- Title: CURACAO: ATHLETICS - Curacao sprinter seeks gold to match tooth
- Date: 17th July 2008
- Summary: WILLEMSTAD, CURACAO (RECENT) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF CURACAO SKYLINE VARIOUS OF SMALL SHIP GOING THROUGH THE CANAL THAT CROSSES THROUGH THE CENTER OF CURACAO PEOPLE WALKING ON CANAL BRIDGE CURACAO FLAG
- Embargoed: 1st August 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVAY34GN2LM7DT227659G99LAB4
- Story Text: Curacao sprinter, Churandy Martina - representing the Netherlands Antilles - wraps up his training before heading off to the Beijing Olympics with his trademark gold tooth, emblazoned with the letter "C".
It's another tranquil day on the island of Curacao - water lapping lazily against the shore, tourists strolling along the pier. But it's a different story at the Curacao Sports Center, where sprinter Churandy Martina lives by the stopwatch, setting another blistering pace down the track in pursuit of an Olympic medal.
The 23-year-old Martina is a contender in Beijing even as he faces potential competition against titans like the United States' Tyson Gay and Jamaica's Usain Bolt, who in May broke the 100-meter world record with a time of 9.82 seconds.
He placed fifth in the 100 and 200 meters in the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan, and his times of 10.00 seconds and 20.17 for the two events have put him in league with some of world's fastest men.
He will represent the Netherlands Antilles, a Dutch territory of Caribbean islands that includes Curacao, Bonaire and St. Maarten. A medal would bring fame to his native Curacao, an island with some 130,000 residents, whose famous scuba diving and quaint Dutch architecture draw thousands of tourists each year.
"It means a lot for me and like for the whole country so I just got to work hard, but I know during this period, practice hard and just go out there and do all my best to win a medal because I want to win a medal too, that's one of my dreams so I got to work hard to make it come true,"
Martina said.
Still, he carries gold with him always - anyone closely watching the starting line of the Beijing Olympics 100-metre dash may notice the flash of a gold tooth emblazoned with Martina's trademark letter "C."
Trainer Wendell Prince said there has been a definite strategy to the young athlete's training.
"We have great expectations for him to be a medal contender because what we studied from Churandy after Japan we saw that we had to work on his start and the first part of his event, that's exactly what we did this year. And from the first training we had regarding that part of training we saw a lot of improvement for Churandy - that's why we have great expectations for him to be, to have, to win a medal in the Olympics," Prince said.
On Curacao, known for its multi-cultural population with Dutch, Papiamentu and English as official languages, Churandy played a range of sports as a child, including basketball and soccer. He focused on track after breaking his wrist while playing volleyball.
As a child he would run near his father's house just outside Willemstad in Santa Rosa, where the touristy downtown gives way to the island's typical cactus and scrub-brush vegetation and where the occasional wild goat still wanders.
Martina would later feast on "cabrito," a traditional goat dish, and "yambo," an okra stew with fish and pork. Then he had to get out his school books -- his family always made sure his studies came before anything else.
Martina often visits schools in Curacao and on other Caribbean islands to encourage youngsters to stick with their work, and now studies at the University of Texas in El Paso.
There he can take advantage of more opportunities to train and compete than he would have at home. The island's small population, only one track and no major competitions can make Olympic development tough, Prince said.
But tough or not, it looks like nothing can wipe the broad grin off Martina's face as he heads to Beijing. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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