Following his successful exploits at the recently held ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, Tavaine Stewart was feted for his achievements by members of his Goodwill community in St James on Monday.

The Herbert Morrison High Technical High School student won the boys’ Class Three 100m final in a personal best of 11.03 seconds. On Monday last, he was the toast of the town as community members welcomed his arrival with cheers and even jostled with each other to get a picture with the young athlete.

A cake, a trophy, and a gift certificate were among the tributes that came the way of the young athlete during a function held in his honour at the Goodwill Primary and Infant School. Just prior to the ceremony he paraded throughout the community in an open-top vehicle as he showed off his two medals, which also included bronze for his third-place finish in the Class Three 200m final.

He related that he was overwhelmed with the support not only on Monday, but everything that has come his way so far. “I felt overwhelmed, I was so excited and as you can see, I made my community proud and I was excited for all of that and I want to thank God for all of that,” the young sprinter said.

“There is a saying, it takes a village to raise a child and I’m proud to say that this village, this community is the one that raised me. I want to thank you guys for the support you have given me throughout this whole competition, it has helped me even though you don’t think it has but it helped throughout this competition. To know that there is this whole entire community back in St James is cheering for me and I want to thank you guys for it, it’s a great feeling,” he further stated.

His mother, Tasha Gibson, was elated with the support. “I feel overjoyed, I am glad, I am proud that everybody came out to celebrate with Tavaine on his victory. Goodwill is a small community but one thing with the people in the community is that they always try to support especially the young people and I really appreciate everything that they have done for Tavaine,” she said.

The tribute to the young sprinter had been organised by the Goodwill School Alumni Foundation and one of its directors, Joseph Hamilton, was on hand to join in the celebration. He praised the young man for his achievement but called on the other youth in the community to use his success as an example.

“We really appreciate the effort that you have put in to accomplish your goals. We hope that you will be a shining example to all your peers, all the other youngsters in the community, I hope that you can take a page from Tavaine’s book because this is a young man who has shown that with hard work, dedication, and commitment you can achieve just about anything in life” Hamilton said.

Dottie Reid, a Goodwill community member, said she was proud of him to the point that she likened the feeling to him being her own son. “I’m so proud of him as if he was my own child. I’m proud of him because him a come from far with the running. My son and him are the same age and the two of them went to Goodwill school the same time and mi just proud of him because him come good inna the race”.

For Tasha Gibson, however, things may have turned out differently for Tavaine given that initially, he was not interested in track and field. “When Tavaine was here in Goodwill he was mostly doing cricket and football. He has a love for football and when he went to Herbert Morrison, my former coach, Mr (Carl) Grant, said to me: “Tasha, you no mek the boy do no tracks” and I was like no and him say alright no worry make him come this evening and then from there, because he had on weight, so I didn’t know that Tavaine could run until he went to Herbert Morrison,” she remarked. Gibson had been a sprinter during her time at Herbert Morrison going on to represent the school at two Penn Relays in the United States.

However, for Stewart, the aim now is to stay focus and to produce going forward. “It’s the same goal every year to win gold but each year it’s going to get harder because you’re going to get older. Next year I’m going to be first-year Class Two and I’m going to run against second-year Class Two who have already been running ten seconds. So, it’s going to be hard for me, but I just got to keep my eyes on the prize and make sure that I want the gold, so I’ll take gold.”