Monday, September 8, 2008

Hundreds expected to welcome Bolt home

Monday, September 08, 2008

Bolt... will ride in new red BMW convertible.

TRIPLE world record holder and Olympic Champion Usain Bolt, who arrives home to a hero's welcome this afternoon, will travel in a motorcade from the Norman Manley International Airport, Kingston, to the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

The Government yesterday announced that a welcome party consisting of Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Minister of Sports Olivia Grange and Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller, Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie and heads of the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA), Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), INSPORTS and the Sports Development Foundation (SDF) as well as corporate sponsor Digicel will meet Bolt on the tarmac as he steps off a Virgin Atlantic flight at 1:15 pm.

A new red BMW convertible will transport Bolt in the motorcade, leading vehicles carrying the prime minister and other officials from the airport to the hotel, where a press conference is scheduled to be held.

Bolt's welcome will launch the start of several planned activities to commence in October when all the members of Jamaica's Beijing Olympic team will return to the island on a special flight. They will lead a motorcade through the streets of Kingston, accompanied by specially designed floats and effigies of the medal winners.

"We have had short notice, but we are pulling out all the stops to make this celebration a fitting tribute to the glory our Olympic athletes have brought to Jamaica," Grange said in a release yesterday.

She added, "We want to show our pride and our gratitude to these young men and women of Jamaica, and to showcase them as role models for our youth and symbols of excellence for our entire population at home and abroad."

At the 29th Olympiad in Beijing, China last month, 22-year-old Bolt set two individual world records and shared another with the 4 x 100 Men's relay team.

He won the Men's 100m in 9.69 secs and took the 200m in 19.30 secs - the first man ever to break both the 100 and 200 world records in the same Olympics and the first since Carl Lewis of the United Sates in 1984 to win the sprint double.

In the 4 x 100, the team of Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Bolt and Asafa Powell took the gold in a world record time of 37.10 secs.

In addition to the three world records, Jamaica set an Olympic record when Melaine Walker won the 400m hurdles for women and had a total medal haul of 11 - six gold, three silver and two bronze.

Today's motorcade will travel along the following routes:

. Depart tarmac at Norman Manley International airport - escorted through Gate 1

. Drive along departure and arrival route to exit Airport

. Travel to Harbour View roundabout

. East to Mountain View Avenue

. Left on Arthur Wint Drive

. Right on Tom Redcam Avenue

. Across traffic light on to Oxford Road

. Right on Knutsford Boulevard

. Turn into Jamaica Pegasus Hotel

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