Spice Isle Stand Up!!!!!
On Monday August 6th Kirani James a 19 year-old sprinter from Grenada made history when he won gold in the 400m at the 2012 Olympics in London. This is the first Olympic medal for the Eastern Caribbean nation. With his time of 43.94sec he also became the first athlete from outside the USA to break the 44-second barrier.
Second to James was Luguelin Santos, 18, of the Dominican Republic who won the silver medal with 44.46 seconds. Bronze went to Trinidad’s Lalonde Gordon who clocked in at 44.52, giving the twin island republic it’s first medal for the 2012 Games.
Kirani won the world companionship in 44.60 seconds and his coach Harvey Glance feels confident that he can beat Michael Johnson’s world record of 43.18 seconds.
“When Michael broke his record he must have been 26 or 27 years old,” Glance said. “Kirani’s only going to get faster and stronger. He really wants to put his country on the map. We want to rewrite history.”
Speaking of his country, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas has announced that tomorrow will be a half-holiday for Grenada in recognition of James’ historic win. All government offices will be closed at 1 pm.
The country which is also in the midst of its annual Spice Mas carnival celebrations saw large jubilant crowds reveling at Kirani’s success at London 2012.(Twitter pic below by @RickJam)
Prior to his win at the finals, James made headlines for his kind spirit. After competing in the 400m semi’s he asked South African double-amputee Oscar Pistorius (who didn’t make it to the finals) to exchange Olympic bibs as a souvenir. How sweet is that?!
Congrats Kirani. Onwards and upwards for you!!!
And yay to the runners up #TeamCaribbean tek it to dem!!!! Woie!!!
