OBSERVER Senior Reporter Kayon Raynor and Photo Editor Bryan Cummings were given a resounding send-off as they left the island yesterday on the two-day journey to China to provide coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games which begins on Friday (Thursday night local time).

A small gathering of Observer editorial staff met to wish the pair well just before their departure for the Norman Manley International Airport.

Reporter Alicia Dunkley blessed the team's journey with a word of prayer, while Erica Virtue gave them 25 packs of Andrews Salts to help their stomachs cope with the vagaries of Chinese cuisine.

Photo Editor Bryan Cummings (left) displays the 64-page Olympics guide, the 'Observer Tracks Beijing 2008' at a send-off for himself and reporter Kayon Raynor at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue headquarters yesterday. The pair will be covering all the action from the XXIX Olympiad which begins on August 8. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

Jamaica will participate in four events - athletics, cycling, swimming and equestrian - at the Olympic Games and the Observer's extensive coverage will include a four-page daily minimum of photos, stories and features from the 17 days of action between August 8 and 24.

Veteran Jamaican journalist, Clare Forrester, will also be part of the team and will meet up with the pair in China.

Executive Editor of Publications, Vernon Davidson, pointed out that in addition to action on the running and cycling tracks, in the pool, and on the jumping course, the local audience would also be looking out for behind the scenes stories.

"One of the things we look forward to is the stories behind what's happening," he said.

"Go kick some...you know what," Sports Editor Ian Burnett urged.

He noted that the pair's nose for identifying quality track & field stories and photos could be attributed to their younger, more active, "slightly-leaner" days when they were both athletes competing at ISSA Boys' Championships.

Kayon drove the point home even further later on the ride to the airport reminding Bryan that the last time the pair travelled together to Osaka, Japan, to cover the IAAF 2007 World Championships, flight attendants had to give Bryan an extension for his seat belt on the plane ride between Tokyo and Osaka.

This will be Cummings' third trip to the Olympics, having covered the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Games, while Raynor will be on his first assignment at the sporting world's biggest stage.

Both have previously worked together at the Beijing World Junior Championships in 2006, as well as the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Japan in 2007.

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