Jamaica dances as its Olympians run for gold
By Jacqueline Charles and Conrad McLeod | The Miami Herald
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Cars honked. Crowds cheered and Jamaica stood still.
Every time Usain Bolt's image flashed across the giant TV screen in Nelson Mandela Park at Kingston's Half Way Tree Square, the crowd standing at the four-way intersection roared. And when he bolted toward his historic, world record setting gold?
They charged with him, pouring into the streets as traffic came to a standstill, fists pounding in the air, urging him on.
''It's over now,'' Lillian Bolt screamed as she watched her nephew on a television screen perched inside his former high school in Trelawny, two hours from the capital.``Bolt, Bolt, Bolt.''
When he captured gold in a world record time of 19:30 seconds, she broke down in tears: ``Bolt has done it again. He has done it all for Jamaica and the world.''
In Kingston, where 3,000 people had gathered at the busy intersection, young girls fell to their knees, men offered up bear hugs and old women cried. Reggae artists Bob Marley and Movado crooned on recordings. Confetti flew and Jamaicans celebrated. They jumped up and down, and they danced in the street. ''It feels like I am in heaven,'' Nicola Hansen, 31, said. ``Jamaica did it once. Jamaica did it twice, and we are doing it again.''
Seconds later, the frenzy was back again. This time as hurdler Melaine Walker, ''a girl from the ghetto,'' captured gold in the 400-meter hurdles. As she hurdled down the final stretch, Jamaica police Sgt. Keith Steele, on duty for crowd control, was beside himself. He jumped up and down, his gun in his holster.
Read the complete story at miamiherald.com.
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