I can see the commercial: A strapping, young man is rekindling the blissful memories of countryside boyhood days by hurling stones at heavily-laden fruit trees in his Toco village of TroisRoches. But instead of mangoes and coconuts falling victim to his powerful arm, it's an Olympic gold medal that falls into the safe hands of the thrower, who then turns to the camera and follows the director's cue with "Hi, I'm Keshorn Walcott…"
As Trinidad and Tobago's second ever Olympic gold medallist and first since Hasely Crawford's triumph 36 years ago, Walcott has probably already experienced the abundant praise and extravagant promises that parasitic politicians and opportunistic back-slappers are infamous for, assuming he returned home as scheduled late last night. By the way, let's not make light of the fact that our contingent has also brought home three bronze medals and a number of personal and national bests along with a series of finals appearances in what has made London 2012 our most successful venture ever at the quadrennial sporting extravaganza.
Yes, the new champion is certainly worthy all of the sincere plaudits. To claim Olympic gold in the men's javelin at the age of 19 is unheard of. To have done so among a field of experienced, hardened and highly-successful competitors, including the two-time defending champion, borders on the incredible. That he is the first from the Caribbean and only the second from the Western Hemisphere, and from a country that has no tradition whatsoever in the discipline to boot, to claim this honour in the last 104 years of the Olympics, is the sort of material that even Paul Keens-Douglas might have second thoughts about using in one of his upcoming storytelling routines, simply because it is more believable for Boopsie to win a beauty contest.
With apologies to Usain, this has really come as a bolt out of the blue, the biggest upset of London 2012. Look, it is still difficult to come to terms with what was achieved on that final evening of track and field competition in front of a packed house of 80,000 spectators. Even with his status as world junior champion, achieved only last month, we never saw this coming. It has left so many of us with a bit of a hollow feeling for there was really no sense of expectation and anticipation, even hope, before the 12 finalists were introduced on Saturday. According to reports, Walcott himself was just looking for a top eight finish.
Compare this situation with the other great sporting moments in our history and you will appreciate that, in every other case, the nation was building to a crescendo and lustily celebrated the moment of glory.
Whether it was Crawford's 10.06-second sprint to gold in 1976 or Dennis Lawrence's World Cup football finals-clinching header in Bahrain in 2005, we were on the edges of our seats long before the event got under way. When Brian Lara twice claimed the world record for the highest individual Test batting score in Antigua, many of us endured a sleepless night with the batting maestro unbeaten on 320 in 1994 and poised on 313 in 2004 on the mornings that he went on to make history.
Having earned bronze in the 100 and 200 metres at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Ato Boldon was in the form of his life a year later so we were expecting something special at the World Athletics Championships in Athens, the sprinter duly obliging with the 200-metre crown in 20.04 seconds. And when it comes to great moments in boxing, we had months of speculation leading up to Claude Noel's outpointing of Mexico's Rodolfo "El Gato" Gonzalez to take the World Boxing Association lightweight belt in 1981 in Atlantic City, while Leslie "Tiger" Stewart's stopping of American Marvin "Pops" Johnson for the WBA light-heavyweight title generated even greater national fervour as it occurred in front of jubilant thousands at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in 1987.
And it's those last two examples that Walcott will do well to keep in mind, for both Noel and Stewart were well beaten in their first title defences, their defeats to Arturo Frias and Virgil Hill respectively being attributed, in part, to a loss of focus amid the festivities and indulgences following their successes. In sport, whatever the pedigree, you're only as good as your last competition, and if the Toco phenomenon wants to avoid the label of a supremely talented but inconsistent fluke by the end of his competitive days, he would do well to stay close to those who have brought him this far, and take everything and everyone else with a tablespoonful of salt.
That he has identified Jan Zelezny as one of his main inspirations is a very good sign. Arguably the greatest javelin thrower in modern Olympic history, the Czech legend dominated his event for a decade in taking three world titles and the gold medals in three consecutive Olympics, starting with the 1992 Games in Barcelona when he was 26 years of age.
It was at the same Montjuic Stadium last month that Walcott launched his name into the international limelight in taking world junior gold. No-one should be so bold, certainly not the young man himself, to suggest however that he is already ahead of the game.
In the glorious, lingering afterglow of his astonishing success, our new sporting hero will do well to stay true to the disciplines that have brought this stunning golden moment to him and his country.
By Fazeer Mohammed
Source: www.trinidadexpress.com