The 2009 athletics season is over. The celebrations have been held, the plaudits received. It will be recorded as a good year for our athletics - what with our magnificent performances in Berlin. It will also be recorded as a wonderful year for athletics worldwide - what with the rapid growth in the popularity of the sport.

This growth has also been fuelled by the heroics and camera-friendly antics of the sports stars like our own Usain Bolt, but including Bianca Vlasic, the 'dancing' high jump queen, pole-vaulter Isenbiyeva (of the short-short shorts) Hooker, the Australian 'two vault' champion who looks like a young Crocodile Dundee, and the unbeatable Ken Bekele.

But the year was actually fraught with problems. At home, the contretemps between the officials of the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) and the country's leading coach; the scandal of the doping accusations involving some of our new stars; the 'cas-cas' over the women's 4x100 metres relay in Berlin, all show us that there is still a lot to be done in the area of management and technical competencies where the sport is concerned.

We must remember that it was the top leadership of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) who insisted that the JAAA change its decision to withdraw some of our top athletes from the Championships. It began when officials made a technical decision without consulting the coaches of the athletes and getting their consent! I still shudder to think how the pot-cover-wielding denizens of some areas of our inner city may have responded when they converged on the big screens only to hear that their heroines had been 'withdrawn' by a Jamaican official because they did not attend a camp!

Possible interpretations

We should also remember the situation of the relay. Veronica Campbell has now been named a UNESCO ambassador. So we will have to keep the egg off the face of the IAAF by not investigating this too deeply. But there are only two possible interpretations. Veronica was told that she would not run the anchor in the relay too late and in too offhand a manner, so she was offended and hurt and over-reacted. Either that or she was being petty and petulant and letting us all down.

All track fans know that relay teams are 'pulled up' all the time because of the exigencies of the situation. The statement that she 'always' runs the anchor is also untrue. I specifically remember the young Veronica running in at least one (and I think it was two) relays which were anchored by someone else. And then there is the absurdity of the team having practiced one way. Which team? One without Shelley-Ann?

And, finally, we should bear in mind the incident where athletes tested positive for a banned substance - and the inept way in which it was handled.

So, for us, it was not a completely 'rosy' year. For the sport in general, there were problems as well. Chief of these was the Semenya affair. But the biggest potential problem came at the end in the person of Carmeleta Jeter.

Now there are three types of 'phenoms' in in the world of sprinting: First there are those who perform brilliantly from youth. Lashinda Demus, who won at the Jamaican Junior Championships and Melaine Walker who came second to her, both went on to brilliant careers in college and then transferred smoothly onto the world scene. In this category too are Lauryn Williams, Kerron Stewart, Sanya Richards, Allison Felix, Carolina Kluft and, of course, Veronica Campbell who dominated the world from the Under 17 World Youth Championships.

The second type of 'phenom' are those who come to prominence in their 'college' years (19-22). This is when people like Tyson Gay rose to prominence. So too did Shelly Ann Fraser, Asafa Powell, Muna Lee,and Shericka Williams,

Cheating

Then there is the athlete who who performs 'passably' for most of their careers and then, all of sudden, they get more muscular, their stride pattern changes and they become unbeatable. Christine Ohurugu ran the 400 metres in 54.21 as a junior in 2003 but was not good enough to impact the World Junior Championships. By 2004, she was running a blistering 50.50. However, she was found to be cheating and banned. Valrie Briscoe-Hooks came from nowhere to run 48.83 in the 400 metres and 21.81 in the 200 metres at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. She stopped running right after. Florence Griffiths-Joyner who was running the 200 metres in 22.41 in 1983 at age 24 'transformed' at age 28, became more muscular and developed a stride pattern much like that of Ato Boldon and Frankie Fredericks, and promptly went on, at age 29, to set world records of 21.34 and 10.62 in Seoul!

The new 'phenom', Carmeleta Jeter is in this category. She could barely make the United States team in her early 20s. In 2004, at age 24, her best time for the 100m was 11.56. By 2007, at age 27, she still could not break the 11 second barrier. In 2009, at age 29, she is beating everyone. Her stride looks more like Flo-Jo's, her power is unbelievable and she is set to break the world record.

Marion Jones could only manage 5th and 7th places at her World Junior's but left the sport for a couple years and then came back in 1998 to set the world ablaze with her long, powerful strides.

Now Marion Jones is one of a number of persons who were found to be cheating but never tested positive. So we are to wonder, is the new phenomenon called Jeter, clean?

What a tragedy for the sport it would be, if it turns out that she is not.

Keith Noel is an educator. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.