Ted Meinhover

I can’t put my finger on it, perhaps something in the water here, but Jamaica produces some of the fastest runners in the world. The up and coming generation of these athletes, from primary school to the heated college leagues, donned their brightly colored track and burnt up the starting blocks at yesterday’s edition of the annual Gibson Relays, held at the impressive National Stadium in Kingston.

The college recruiters were hardly conspicuous, talking loudly and incessantly on their cell phones and wearing polo shirts from North Carolina University, Duke, and others, their eyes constantly sweeping the track below.

Once the “wickedest city in the world,” Port Royal is now quiet and a bit dilapidated. Half the city sunk in the two great earthquakes, its significance as a trading post and British colonial stronghold in the Caribbean obviously nearly non-existence, a few beat up boats, two fish and shrimp restaurants, and an underwhelming museum are all that remain.