(upbeat music)
- Girls track and field.
Yeah, it's serious business in Jamaica.
(whistle blowing)
We have so many girls wanting to be a part
of this great legacy that we have in Jamaica.
There's no other school in Jamaica that produces
the amount of athletes going to the Olympics
as St. Jago School.
The pressure is immense.
The pressure is immense.
These kids are hungry.
They are from poor families, and they see this
as a vehicle to keep them out of poverty,
and you know, to breed success.
Soon, and very soon, I'm going to have my Olympic champion.
I mean there are a lot of prospects here.
I couldn't tell you who's going to make the transition,
but first we have the Boys and Girls Champs.
(muffled announcing) (horns blowing)
I don't think there's any harder high school event
in the world like the Boys and Girls Champs in Jamaica.
It's fierce competition over five days.
All of these great athletes who have competed at Champs.
Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Elaine Thompson.
At Champs, it was like a platform or a springboard
for them going into their adult or professional career.
(fun, bouncy music)
- I can say that this football field,
it has done me great justice.
I can't count on my palms the days, my hands,
the days that I've trained over there.
During the nights, you know, I'm there running,
we don't know where I'm running to, but I'm getting
to the end of that line.
I am going to be that Olympic gold medalist
in the 400 metre.
- These are Okhalia's medals.
Most particularly proud of this.
This is the 400 gold medal winner from Champs,
Boys and Girls Champs.
That experience is so overwhelming, I scream, I scream,
and I say, go, Okhalia, that's my girl, that's my girl.
- [Okhalia] I ran 54.42, that placed me eighth in the world
for the juniors.
- [Announcer] Okhalia Buchanan.
- [Okhalia] And I was only 14.
- 'Cause she was the smallest one in the pack,
they called her little rocket.
- The big rocket is Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
So, that's the big rocket.
- [Narrator] This is what house?
- You know, this is where I'm from,
so I'm familiar with everybody.
(mixed chattering)
Yeah, so these are my, I grew up with everybody here.
(foreign language)
Growing up, my mother was very poor.
We lived in a one room.
We had a lot of violence, so most times you come
on this street, you see a lot of police.
You can't come out at a certain hour.
(contemplative music)
My mother was an athlete.
She got pregnant when she was very young,
she dropped out of school, and that was it, you know?
And for me, she wanted to make sure that
what happened to her didn't happen to me.
I remember my mother saying, you know,
track and field's your way out.
This can be your way out.
So you find that for a lot of girls,
now more focused than ever because they realise
it's possible for them to become an Olympian,
it's possible for them to become more
than their circumstances.
- I won't say that my mother is rich,
but she tries her best to keep us,
to keep us alive and to let us know that
there's always bigger and better things
for the years coming.
- Okhalia is not from an athlete background,
she's from a low income family with her mother,
who is the bread winner, doing as best as she can.
(mumbling)
For me, that imagination of being an Olympic champion
in terms of my family, I would ensure that life is good.
I'd leave no one behind.
(fun, bouncy music)
- Okhalia Buchanan, fantastic young athlete
who has trumped challenges because of injury.
She has had a lasting hamstring injury
that somebody I know, getting out to her to fix it properly.
- I have to get continued flush outs
so the pain can be removed, as I train daily.
- Okhalia, she didn't get to run last year
because two weeks before Champs, she got injured.
The year before, something similar happened,
so I think her soul, her spirit is down.
- Track and field, as everyone would say,
is an ungrateful sport, but I'm coming back
slowly but surely, and time will tell.
- I don't think much people out there remember Okhalia
because she's been three years out of the running.
She needs to go there and surprise people now.
(upbeat techno music)
- Yes, Okhalia, low squat, go down.
Not half squat, right, full squat.
Anything has to do with your arms, you've got to be quick.
Can't waste much time.
Alesha Kelly is our special talent.
So, we have some big plans in terms of her
going to the running in June, and maybe in the Olympics.
I honestly thought that last year,
she could have gone to the Olympics, you know,
I thought she could have at even a part of the four by four.
- [Keilando] Alesha, she has a recent record that's in,
she's a gift to us.
- Well, training is very important
because all the top schools want to see in people
is a track and field war.
It is very intense, everybody wants to win.
But at the end of the day, there only can be one winner.
I will bet that St. Jago will be the winner.
- [Narrator] So, that's a casualty?
- Casualty.
After patch her up, I can get her back ready.
But she'll be good, she'll be good, she'll be good.
(reggae music) (mixed chattering)
- I'm currently living in Spanish Town,
I've been here for one year.
I grew up in Saint Mary.
As world like, tours from Spanish Town.
- This is where Alesha lived for the past year.
I have five brothers here and I have two daughters here,
which are mine, there's several girls.
Five teenagers, which is just,
means I kinda hate it at times.
I love them, Alesha is my girl.
She's a very nice girl, very, very nice girl.
- Well, my family, you know, they're all over the place.
All over.
My mom is in Orlando, Florida.
Well, I talk to my mom every day.
Every single day, so.
(reggae music)
- At first, she used to like, cry, and sulk away,
but I talked to her and I said, Alesha,
God gave you this gift to run.
It's not where you're from, it's what you intend to do
and what you do do with that.
Stop looking behind, Alesha, try to look forward.
(chanting)
(upbeat reggae music)
- At Champs, the last five years,
we have won four championships.
The past Olympics, that was our most successful,
we had four Olympians.
We have well over 100 girls.
And they make up about 70% of the team
from the land, and birthed of Jamaica.
But that's our living dormitory for our female team.
And that's where all of our champions sort of,
able to develop from.
Girls, incredible on this side because we're gonna
do work over here.
We start to recruit at age 11, 12.
The girls want to be at, havin' all.
They want to be the girls who are the champions,
who are born and still exceling.
For example, Shellece Clark, Shellece has been champion
coming up since age 11, 12.
When you go to recruit, they would ask,
we are going to go to the same school as Shellece,
can we meet her?
So, sometimes we probably take her along
so they would meet her and you know,
get attracted to her, and want to be apart
of our programme as well.
(upbeat music) (muffled announcing)
- [Narrator] Leading away our first time, a fast game.
- In Champs 2015, I participated in the 100 metre,
200 metres, and the 400 metre, which I came out with
being a triple gold medalist.
I guess you could say I'm surprised overall because
growing up, I wasn't really a fan of track and field.
It's pretty shocking.
- [Woman] This is where she won three gold medals.
Once Champs seasons starts, every paper, we take out.
- [Man] Every paper.
- Something pertaining to Shellece.
When she was about three years old,
I noticed she walked on her toe with pain,
and I always wondered, is something wrong with her?
I took her to the doctor, and the doctor said no,
she's fine.
And a friend of mine said, she's going to be a sprinter,
that's why she walked on her toes like that.
- Yes, the Olympics gold, yes!
- One year at Champs. - Be confident.
Probably 20, 2020?
- 2020. - 2020, yeah.
2020, we're looking for it.
(upbeat music)
(banging)
(mixed announcing and horns blowing)
- I would imagine roughly 50 coaches come down here
to recruit some of these athletes.
One of the reasons why I recruit here
is because the kids here are a lot more hungry.
The opportunities are more scarce here,
so they're trying to run themselves out
into a better situation.
(muffled announcing and horns blowing)
- I think Champs is the reason that Jamaican
track and field athletes for a population
of only three million people are so dominant.
What these kids go through in terms of the pressure
and handling the pressure, it gets them ready
for a bigger stage when they go on
to the world championships or the Olympic games.
They've been brought up in this atmosphere,
they're ready for it, and you can see a result.
(mixed chattering)
(cheering)
- This year, I've endured a lot of challenges.
I've had an hamstring problem since last year,
but I guess it progressed into this year and it got worse.
Monday when I got here, I found out that I wouldn't be
doing the 100 metre, so it kinda threw me off, but yeah.
Patrice will be replacing me in the 100 metre.
- [Announcer] From Edwin Allen, Patrice Moody.
- They learn from now that you have to work hard
each year in order to maintain the top position,
and any time, any moment, you can be kicked away
from that top position by someone else.
Shellece is not gonna be running the relay.
You know, I know that Shellece is disappointed,
but I don't work with sentiments.
It doesn't matter what you have done in the past,
track and field is not about history,
it is what you've done on the day.
(horn blowing) (muffled announcing)
(hip hop instrumental)
(horn blowing) (muffled announcing)
- Run, run!
- [Announcer] This is Shellece Clark with a slight fumble
by Edwin Allen, that allows Excelsior to sneak
up on the outside, but Shellece Clark gets back
into contention.
- Shellece!
Run, Shellece!
Shellece!
Shellece!
Run, Shellece!
Shellece, run!
- [Announcer] Edwin Allen, from fumbling, turned,
and goes away for the gold medal.
(muffled announcing)
- Yeah.
(mixed chattering)
- I saw her make it and that was it.
You understand me, go out and do your thing today, Okhalia.
- The next Jamaican sensation, look at her now.
Look at that, the mommy there.
- Yeah, okay, love.
(mixed chattering)
Yeah, marathon today.
(foreign language)
- She out here doing it for us.
- Everybody's out here supporting me right now,
and I'm very thankful.
(mixed chattering)
Ever since I've been running, they have been supporting me
even though I was Injured, they would ask me like,
when am I coming back, when am I gonna turn back.
I'm ready to go out there, compete at my best.
- [Narrator] You are the best.
- Thank you.
And do whatever it is that takes me to the finals.
Oh, Jesus.
(contemplative music)
- After yesterday's performance, Okhalia was a little bit
shaky in terms of self confidence, and we're trying to see
if we can get back to the stage where there is the Okhalia
of three years ago.
She ran a beautiful 350 metres at the race,
and then coming down to the end, she died.
She ran a 57, we need Okhalia to run at least a 55
to be guaranteed a spot going into the final.
So, it's two seconds off.
This year would have been the year, she has been working
very hard, but coming back from the type of injury,
she has had two hamstring injuries back to back,
and we don't want to be unrealistic in saying,
oh, she's gonna just suddenly run at 52 or 53.
(mixed chattering)
- These girls are very excited about this championship.
You know?
You are competing against the best of the best,
so this is the thing that overseas sports look at,
they don't look at any other thing.
This is my final year.
I'm here to do big things, great, great things.
I'm determined of everything that I do,
so it's gonna be competitive, yes,
but I don't think it's gonna be very hard for me to win.
(horns blowing)
- [Announcer] Joins her, Alesha Kelly presses on the gas,
so she wants to secure the win, and she does.
- [Announcer] So, on track now, girls 400 metres
semi final round.
In lane five from St. Jago, Alesha Kelly.
In lane two, Edwin Allen's Okhalia Buchanan.
(banging)
So, here we go, and Alesha Kelly of St. Jago
is kind of like the bullet from a gun.
Onto the back stretch on the outside,
so, turning right, her steps, also travelling fast.
So is Ranesha McGregor of Hydel,
St. Jago's Alesha Kelly, and Satania Wright.
Also going well on the outside, Okhalia Buchanan
of women's is trying to get back to the party.
It's Alesha McGregor all by herself from Hydel,
away from Alesha Kelly of St. Jago.
McGregor, she come across the line first.
Alesha Kelly slowing down rapidly,
but gets across the line in second just ahead
of Satania Wright and Myesha Bonds of Steths
and Edwin Allen respectively.
(contemplative music)
- I can only hope that from here on,
I can only improve and not go back to square one.
So, you'll see, this is not the end of me,
that's what I'll see, it's not the end of me.
- I think Jamaica pushes some of these athletes too hard,
especially with the talented ones.
A lot of these kids are doing a lot of work in training.
Some of them get injured, and the schools and the coaches
can not be proactive with injury management.
And we see them come into Champs and aggravate an injury.
There's a lot of talent in Jamaica.
Some of the coaches feel it's just a matter
of moving on to the next.
So, they don't have to take the time to deal
with injuries correctly because there is always someone
waiting in the wings.
- [Announcer] It is McGregor, following Kelly Winter.
Williams coming now on the inside,
Williams of Steths taking aim, but on the outside,
it is Kelly Williams fighting back.
Williams and Kelly.
Stacy and Williams of Steths.
Great run there by Kelly of St. Jago,
but Stacy Williams just made it home.
- Talent pool in Jamaica, every year, one set graduates,
the next year, it's just some other person's problem.
Even when Elaine comes, and Shelly-Ann Fraser Price retires,
I don't think we'll have a problem replacing them
because the talent pool in Jamaica is almost like
a spring or a fountain, and we're looking forward to
giving the world their next big female face
of track and field.
(orchestral music)
(horns blowing)
(upbeat music)
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