1980 Bob Marley visited Brazil in preparation for a world tour. The visit was merely a scouting mission for the tour that would be happening the following year. It was a visit that would see the worlds of reggae, Brazilian music and football collide. After taking a stop in Manaus Bob headed to Rio de Janeiro where his primary aim was to play football, and if you are a musician wanting to play football in Rio de Janeiro there is only one place to go; Chico Buarque‘s private football pitch. The teams for the session were: Team A – Bob Marley, Junior Marvin (member of the Wailers), Paulo César Caju (member of the Brazil 1970 squad), Toquinho (Brazilian musician), Chico Buarque and Jacob Miller (lead singer of Inner Circle) Team B – Alceu Valença (Brazilian musician), Chicão (member of Jorge Ben’s band) and four staff from Island Records PHOTO: Back: Junior Marvin, Toquinho e um penetra. Front: Jacob Miller, Chico Buarque, Paulo César Caju e Bob Marley Rio, 19/03/80 VIDEO: Bob Marley scoring a goal: Bob_Marley joue au foot Brazil_1980 by JAHLIVE29 Paulo César Caju, who was a member of the great Brazil 1970 team would later say: […]
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Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown and her US counterpart sprinter Allyson Felix and are expected to be among the stars of this year’s IAAF Diamond League and and with three weeks to go before the opening meeting of 2013, on Friday 10 May in Doha, the pair spoke to journalists on Thursday (18). Below are the edited highlights of their conference call, with the London 2012 Olympic Games 200m gold medallist Felix speaking from California and the reigning 200m World champion Campbell-Brown on the phone from Florida. How important are competitions like the IAAF Diamond League as part of your preparations en route to the IAAF World Championships in Moscow? Veronica Campbell-Brown: The Diamond League is very important for my preparations and I like the fact that I get to compete against the best women in the world. It’s a good way to see where you are in respect to the World Championships in Moscow. Allyson Felix: The Diamond League competitions are definitely going to be very important to see where we are at and face top competition with the main goal being, for me, to make the World Championships team. There’s always great match-ups, great competition, and that’s what we […]
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Chapeltown’s Yona Knight-Wisdom, whose father was born in Kingston, is officially Jamaica’s number one diver and has high hopes of joining Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake at the opening parade ceremony of the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Yona made his debut for Jamaica earlier this year when he competed at an international meeting in Dresden, Germany, advancing to the finals. This past Easter weekend, competing for his City of Leeds club, Yona won a Gold in the 1m event at the British Gas Elite National Junior Diving Championships, scoring 502, a new Personal Best. Knight Wisdom also won Silver in the 3m event. “I couldn’t be happier with these results and it gives me huge confidence for the summer international competitions”, said Yona, bubbling with enthusiasm. “It’s also a fantastic way to end my junior career.” [hr] [column2] [/column2] [column2_last] [/column2_last] [hr] The Elite National Championship is the highlight on the domestic junior calendar and was held at the John Charles Centre in Leeds, where the country’s top under 18 divers battled it out for honours. “British diving is at a really high standard at the moment with the likes of Jack Laugher and Tom Daley”, Knight-Wisdom confirmed. “It could […]
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With less than three weeks remaining for her April 20 world title fight in Panama against Chantall Martinez for her World Boxing Council super bantamweight title, Alicia ‘Slick’ Ashley has left her New York base to train in Argentina. The fight will take place at the Roberto Duran Arena in Panama City. There are two reasons for this change. The first is that her lead trainer Hector Roca has to be in Argentina to be with one of his fighters, Carlos Abrega, who has a fight there on April 15. The second is that Argentina is warmer than New York at this time of the year and this is what Ashley says that she wants at this time. She arrived in Argentina last Saturday and resumed her training schedule immediately. She told The Gleaner that she is enjoying the warmer weather in Argentina, and is pleased that she has two good male sparring partners who can really push her. She concedes that Martinez will be a good opponent, but is going into the ring very confident that she will retain her title. “I am not about to give up my title to anyone, and whoever challenges me will have a […]
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Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant which has sponsored the series for three years since its inception in 2010, has opted not to renew its deal for the forthcoming season, leaving the world governing body with precious little time to find a replacement before action gets underway. The title sponsorship deal is believed to have been worth around £3 million a year to the IAAF, who have been forced to make financial cutbacks in recent years to weather the global economic crisis. However, the IAAF insisted yesterday that the series would not be affected by Samsung’s departure and that it would make up any shortfall in the budget from its own reserves until another commercial partner was found. Until then, the series will be known as the IAAF Diamond League. Samsung’s decision is a blow to the sport so soon after it enjoyed spectacular exposure at the London Olympics but an IAAF source the company had opted to “cut back on its exposure-driven activities”. It recently announced an individual endorsement deal with Usain Bolt and continues to sponsor the Olympic Games and Chelsea Football Club. [column3] [/column3] [column3] [/column3] [column3_last] [/column3_last]
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On the track and in the field, the Carifta Games was Jamaica’s business as usual. A total of 69 medals and a 28th straight year on top don’t lie. Off track, burning questions beg for good answers. As soon as young star Michael O’Hara was declared ill with a full-blown case of chicken pox, a red flag went up. Apparently, young O’Hara arrived in The Bahamas afflicted. It makes you worry for those with whom he travelled there and for his family, friends and colleagues at Calabar. If the virus was passed on to the Carifta team and those they came close to in The Bahamas, the consequences are dire. Presumably, the Carifta officials were convinced that the crisis was well handled by the Jamaican team. Otherwise, they would have had no choice but to send Jamaica home. HEALTH CONCERNS PERSIST That would have killed off the Carifta Games, but the health concern would have had top billing. As things stand, it’s critical to check how O’Hara became infected and to care for any others who may be in danger. I’m no public-health expert, but the first step seems to be an immediate check with his family […]
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Lack of funding will force Jamaica to kick off this weekend’s final round of CONCACAF Under-17 World Cup football qualifiers short on international match experience, raising caution flags about the players’ readiness for competition. The Young Reggae Boyz begin their bid for a return to the World Cup against Panama on Saturday without the benefit of any warm-up games against non-local competition in nine months because the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) could not afford the exposure for the players. Jamaica will also play Barbados on April 8 in their final Group A fixture. “The federation is strapped for cash just now,” said head coach Wendell Downswell, who guided the U-17s to the 2011 World Cup in Mexico. “So we’ve not been able to get any form of international games, apart from the games that we played (earlier) in the qualifying rounds.” Without that test, it’s difficult to predict how the Boyz will react in the qualifiers. “It hurts the team to an extent,” Downswell said. “International exposure … you use that as a measuring stick.” Jamaica reached Panama by winning Caribbean round games against Antigua and Barbuda (4-0) and Bermuda (5-0) last July. The squad has since been […]
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Tournament Schedule 12-team event will decide confederation’s representatives to U-17 World Cup PANAMA CITY, Panama — Defending U-17 World Cup champion Mexico will face Honduras and Cuba, while host Panama will meet Barbados and Jamaica in the first round of the 2013 CONCACAF Under-17 Championship. The tournament draw, which was held today and conducted by CONCACAF General Secretary Enrique Sanz at the Hotel Sheraton Panama, determined the first-round opponents for the April 6-19 event. Host Panama and Mexico, by virtue of its 2011 World Cup finish, were pre-seeded into Group A and Group D, respectively. “We are very excited about this tournament, which will showcase the next generation of our Confederation’s upcoming talent,’ said CONCACAF President, Jeffrey Webb, during his opening speech. “We wish the best of luck to all the qualified teams and hope one of the four teams representing our region at the World Cup will retain the title for this category. Team Jamaica The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals, the winners of which will qualify for the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, October 17-November 8. It will be the first time Panama has […]
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The National Aquatics Centre was briefly plunged into darkness six finals into the ultimate evening of competition at the 28th staging of the Carifta Swimming Championship. An announcement followed over the public address system, asking that the grandstand to the far side be evacuated. As the youngsters who became excited by the possible danger piled out, smoke was seen coming from the rear of the stand. The fire brigade was soon on the scene, as it was reported that there was a small fire coming from one of the generators. The area was cordoned off and persons were allowed to return to the stands and focus returned to the pool. This was the only dark spot on a bright night for Jamaica’s swimmers, as they bettered their medal haul from last year. At press time, with the six relays – yet to be contested – the country’s tally stood at 35: 11 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze. Jamaica also moved up on the points standings, as they occupied fourth with 508 points, having finished sixth last year. Guadeloupe (686) led ahead of Trinidad and Tobago (630) and Aruba (601). Last year, Jamaica won 32 medals. Jamaica’s 11th gold […]
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HAILING FROM Leeds but representing Jamaica, the main goal for three-metre diver Yona Knight-Wisdom is to represent the Caribbean country at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil. But like every sportsperson, the price of success is not cheap and the 17-year-old from Chapelton needed financial support to assist him with achieving his dream of competing in Rio. And thankfully for Yona, who won a gold medal at the British National Diving Championships in Plymouth in February, entrepreneur Levi Roots has committed to sponsoring the promising athlete. Disclosing how he got in touch with the founder of Reggae Reggae Sauce, Yona told the Voice of Sport: “I sent him an email from the email address on his website saying what I was doing, what I was looking for, I sent him a video of some of my dives and they replied to me. They asked me to come down to London and have a meeting with them. I discussed it with my coach and with them and they were really happy give me some money for the next four years in the run up to the Olympics. “He was there in the meeting and he was asking me all […]
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