long after her retirement from the sport.