World junior 200m record-holder Usain Bolt (left) is photographed by IAAF journalists (from left) Michael Steele, Giancarlo Colombo and Jiro Mochizuki for the programme, a Day in the Life, in front of the Merlene Ottey Statue at the National Stadium on Tuesday. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

A nine-member team of journalists affiliated with track & field's world governing body, the IAAF, will wrap up their six-day visit to the island tomorrow.

The team is here to feature the lifestyles of Jamaican sprinters Asafa Powell, Sherone Simpson and Usain Bolt. The delegation includes three photographers, three print journalists, a two-man camera crew shooting footage for the IAAF TV programme Athletix, and an internet writer from NBC.

"We arrived last Saturday with a team of nine people, written press journalists representing Germany, Japan, Spain, Italy and the United States to spend time with Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt," publications and PR manager of the IAAF, Laura Arcoleo, told the Observer yesterday.

"We spent Sunday with Asafa's family in St Catherine attending church, where we spoke with his father, his mother and his brother and it was awesome to see where the fastest man in the world comes from.

"For European people like us, it's just amazing to see St Catherine, what it looks like and where Asafa came from," Arcoleo said.

"On Monday, we spent time with Usain Bolt and his coach Glen Mills, we've seen the facilities at the national stadium. Bolt was very helpful and lovely to all of us journalist from abroad," she added.

According to Arcoleo, the IAAF project dubbed Day in the Life, which started two years ago, features the world's top athletes. "The programme started in 2004 because a lot of journalists know the athletes and speak with them in a competition/training environment at meets, but what the journalists lacked and complained about was the feeling and the knowledge of where the athletes come from and how they lived their everyday life and how they progressed in their coaches...

Athletes to have been similarly featured in the past include Hicham El Guerrouj, Maria Mutola, Kenenise Bekele, Yelena Isinbayeva and Liu Ziang.

Due to Simpson's school commitments, the IAAF team has not yet been able to speak with the world No 1 female sprinter.

Arcoleo also had positive words for the JAAA, and IAAF area representative Neville 'Teddy' McCook for their help in accommodating the process.

According to McCook, a former president of the JAAA, "It's the IAAF's continued programme to identify locations... where the development of track and field has contributed to the development of the sport... these individuals are here to look at all aspects of the programme in Jamaica... to see where it's coming from.

"We're extremely pleased that they have chosen Jamaica at a time when we're the top of our game both in our males and females and for them to be looking at even the lowest level, it's a tribute... to Jamaica's track and field and I think that the JAAA's should be extremely proud about this," said McCook, who was conferred with the Order of Jamaica on Monday.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World