MASON GREENWOOD IS NOW A JAMAICAN

Mason Greenwood has been granted Jamaican citizenship and officially issued a Jamaican passport 🇯🇲🔥

A major step toward switching his international allegiance from England to the Reggae Boyz 👏🏻

DALEY, DAWKINS CROWED CHAMPIONS IN NICARAGUA

Matthew McKoy
A close-up of the National Stadium track

JAMAICA’S JENOI Daley and Dequan Dawkins were respectively crowned under-13 female and under-15 male champions at the NACAC Age Group Championships over the weekend in Nicaragua.

The multiple-event championships saw Daley, the St Patrick Primary athlete, scoring a narrow two-point win over her nearest rival after amassing 2,735 points in the pentathlon, which lasted over two days.

Mikyla Sears of Barbados finished second with 2,733 points, while Amari Joseph of Grenada was third with 2,635 points.

Jamaica’s other representative, Danella Speed of Lyssons Primary, ended sixth with 2,608 points.

Daley’s best results came in the 60 metres and ball throw, events in which she finished second, clocking 8.37 seconds in the former and 42.60 metres in the latter.

She was third in the high jump with a clearance of 1.40 metres, fifth in the 1000 metres in 2:40.28, and seventh in the long jump with a distance of 4.29 metres.

In the girls’ under-15 age group, the Edwin Allen High pair of Danelia and Dashanelle Clarke had to settle for seventh and eighth with 3,872 and 3,838 points, respectively. Rosemery Aybor of the Dominican Republic won with 4,414 points, ahead of Rejada Hinds of Barbados, second with 4,340 points, and Jazae Johnson of The Bahamas, third with 4,284 points.

Jamaica did not fare too well in the boys’ under-13 category. Ricardo Granville of Naggo Head Primary ended 18th, while Davere Walker of Lyssons failed to finish his final event, the 1000m, and was not among the points earners in the end.

Dawkins of Kingston College was a comfortable winner in the boys’ heptathlon, a seven-discipline event, after amassing 5,096 points. His nearest rivals, Justin Shepherd of The Bahamas and Deshawn Oliver of Grenada, were both tied for second on 5,002 points — 94 points behind.

Dawkins’ teammate, Nahjeir Francis, also from Kingston College, ended sixth with 4,799 points.

Despite a slow start from Dawkins, where he ended 14th in the 80m in 9.70 seconds and finished fourth in the shot put with a heave of 11.58 metres, he went on to secure three consecutive first-place finishes. He won the long jump with 6.09 metres, the 80m hurdles in 10.77 seconds, and the high jump after clearing 1.86. Despite placing 13th in the ball throw with 52.50 and 10th in the closing event, the 1,200m in 4:02.21, he had enough points to stamp his authority.

There was also a mixed 4x100-metre relay for both age groups, where Jamaica was second in the under-15 division. The quartet of Dashanelle Clarke, Nahjeir Francis, Danelia Clarke and Dequan Dawkins finished second in 46.52 seconds. The Bahamas won in 45.74, with St Maarten, third in 47.61.

Jamaica did not field a team in the under-13 category, as Walker, who got injured and failed to finish the 1000m, could not participate in the relay.

- Raymond Graham/Gleaner Writer

PICTURED: MICHAIL ANTONIO TRAINS IN DUBAI FOR A RETURN TO FOOTBALL, TWO MONTHS AFTER CAR CRASH WHICH BROKE HIS LEG AND LEFT HIM FEARING FOR HIS LIFE

• Antonio was involved in a car accident in December which saw him break his leg

• The West Ham striker is currently completing a training programme in Dubai 

• LISTEN NOW: It's All Kicking Off! Will Liverpool recover from Everton blow in season-defining week?

West Ham forward Michail Antonio has stepped up his recovery from a horrific car crash with a 12 day warm-weather rehabilitation programme in Dubai.

The Jamaica international was involved in a deeply concerning car accident in December which saw him escape with a broken leg.

The images of the wreckage raised major fears for Antonio's long-term well-being.

But the 34-year-old is now on the road to recovery and is currently in Dubai completing a training programme ahead of a potential return.

Antonio is said to be making positive and steady progress during the programme in the United Arab Emirates.

After the crash, Antonio needed to be released from his car after becoming trapped during the incident on December 7 in Epping, Essex, and was taken to a central London hospital.

He was eventually operated on after suffering a lower leg fracture.

On New Year's Eve, Antonio posted on social media: 'Every year around this time, I'm asked what I'm grateful for, and every year I've struggled to find the right words. But this year, I know exactly what I'm grateful for: being alive.

'I've spent so many years taking life for granted. I made plans for the next day, the next year, always assuming tomorrow was guaranteed. I've seen close friends pass away, witnessed others face near-death experiences, and even then I didn't fully grasp just how precious life is,' Antonio said.

'What I've been through recently has opened my eyes. Life is fragile, and every single moment matters. I'm so grateful to God for giving me the strength to keep going and for allowing me to still be here.'

- SAMI MOKBEL

KEVIN CAMPBELL OBITUARY

Versatile Arsenal and Everton striker who went on to become a popular football commentator

 The footballer Kevin Campbell, who has died aged 54 after a short illness, won a league title, the FA Cup, a League Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup over a four-year period from 1990 until 1994 with Arsenal, the club he had supported, and joined, as a boy.

As a striker he scored eight times in 10 matches during the second half of the Division One championship in 1991, and during the victorious 1993–94 European Cup Winners’ Cup campaign he contributed four important goals across the knockout stages, including one in the semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain.

"After he left Arsenal in 1995 Campbell never encountered the same level of success, but became a highly regarded figure – and club captain – at Everton, where he spent six years between 1999 and 2005. He was also well-liked at each of the four other clubs he appeared for across his 19-year career: at Nottingham Forest, the Turkish side Trabzonspor, West Bromwich Albion and Cardiff City.

Campbell was ebullient, intelligent and personable; however, his popularity stemmed not just from his personal attributes but also from his wholehearted, direct approach on the field. Speedy and muscular, 6ft 1in and 14 stone, he was a versatile forward and a committed team man.

Of Jamaican heritage, Campbell was born in Lambeth, south London, and grew up in Brixton. An Arsenal supporter as a youth, he had no money to go to home matches, so would wait outside Highbury on match days until the North Bank gates were opened before the final whistle and he could sneak in to watch the last part of a game. He signed for the club on schoolboy terms under Terry Neill as manager, quickly garnering attention with an abundance of goals.

"At 18, after a winning appearance and a hat-trick in the 1988 FA Youth Cup final, he was handed a professional contract by the club’s new manager, George Graham, and his first team debut came soon afterwards against Everton.

Most of the time, however, he was playing in the reserves, and in 1989 he was sent on loan to the Division Four club Leyton Orient to get some game time. Quickly proving his worth, he scored nine goals in 16 appearances, but under the rules of the day had to return after three months to his home club. There was a further loan period with Leicester that year, and he was unable to make a full breakthrough into the Arsenal first team until the 1990-91 season.

Most of Campbell’s 15 league appearances during that campaign arrived in the later stages as Arsenal mounted a strong challenge for the title, and his burst of eight league goals between February and April was instrumental in securing the league championship by seven points from Liverpool.

 "In 1993 he scored four times in Arsenal’s run to a 2-1 victory against Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup final, in which he played upfront with Ian Wright, a pairing that was repeated in both matches of that year’s FA Cup final, also against Sheffield Wednesday – a 1-1 draw and a replay that was won 2-1 after extra time.

In the subsequent European Cup Winners’ Cup campaign of 1994, it was Campbell’s goal in the 1-0 semi-final second leg defeat of a strong PSG team that put them through to the final against Parma, which they won 1-0 in Copenhagen.

All those glories were under the managership of Graham, who had nurtured Campbell carefully since the early days. When Graham departed in 1995 there was no such chemistry with his successor, Bruce Rioch. “I was out of contract and was expecting to stay,” said Campbell. “But after one meeting with Bruce I knew I was off.”

"Soon afterwards he decamped to Nottingham Forest, where, although his new team finished ninth in the Premier League in his first year, they were relegated the following 1996-97 season. He helped them bounce straight back up with 23 goals, but in a surprise move was then sold against his wishes to Trabzonspor in the Turkish league for £2.5m.

Campbell spent just seven months in Turkey before returning to the Premier League in early 1999 on loan to Everton. At Goodison Park he became an instant hero, almost singlehandedly saving the team from relegation at the end of the 1998-99 season with nine goals in his first eight starts. By the middle of 2001 he had signed a new long-term deal and had become club captain.

When that contract came to an end in 2005, he moved to West Bromwich Albion on a free transfer, again taking part in a dramatic escape from Premier League relegation as the Baggies defied the odds with a late run under Bryan Robson as manager to avoid the drop. Eighteen months later he joined Cardiff City in the Championship before retiring at the age of 37 in 2007."

 "By the end of his career Campbell had played 521 times for his various clubs, with a tally of 149 goals. Frequently on the fringe of the England squad, he never quite made the national side but did represent his country at Under-21 and B-team levels.

After his playing days, he was in demand as a lively football commentator on TV and radio. He also co-owned a security company supplying personal protection to wealthy clients and ran his own small record label, 2 Wikid.

He is survived by his sons, Tyrese and Kyle.

• Kevin Joseph Campbell, footballer, born 4 February 1970; died 15 June 2024"

 - Peter Mason

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLAN "SKILLS" COLE | LEGENDARY JAMAICAN FOOTBALLER

 Legendary Jamaican football star Allan "Skills" Cole has turned 71 yesterday.