Dear Editor,

The sudden demise of Bolt and the rise of Blake underscores the importance of discipline and dedication in sports, and even more so at the top level.

To remain on top, one has to train even harder than the competition. That early-morning accident that Bolt had recently in Half Way Tree may be a glimpse into his fast-lane lifestyle - a failing that has plagued many great black athletes in the past. Jack Johnson comes to mind.

Tiger Woods is the first one on the tee in the morning and the last one off at night. To remain great takes gigantic disciplinary effort that inherently may elude the discipline of most Jamaican athletes.

Having assisted Blake with a questionable and highly suspicious false start, Bolt created Blake, and may have unleashed a Beast that the Bolt may never beat again in international competition. Unless, of course, the Bolt returns to the hunger and fire for training and competition that made him the "Greatest Olympian" of all time.

Can a "great athlete" make money and conduct public relations, and remain "great" in the same lifetime? Only Bolt will tell.

"The heights by great men, reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight.

For they, while their companions slept, were toiling upwards through the night." — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Bertram Scott

jamaicanambassadors@yahoo.com