AFTER competing with much uncertainty this season, bobsledder Lascelles Brown has learned he will compete for Canada at the upcoming Torino Olympics.

Lascelles Brown (right) is expected to hear from Canadian officials on Friday morning about his citizenship status.

Brown, a Jamaican who has been competing with Canada on the World Cup circuit for two seasons, received word last Friday from the Canadian immigration department that his citizenship has been approved and he is clear to race at the Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

"That made my day. In fact, that made my month, my week, my year," Brown said Friday of the call from the Immigration minister.

"I just smiled. I kept laughing, like, I can't believe it, you know?"

The 31-year-old is the brakeman for Olympic champion Pierre Lueders and had been waiting for a reply on his situation since his citizenship application was submitted July 28, 2005.

Lueders, a 35-year-old Edmonton native, was emphatic when he told CBC Sports Online during the Christmas break that it would take a "miracle" for Canada to win a medal in either the two- or four-man events if Brown was ineligible to compete in the Olympics.

A gold medal contender in both events, Brown says he has one thing in mind when it comes to becoming Canadian.
"Canada is more competitive than Jamaica and my goal was to prove to the world that I could be good at something," said Brown, who competed for Jamaica at the Salt Lake City Olympics four years ago.

Dudley 'Tal' Stokes, the president of the Jamaican Bobsled Federation and one of Brown's former team-mates, says he isn't impressed with Brown's addition to Team Canada.

Stokes says the association discovered Brown working as a butcher in Jamaica. He says they spent hundreds of thousand of dollars developing him and should be compensated for their loss.

"They are going to be sucked out of your programme if you are a poor nation. That is the reality of life as it is today," Stokes said.

Lueders and Brown, who both admitted the uncertainty of the immigration case affected their performance earlier in the season, broke through in a big way last weekend in Koenigssee, Germany.

On Saturday, the pair won the two-man event for their first win of the season. A day later, Lueders and Brown, who were joined by Ken Kotyk of Canora, Sask., and Calgary's Morgan Alexander, won the four-man competition.

It was the first time in Lueders' illustrious career that he swept both events on the same weekend.

Lueders and Brown also had a memorable 2004-05 season that included a world title, four World Cup victories and several other podium finishes.

Brown is so revered for his speed and power that Bobsleigh Canada coach Gerd Grimme calls him one of the top-three brakemen in the world. Grimme, a former East German bobsleigh pilot, puts Brown at the same level with Switzerland's Beat Hefti and Kevin Kuske of Germany.

Brown and Lueders are training in St Moritz, Switzerland, for two World Cup events this weekend.

... Ja fail to qualify for Torino Olympic Games

FOR the first time since making their debut at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, the Jamaica bobsleigh team will not be present at an Olympic Games.

This was confirmed after the two-man team of Winston Watt and Wayne Blackwood finished fourth in the Americas Challenge Cup in Konigssee, Germany, on January 19.

The top two finishers, Australia and New Zealand, advanced to the Olympic Games, though being from the Oceana region both countries have the option under FIBT rules to choose the region under which they attempt to qualify.

According to Stokes, "this is a massive disappointment for all involved in the programme. It is especially bitter for the athletes who have sacrificed so much over the past few years."

The Jamaicans burst onto the scene at the Calgary Olympics with a performance immortalised in the Hollywood blockbuster movie 'Cool Runnings'.

Six years later in Lillehammer, they delivered the best performance of a non-traditional team to date, finishing 14th overall and ahead of all American competitors.

More recently, difficulties with funding have resulted in limited training and competition, ultimately affecting their performance.

Ironically, the only Jamaican who may now be in Torino is Lascelles Brown, who defected from the Jamaican programme to Canada in 2004 and is likely to be among the medals.

The federation will now focus its efforts on rebuilding the team with the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, as the target.

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