Jamaica

Forty years ago, Morgan State had a Jamaican connection that stretched from here to the Olympics.Three runners -- George Rhoden and Sam and Byron La Beach -- were raised in Jamaica, wooed to Morgan by track coach Eddie Hurt and qualified for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.Rhoden, now a podiatrist in San Francisco who runs in the Senior Olympics, won the 400-meter run in 45.9 seconds, one-tenth of a second slower than his world record, and anchored Jamaica's gold medal 1,600-meter relay team.

Olympic track and field Morgan State alum Randall to represent Jamaica Allison Randall , who holds the Morgan State school record in the discus, captured first place Friday at the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association National Senior Trials at National Stadium in Kingston with a throw of 55.92 meters to advance to the London Olympics. Randall, who earlier in the year set the Jamaican national record with a throw of 61.21, graduated from Morgan State last spring with a bachelor's degree in physical education.

William Adams, a Jamaican immigrant whose stirring tales of his homeland captivated local youngsters and young adults for more than 20 years, died Wednesday of heart failure in New York City, where he had moved from Jessup two years ago.With gray, shoulder-length dreadlocks and a whisperlike voice and lilting accent, Mr. Adams, 68, would sit on a tree stump outside his home and spin fascinating -- and mostly true -- stories for residents."

When Asa Bell fled the country in 2008 while free on $250,000 bail on gun and drug charges in Baltimore, the bail bond company appeared to be stuck with the tab from the state. Four years later, interest has increased the amount to $360,000 and counting. But Texas-based Financial Casualty Surety Co. and its local agent, 4 Aces Bail Bonds Inc., continue to fight the judgment with no apparent end in sight, as the companies exhaust their legal options. They have twice taken the case to the Court of Special Appeals, which has sent it back down on each occasion with the instruction that they pay up. A hearing Thursday in Baltimore Circuit Court ended with the same finding, but attorneys again vowed to appeal.

Unlike the owners of the country home in his 1925 comedy, Hay Fever (currently at Center Stage), when Noel Coward built a vacation retreat, he did not want houseguests. In Jamaica recently, I visited Firefly, the home the British playwright built, high atop a mountain. The living room is furnished with two pianos; the dining room has one wall open to the air; the study is still equipped with his desk and portable typewriter; and there's only one bedroom. When Coward had visitors, they stayed at Blue Harbour, the guesthouse he owned at the bottom of the mountain.

ON JUNE 22, Justin and Lita Parke of Columbia Presbyterian Church, on Route 108 in Ellicott City, led a team of 13 young people and adults into the interior of Jamaica -- but not to vacation. The team went to volunteer, to help build the school building for the Caribbean Christian Center for the Deaf, under the auspices of Mission to the World.The Howard County team joined 90 others in the tropical heat to spend almost two weeks laying concrete block, making concrete and digging a cistern.

Back in the Mid-Atlantic, the U.S. national team plays Jamaica's self-labeled Reggae Boyz tonight in a World Cup qualifying game with unanticipated importance for both sides.A win by either team in the 7: 30 game (ESPN) at sold-out RFK Stadium in Washington will mean ascendancy to first place in the tight, six-nation battle for three spots from this part of the world in next summer's World Cup finals in France."We consider this game to be equally, if not more, important to our last one [a 1-0 United States win Sept.

Within a mile of Montego Bay's International Airport, we've already passed a goat grazing on a soccer field and fishermen hawking freshly caught lobsters and stringers of fish by the side of the road. On the four-hour drive to Port Antonio, a sleepy resort town on the eastern end of Jamaica, you can tell in an instant this is a world away. Along a twisty, narrow, inconsistently signed road scattershot with potholes, we'll pass ramshackle fishing villages by sparkling blue Caribbean waters, chaotic towns with pedestrians and bikers darting into traffic, banana groves, cricket fields, lushly forested hills, schoolchildren in tidy uniforms, dreadlocked rascals carrying machetes, aging Anglican churches and roadside shacks selling fruits we've never heard of. We'll contend with speedy Jamaican drivers riding the bumper of our rental car, honking incessantly and making sport of passing with just inches to spare.

If the U.S. national soccer team is feeling the weight of the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal against Jamaica today at sold-out RFK Stadium, the players and coaches aren't showing it. Since their arrival in Washington on Thursday, the Americans have spoken coolly and confidently about recovering from a turbulent first round. "We came through group play feeling good that we were tested and certain things came to light," coach Bob Bradley said. "Now as a group we are excited and ready to go. " The reassuring vibe, however, belies the broad implications of defeat.

With this World Cup qualifying stuff getting dicey, here are some tasty words that make last Friday's Jamaica-U.S. tie at RFK Stadium look even more frustrating:First, U.S. veteran Mike Sorber of Major League Soccer's ninth-best team, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, who told a pre-game news conference: "The small countries typically lack discipline, mental toughness and tactical awareness."Conventional thought, maybe, but Sorber should know better from playing against El Salvador's Mauricio Cienfuegos, Ronald Cerritos and Raul Diaz Arce, among others from small countries who are doing quite well in MLS.In fact, historically lax Jamaican discipline was exemplary, but U.S. players often struggled to find teammates, especially on offense.

Sandi Miller, daughter of Sue Miller, of Catonsville, formerly of Arbutus, wed Sean Stansell, son of Terry Stansell, who lives in Sterling, Va., June 12. The Rev. Rick Powell officiated at the ceremony at the Anchor Inn, Pasadena, where a reception followed. Aaron West and Kristin Kuzawinski served as honor attendants. Since returning from a honeymoon stay at Montego Bay, Jamaica, the couple is residing in Catonsville.

In the center of Mobtown Fight Club, a small gym tucked away in an alley off Baltimore Street, Venroy July pounds a speed bag. Behind him, his trainer Adrian Davis shouts phrases of encouragement. "Yeah! Work it champ!" Eyes fixed on the flittering bag, July appears oblivious to the world around him. "Can't nobody beat you. Nobody!" July rapidly rotates his arms, his body transforming into a smooth, punching machine. "The next cruiserweight champion of the world!"

Pam and Larry Burton, of Darlington, and Bruce Sargable, of Aberdeen, announce the wedding of their daughter, Amber Lea Mundis, to Brandon Ray Sexton on June 11 at Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church in Whiteford. Sexton is the son of Donna Ashley and the late Bobby Sexton. The reception was held at Geneva Farm Golf Course. The maid of honor was childhood friend, Brittney Bowmen. Joshua Spies served as the best man. Other members of the bridal party included Michele Tanman, Marion Thomas, Megan Swinehart, Becky Sexton, Jennifer Sargable, Tommy King, Jason Thomas, Tommy Kirby, Bruce Sargable, and RJ Strong.

If the U.S. national soccer team is feeling the weight of the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal against Jamaica today at sold-out RFK Stadium, the players and coaches aren't showing it. Since their arrival in Washington on Thursday, the Americans have spoken coolly and confidently about recovering from a turbulent first round. "We came through group play feeling good that we were tested and certain things came to light," coach Bob Bradley said. "Now as a group we are excited and ready to go. " The reassuring vibe, however, belies the broad implications of defeat.

Kemar Scarlett is Jamaican-born, YouTube-trained and decidedly not the norm when it comes to kicking specialists. What separates Scarlett, 21, is that he is African-American — there was only one black punter in the NFL last season and no black kickers. That and the fact he has had very little coaching as a kicker since he arrived in the United States in 2003 at the age of 13 and began the transition from soccer to football. But sometime after the NFL draft later this week Scarlett hopes to get the chance to prove he can kick with the best in the land.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - -The most popular athlete at the freestyle skiing World Cup last weekend wasn't X Games gold medalist and four-time Olympian Daron Rahlves. Or Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, the aerialist with the Hurricane, the hardest jump in the sport. No, the most sought-after autograph belonged to Errol Kerr, the one-man ski-cross team from Jamaica. "You're catching this, aren't you?" asked Kerr as he scrawled his name on the sleeves of $300 ski jackets and smiled for camera-phone portraits.

WASHINGTON -- Tiny Jamaica, playing well above what its soccer lineage would indicate, got what it came to RFK Stadium for last night.That was a draw, 1-1, with the U.S. national team in an important World Cup qualifier that many believed the Americans had to win for a psychological boost.Jamaica tormented the Americans with speed, athleticism, poised defense all over the field and a greater apparent sense of mission.In the end, the Americans just couldn't shoot effectively, again.The point on the road moved Jamaica (3-2-3)

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks & Caicos Islands - Hurricane Ivan dealt a mercifully glancing blow to Jamaica yesterday but immediately rebounded to a potent Category 5 storm and raged through open waters toward the Cayman Islands and Cuba. The death toll rose to 56. The storm thrashed Jamaica with winds as high as 150 mph, but a last-minute westward "wobble" diverted the eye just before it hit the populous capital, Kingston, sparing the island nation a far worse disaster, public safety officials reported.

BEIJING - The race was simply unbelievable. Usain Bolt wiped his hand over his head several times, ran his index fingers over his eyebrows and pushed out his top so everyone could see "Jamaica" from shoulder to shoulder. Then he crouched into the blocks, waited for the gun and left seven competitors and the previous world record in the dust. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have called you a liar. The previous world record in the 200 meters, set by Michael Johnson in the 1996 Games, was 19.32 seconds.