These and countless other such moments are an immense source of pride for Jamaicans at home and abroad and a colossal source of mystery to everyone else. The question lingers on the collective lips of the world's spectators ... How can a country so small and so underdeveloped continually out-perform the globe's best and brightest at various sports?
The answer remains a mystery, but what is patently clear is that Jamaicans have a natural kinship with the realm of sports, an affinity that could only be enhanced if reinforced with the application of modern-day scientific and technological advances that have enabled more developed sporting countries to excel.
Uncovering the science
Singh
Armed with this knowledge, the University of the West Indies (UWI) set out three years ago to establish the Caribbean Sports Medicine Centre (CSMC) under the auspicious guidance of the Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Professor Archibald McDonald, and regionally acclaimed orthopaedic surgeon, member of the inaugural International Cricket Council (ICC) medical panel and chairman of the West Indies Cricket Board medical panel, Dr Akshai Mansingh.
The centre is the only one of its kind in the West Indies to specialise in the emerging discipline of sports and exercise medicine, which focuses on the use of science and medicine to enhance athletic performance and control chronic lifestyle diseases. Mansingh and his team have committed their energies to uncovering the science behind West Indian sports and leveraging this knowledge to our regional advantage.
"The unfortunate decline in the results of West Indies cricket is partly explained by the superior use of science by the rest of the world, and our own reluctance to use this information to our advantage, leaving us far behind. Results are driven by training and development and must be applied to all our sports to facilitate growth," Mansingh said.
He adds: "Consider that a cyclist who is even two per cent dehydrated becomes physically impaired and this leads to decreased speed, and in fact, a mere five per cent dehydration affects an athlete's judgement and can explain why a batsman plays a rash shot or why a goalkeeper misses the ball. We now understand that these intricacies can mean the difference between winning and losing."
The UWI Sports Medicine Clinic, a component of the CSMC, is the only one of its kind in the Caribbean to treat competing athletes.
Dr Mansingh said: "Many athletes see their personal doctors for medical problems, inclusive of injuries, but these are usually not sports physicians and many are not aware of restricted medications for athletes or of how vital a minimal rehabilitation period is to the athlete. Through the UWI Sports Medicine Clinic the athletes can not only be seen but effectively treated."
The clinic conducts medical screenings and testing, including medical check-ups, blood and urine tests, injury detection and prevention, radiological and drug tests and sports psychology. Data collection will also be used to maintain an athletic passport for each client, that is, a comprehensive database of patient injuries and treatments that can be accessed globally to ensure proper care is given in the event of an injury.
Mansingh and his team also conduct ongoing sports development research and was successful in developing a database of cricket injuries which, in collaboration with similar databases from Australia and South Africa, has led to the amending of international cricket rules and the consequent reduction in the level of injuries to cricketers.
Rule changes implemented as a result of the database include bringing forward the boundary rope to allow players to slide without injuring their ankles, and no longer holding back-to-back one-day international matches.
Apart from Dr Mansingh, the UWI CSMC has two other trained sports medicine doctors and access to two radiologists who specialise in musculoskeletal radiology, and the most powerful Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The doctors also perform arthroscopic surgical procedures not offered in many centres in the West Indies.
The second consultant doctor, Dr Premanand Singh, has been the doctor of the Jamaican netball team for years, and was head of the medical team for Jamaica to the Beijing Olympics.
The third member, Dr Paula Dawson, is the only board-certified consultant physiatrist in the Caribbean with fellowship training in the field of Interventional Spine and Sports Medicine. Dr Dawson's patients, many of whom are international, are avid fans of her work, as athletes who come to her with intense lower back and neck pain are subject to a series of interventional spine injections, and feel relief many times after the first treatment.
The UWI Sports Medicine Clinic is, in fact, no stranger to celebrity athletes, who include both premier-ship and professional footballers from Europe and other inter-national sporting hotbeds, Test cricketers, elite track and field athletes, including those training at the university with coach Glen Mills, and international netballers.
The clinic physicians proudly recalled tending recently to English cricketer Andrew Flintoff, who was injured in St Kitts during the recent Test series and had to be flown to the clinic in Jamaica for treatment. Within an hour he was back on a plane to St Kitts.
Centre for sporting excellence
The University is also investing in first-class sports development facilities, due to be completed by 2012. These will include a multi-purpose sports complex, state-of-the-art gym and a mondo track. According to Dr Mansingh, too many of our athletes are going abroad for tertiary education.
- Contributed