Jamaicans celebrate in Half-Way-Tree yesterday after their countryman, Usain Bolt, won the 200-metre in a world record run at the 29th Olympiad in Beijing, China. (Photos: Joseph Wellington)

TRAFFIC lights on green went unnoticed as motorists came to a standstill. Crossing pedestrians stopped in the middle of the street. Hundreds on the sidewalk stood transfixed, all eyes locked to the video board. Olympic history was about to be made and Half-Way-Tree was about to erupt.

At 8:30 am, 50 minutes before the race, a slow trickle of people had started filling the area where Digicel and Video Vibes had erected a video board in a corner of Mandela Park at the intersection of Parish Place and Constant Spring Road for passers-by to watch the Olympic Men's 200m final which would feature 100-m champion and world record-holder Usain Bolt.

Diana Bennett was on her way to the doctor with her teenage daughter but delayed the mission when they happened upon the video board.

"She's not going to collapse... it's nothing fatal," she laughed.
Tamara Robinson was waiting patiently at the entrance to the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre.

"Bolt is going to take the gold... because he's the fastest man in the field right now, so he is definitely going to take it," she told the Observer.

She wasn't going to be disappointed.
By the time Bolt cleared the curve and headed into the final stretch and it became clear that no one was going to catch him, St Andrew's parish capital had become a sea of screaming Jamaicans.

Heads bobbed up and down as the watching crowd jumped, ran, skipped, and yelled with glee, knowing that the Olympic sprint double belonged to Jamaica. Seconds later, the screams got louder when people realised it was a world record.

Less than 10 minutes later, the scene would be repeated.
Melaine Walker, after a less than perfect start, was about to steadily work her way through the field and take the Women's 400-m hurdles title, becoming the first Jamaican to do so since Deon Hemmings in Atlanta in 1996.
Car horns honked, whistles were blown and flags mounted from car windows flapped in the wind.

Jamaica flags being sold by vendors on Constant Spring Road were finished within minutes after the finals. One well-dressed man in shirt and tie bought two, taking one in each hand before racing off, singing and shouting, while making his way up Constant Sprint Road in the direction of Tropical Plaza.

A breathless Maurice Bryan, Digicel's sponsorship & promotions manager, explained that video boards had been erected in the major town squares of Mandeville and Montego Bay so all Jamaicans "could share this moment because it's a moment we haven't seen in a long while, maybe in history".

He sent a public apology to Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie for the traffic disruption, though arguably, McKenzie may have been doing some celebrating of his own.

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