Smth about jamaica

Sports

Sports and recreation


Cricet is played throughout the island, including at Kingston's Sabina Park and on makeshift pitches (fields). Jamaica has produced many players for the regional West Indies team, notably the Panamanian-born George Alphonso Headley and fast bowler . A 25,000-seat multipurpose stadium was constructed in Trelawny for the 2007 International Cricket Council World Cup.

The National Stadium in Kingston is the major for (soccer) and (athletics). Football has challenged cricket's supremacy since 1998, when Jamaica's national team, the Reggae Boyz, qualified for the finals . Basketball is probably the fastest-growing sport in schools and colleges, owing to television coverage of professional teams from the . Other sports, such as golf, tennis, and diving, have developed in tandem with the industry but are beyond the financial reach of most Jamaicans. The game of dominoes is extremely popular.

The island has a distinguished Olympic record in track and field, beginning in 1948 with a gold and two silver medals in . In in the hurdler Deon Hemmings won Jamaica's first gold medal in a women's event. At the , sprinter set new records and took the gold medal in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprints. He repeated those feats at the and the , becoming the first person to win both events in two, and then three, consecutive Olympics. The island's heroic, if unsuccessful, national bobsledding team was wildly popular at the in Calgary; the team's unorthodox ways were later depicted in the film Cool Runnings (1993). The team continued to make appearances at subsequent Winter Games.

Jamaica is usually placed among the top teams in international . Horse racing is popular and takes place at Caymanas Park in Kingston. A few Jamaican boxers have excelled internationally. In 1962 Jamaica hosted the Central American and Caribbean Games.