Dream of becoming the next Bolt spurs Jamaican juniors

On a dusty, sun-bleached grass sports field in Kingston, Jamaican schoolchildren are being put through their paces with dreams of following in the footsteps of Usain Bolt or Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

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KINGSTON - On a dusty, sun-bleached grass sports field in Kingston, Jamaican schoolchildren are being put through their paces with dreams of following in the footsteps of Usain Bolt or Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

Lines of chalk mark out the lanes of a rudimentary running track, where a few dozen young hopefuls are racing in the kind of athletics meet that is popular across Jamaica, the spiritual home of sprinting.

"Most of these kids want to become professionals; they all dream of becoming the next Usain Bolt or the next Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce," track coach Shanti Blake tells AFP.

"Pretty much everybody here that does sports wants to try to become a professional, because everybody wants to become the next Usain Bolt."

Blake looks on approvingly as this young crop of runners, some only six years old, strive to replicate the running style of the famed Jamaican track icons who have been regular visitors to Olympic and World Championship medal podiums over the past two decades.