JAMAICA’S Olympic champion Donald Quarrie and former national track and field representative Anthony Davis have remembered the late Commonwealth Games finalist Floyd “Bunny” Brown as an untapped talent who could have achieved more.

Brown, a former Cornwall College student-athlete who was a finalist in the 200m at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, and who resided in Florida, died recently after suffering heart problems.

The former University of Florida representative was fifth in the 200m where his teammate Colin Bradford won the bronze medal, and anchored the 4x100m team that won the bronze as well as was a part of the 4x400m that included Bertland Cameron and Seymour Newman that took the silver medal.

Quarrie, who won the 100m gold medal but did not compete in the 200m after suffering a hamstring injury, remembered Brown as a “pleasant and easy-going person”.

Quarrie added that Brown could have made more of his talent if there was more support for athletes in those days.

Brown, who was known more as a football goalkeeper while attending Cornwall College, did not emerge as a top track and field talent until he started attending the Jamaica School of Agriculture (JSA), then at Twickenham Park.

“No doubt, he had talent, but back in these days there was not a lot of support,” Quarrie said.

“He could have done a lot more [as] he was top-class.”

Davis, who trained with Brown during their competitive days, described him as a hard worker.

“Bunny can be considered one of the track and field heroes of the Intercol fraternity,” he noted.

Davis, a well-respected track and field official who had served as the director of sports at University of Technology,Jamaica, added: “I wish I were speaking about my friend Floyd Bunny Brown’s achievement in life instead of paying tribute to his passing. Very few athletes worked harder than Bunny. He was part of the cohort of locally trained athletes and a product of the collegiate programme [Intercol], who made the national team and achieved elite status.”

Davis recalled how they used to meet weekly “wherever there was an athletic meeting”.

“We frequently discussed training methods and our desire to be on the national team. Always jovial. After graduating from JSA, Bunny went to the University of Florida as opportunities for advanced degrees in agriculture was limited,” stated Davis.

— Paul Reid