REGAINING MY INTEREST IN SPORTS

BY JUDY HAUGHTON-JAMES


       Janine and I have been big sports fans over the years with our favourites being athletics, football and cricket. We both would be glued to our television sets when these games were on. It has been a real struggle for me to regain the interest that I used to have as we were always watching these events together. Anyway I am working real hard at it and I know that Janine would want me to continue to enjoy these sports.


        So far the sport that I have managed to show the best level of interest in is athletics. No surprise really! We have some great Jamaican athletes - Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, Asafa Powell, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Brigette Foster-Hylton, Kaliese Spencer, Melaine Walker, Kerron Stewart etc.  Believe me, with a line-up like this, once you are a big athletics fan, it is not too difficult to regain one's interest, especially when it comes on to the Olympics and World Games!


         Football comes next. I show some interest in local and international competitions and watched the last World Cup. I basically watched the key games. When Janine was around I watched many more games.


         Cricket has been the most difficult one for me. It demands sitting and watching a game for long hours and that still isn't easy. The fact that our West Indies team has not been doing very well in recent times has not really helped. Anyway the Twenty Twenty matches have been rather exciting so I have watched part of these games from time to time.  Yesterday The West Indies team seemed to be hinting to me to get back as they won their first test match since February 2009! This came after 17 matches.


         As I discuss sports, I remember that Janine and I were not  good at it during our high school days.  I can recall us playing these games during our Physical Education classes - volleyball, netball and softball. Did I say playing?!


        Our first cousin, Lister Haughton-James, was a very good coach at St.Mary High School with this school winning Girls, Boys and Eastern Champs a number of times. While we were students at Marymount High School some of the Physical Education teachers wondered if we were really related to him.  Ah well, we were not good at sports but were big sports fans over the years. In another post I will publish my poem titled 'SPORTS FAN.'  


         In the meantime I hope Lister gets to come to Jamaica this year so that I can do an interview of him for the St. Mary High School website. I already have a battery of questions supplied by Otis Sinclair, one of the founders of the site. Of course I will have a few of my own. I wonder if he can explain why Janine and I did not get this knack for athletics!:)