Jackson outlines four ingredients for success

Mar 14, 2010 Sports

WINNER'S ROW!!!! Grace Jackson and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony (centre) are flanked by the various awardees and other GOA officials. From left Dr Karen Pilgrim, Rawle Toney, Colin Boyce, Charles Corbin, Jeanette Lovell, Mary Chung, GOA President, K. A. Juman Yasin, Josephine Whitehead, Ivor O'Brien, Shirley Hooper and Hector Edwards.

– addresses GOA Awards Ceremony

By Edison Jefford

Jamaican Olympic silver medallist and Sports Development Director at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Grace Jackson outlined four areas for success in sport at the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) Award Ceremony.
Jackson, who the Jamaican Government awarded the Order of Distinction for her contributions to sport, identified tradition, desire, structure and the athlete as ingredients for success in sport and more so, success in athletics.
“What are the threads that keep you together as a nation?” Jackson asked during a stirring feature address Friday night at the Georgetown Club, before identifying music and sport as the two main threads that keep Jamaica together.
“These threads have been stitched together over time and in various forms and have strengthen itself individually. These have created for our country a sense of presence throughout the world,” she said before an enthusiastic audience.
Jackson was a guest of the GOA at the annual event. She had held a rap session with local athletes Thursday night and was scheduled to meet with Guyana’s national junior CARIFTA and Inter-Guiana Games teams yesterday.
The first Vice President of the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association and member of the International Association of Athletics Federations Women’s Committee stated that those four ingredients are important to athletes’ success. “The desire for many of us, including myself, was to come out from less privileged situations. A lot of us as athletes grew up poor and because of our situations, we needed to find a way out and what the way, track and field was” Jackson said. “It did not cost us anything. There are so many things that you could do and do it naturally. Many Jamaican athletes come from those circumstances, not necessarily all but many of them and they have that drive,” she continued on desire.
Jackson told the gathering, who enjoyed cocktails and dinner before her presentation, that there must be set standards. She said that if there are no standards, which form part of the four things she mentioned earlier, there can be no success.
“You have to make standards, both academic and athletic standards.
The athlete is someone that has vision, one that says that ‘I need to get out so that I can come back and help my family’,” she remarked.
In addition, Jackson indicated that vision is a direct offspring of those standards.
“Vision to say that ‘I want to be the best that I can be’ or the vision that Usain (Bolt) has, ‘I want to be a Legend’. Part of Jamaica’s motto is ‘give us vision lest we perish’ and trust me, without vision you can perish,” she stated.
She said that those were the attributes of those that receive awards from the GOA Friday night. Jackson believe that without those ingredients, athletes would not reach their full potential since talent alone cannot suffice.
Rawle Toney awarded Sports Journalist of the Year for his coverage of Olympic Sports while Derek Smith, Gerald Gouveia, George Humphrey, Josephine Whitehead, Jeanette Lovell, Mary Chung, Shirley Hooper all received awards for their Contribution to Sports.
The Guyana Police Force was awarded for Support of GOA Programmes for their role in the Queen’s Baton Relay. Athletic Association of Guyana President and Assistant Superintendent of Police, Colin Boyce collected that accolade.

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