Bolt to make BMW stop-over in Germany

Bolt's BMW

Triple Olympic gold medal winner, Usain Bolt, is to stop over in Germany on his way to the International Associations of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF’s) Gala event in Monaco to take up offers for specialised driving lessons from auto makers BMW.

The 22-year-old, who left the island yesterday, was given a “fully loaded” custom made BMW M3 as a birthday gift from apparel sponsors, Puma, days after his exploits at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He is to attend the world famous BMW ‘M’ driver school at Nuremberg Ring in Germany.

The offer came on August 23 during a press conference in Beijing where Puma CEO, Jochen Zeitz, made the announcement.

The driving lessons came as an initiative from Stewarts Autos, the dealers for BMW in Jamaica.

Just prior to Bolt’s return from the Olympics and raced on the European circuit, chairman of Stewarts Motors, Richard Stewart, told the Observer of their plans to ensure that the world’s fastest man gets the necessary training to maneuver the powerful sports car.

“We are very conscious of the fact that really and truly with a car of this nature we need to send him (Bolt) to what is called the BMW ‘M’ driver school, so we are co-ordinating that with BMW, and of course we are looking forward to hosting him with BMW in Germany at a future date after we deliver the car here in Jamaica,” he said then.

Bolt, meanwhile, is expected to walk away with at least two awards at this Sunday’s Gala, which will be held in the Salle des Etoiles of the Sporting Club d’Ete in the Principality of Monaco.

The lanky Jamaican, who broke the 100m and 200m world records, clocking 9.69 and 19.30 seconds, respectively, at the Olympics and was part of the 4×100m relay team which ran a world record 37.10 seconds, has been nominated for the Male Athlete-of-the-Year as well as two nominations for the Performance-of-the-Year awards.

Reggae Boyz Worldcup Dreams turn to Nightmare – despite blanking Canada 3-0 in qualifier

Striker Luton Shelton (left) rounds Canada’s goalkeeper, Lars Hirschfield, on the way to scoring Jamaica’s first goal during the CONCACAF World Cup qualifier at the National Stadium last night. The Reggae Boyz won, 3-0. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Jamaica crashed out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals last night despite registering their biggest victory (3-0) over Canada in the CONCACAF penultimate round qualifiers at the National Stadium last night.

Luton Shelton, Marlon King and Omar Cummings registered strikes for the Reggae Boyz, but they needed to have won by seven clear goals to advance to the final phase of the CONCACAF qualifiers, starting next February and running through to October.

Honduras won their match against a struggling Mexico to top the group on 12 points, ahead of Mexico on 10, the same as Jamaica. However, Mexico advance on a superior goal difference of +3, to Jamaica’s 0.

Canada remained rooted at the foot of the four-team Group Two on two points.

Only two teams advance to the next phase, which will comprise six teams, with the top three advancing to South Africa, and the fourth place team entering a dreaded home and away play-off with the fifth place team from the powerful South America region.

Jamaica opened the scoring in the 28th minute when Shelton latched onto a through pass from Demar Phillips and he rounded goalkeeper Lars Hirschfield before slotting home to take Jamaica into the break with a slender lead, in what was less than an impressive first 45 minutes for the team needing to win big.

King added to Jamaica’s tally on 57 minutes when he converted a penalty kick after Phillips was tripped up inside the penalty box, and substitute Cummings added a third in the 85th minute when defensive stalwart Ian Goodison overlapped on the left side and centred for the Colorado striker to slide home.

But from long before the third goal, it was clearly a matter of too little, too late, and there are many who would believe that former Brazilian technical director Rene Simoes would have left a legacy far less memorable than he did in the 1998 campaign.