The 1960 British West Indies Championships was the fourth edition of the track and field competition between British colony nations in the Caribbean. It was held in Kingston, Jamaica. A total of 31 events were contested, twenty-two by men and nine by women. The women's programme was extended with three throwing events. A new men's event was also included: the athletics pentathlon was the first and only time that a combined track and field event was contested at the completion. [1]
The British West Indies Championships was an annual track and field competition between nations involved in the West Indies Federation and several other Caribbean nations with a British colonial history. Like the federation itself, the competition was short-lived: first held in 1957, it ceased after 1965. The competition was created at a time of much sporting co-operation within the region – a British West Indies team was sent to both the 1959 Pan American Games and the 1960 Summer Olympics.
Track and field is a sport which includes athletic contests established on the skills of running, jumping, and throwing. The name is derived from the sport's typical venue: a stadium with an oval running track enclosing a grass field where the throwing and some of the jumping events take place. Track and field is categorized under the umbrella sport of athletics, which also includes road running, cross country running, and race walking.
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island. In the Americas, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States.
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Jamaica's Anne Golding was the most successful athlete of the tournament, winning all three inaugural women's throwing events. Harry Prowell succeeded his fellow British Guianan, George de Peana, as the dominant long-distance runner by winning the 5000 m and 10,000 m races. Leroy Keane of Jamaica was the only other athlete to win two titles: he topped the podium in the 400 metres hurdles and also the pentathlon. Six men managed to retain their 1959 titles: Wilton Jackson (200 m), George Kerr (800 m), Ralph Gomes (a third 1500 m title), Keith Gardner (110 m hurdles), Moses Dwarika (half marathon) and Sydney Thomas (3000 m walk). Brenda Archer was the only woman to defend her 1959 title, doing so in the women's high jump. [1]
Harry Prowell A.A. was a Guyanese long distance runner who represented Guyana in the Marathon at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. He is known to be one of the greatest Marathon runners Guyana has ever produced, setting the national record in 1968. To date, he is the only Guyanese ever to compete in the Marathon at the Summer Olympic Games and one of the most prominent Indo-Caribbean long distance runners of his time. He also participated in the 10,000 metres at the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and represented Guyana at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Leroy Orville Barrington Keane was a Jamaican National Champion and an All-American track and field athlete at the University of Nebraska. His son Martin Keane was a Canadian former professional basketball player.
The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women.
This competition preceded the assembly of the first British West Indies Olympic team. At the 1960 Summer Olympics, the federation won two medals: reigning British West Indies 800 m champion George Kerr took the bronze medal in his speciality, and a team of Kerr, James Wedderburn, Gardner and Mal Spence won a second bronze in the 4×400 metres relay. [2]
Athletes from the West Indies Federation competed under the name Antilles (ANT) at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. Thirteen competitors, all men, took part in thirteen events in five sports. The short-lived nation only participated at these single Games, as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago competed independently again in 1964, and Barbados started competing at the 1968 Games. The team won two bronze medals, both in track and field athletics.
The 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event that was held from August 25 to September 11, 1960, in Rome, Italy. The city of Rome had previously been awarded the administration of the 1908 Summer Olympics, but following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906, Rome had no choice but to decline and pass the honour to London.
Saint Lucia had its first ever medallist at the tournament in the form of Imbert Roberts's gold in the men's shot put. [1]
Saint Lucia is a sovereign island country in the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. The island is also called Iyonola, the name given to the island by the native caribs. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 617 km2 and reported a population of 165,595 in the 2010 census. Its capital is Castries.
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" a heavy spherical object—the shot—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's competition began in 1948.
