Kirani James returns home

Kirani James holds Grenada’s flag at the 2012 Olympics

World and Olympic 400m champion Kirani James returns to his native Grenada this week.

James will arrive at the Maurice Bishop International Airport at approximately 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday August 30.
Thousands are expected to welcome the Grenadian champion on his arrival.

The celebrations continue on Saturday September 1st (his 20th birthday) with a national motorcade that will conclude with a rally at the National Stadium in St George’s where the government will announce a reward package to James, including a major surprise!

On Sunday September 2nd, a Youth Motivational Programme will be launched in his village in the western fishing town of Gouyave.

James decided to end his 2012 season and return to school at the University of  Alabama following his recent victory in the Samsung Diamond League in Lausanne, Switzerland.

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16 Comments

  1. August 30, 2012

    Tiger, i know this young man personally, we are from the same village. Kirani had won gold at the international level while still training at home World Youth Championships
    Gold 2009 Brixen 200 m
    Gold 2009 Brixen 400 m
    Silver 2007 Ostrava 400 m

    yes, his overseas training surely enhanced his ability. So we MUST have faith in our local coach. Our Governments in the region need to invest more locally and in some case to be cost effective, have an OECS system where we train ours, pooling ALL our resources together

  2. Positive vibes
    August 29, 2012

    you all are ust hyprocritical…stop disliking my comment!……foolish

  3. Morihei Ueshiba
    August 28, 2012

    @Positive vibes, the parasites just like to parade on other people success and they treat there own like crap, i just pray Luan get an opportunity to grown in a different environment.

    • Positive vibes
      August 29, 2012

      I know right!!!. very true

  4. strange
    August 28, 2012

    yeah he was great. i was proud to be from the caribbean.

  5. Positive vibes
    August 28, 2012

    I might as well say congrats to the now famous Kirani James bu i must say that im very disappointed in the way the Government and THE PEOPLE OF DOMINICA ALSO.welcomed Luan Gabriel…..the child is an excellent runner…im sure if she had won, the government would have thrown one of the biggest nationa parties in the history of Dominica…i amvery disappointed. Luan placed us on the map! So to end.I’ll say GO LUAN! YOU MADE US PROUD AS WELL!!!

  6. Sout Man
    August 28, 2012

    OECS for ever!! I’m happy that the government and people of Grenada are rewarding their champion in a tangible way. Congratulations to Kirani and Grenada!! The OECS is proud of you!!

  7. Domerican/Possie
    August 28, 2012

    I was really touched when he took out his name tag and gave it to the double amputee from South Africa after the race. That was a great gesture.

  8. August 28, 2012

    @Tiger, Kirani is home grown, he was breaking Carifta records since he was 12 yrs old. The University came and recruited him because of his ability. He left Grenada under the training of local coach Albert Joseph. Jamaica did it with home grown training, Dominica can do it to. thanks for you comments guys,

    from the Spice
    more info on KJ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirani_James

    • Tiger
      August 29, 2012

      Arthur, I am not saying we do not have the coaching talent to train athletes to achieve gold medals. Jamaica has proven we can do it, but Jamaica has an exceptional athletics program and has tremendous local support. One thing we will never know is whether Kirmani would have captured the gold had he remained in Grenada. There are many commonwealth gold medal athletes who will never see a medal at the olympics.

  9. Anonymous
    August 28, 2012

    So happy for this young black caribbean man. You are soooo amazing and talented, keep excelling and making yourself and your people proud. We love you, such a humble young man. God bless you.

  10. trute
    August 28, 2012

    We are proud of you, my fellow Caribbean man!

  11. Tiger
    August 28, 2012

    I had a good feeling that he was not trained in Grenada. There was talk last week of building a multi-purpose stadium in DOminica to accommodate athletics. The most likely way for us to win an olympic medal is for our students studying in the US, UK or Canada to get proper coaching at their schools and attending meets with higher level athletes on a regulr basis.

    I am happy that this young girl was able to represent us at the Olympics, but to really have a shot, we need out youth properly trained by seasoned coaches.

    • in the know
      August 28, 2012

      So many of out athletes such as BRUCE PHILLIP, STEVEN AGAR, CEDRIC HARRIS , LESTER MICHEL, SHARON PHILOGEN. DAWN WILLAIMS, MISS JOSEPH, etc were also trained overseas after their early upbringings at our local schools. How many of then got any medals for us internatonally/olympics wise. They were really great indeed and peole like Loblack worked very hard and well with them. Its much more than facilities/ many of our youths have bad attitudes are on drugs and just lazy.

    • Channel 1
      August 28, 2012

      The bulk of Kirani’s athletic development occurred in Grenada. The Grenadians take athletics very seriously. Kirani received an athletic scholarship to study in the US sometime in 2009 or 2010.

      However as I mentioned earlier, he is one Caribbean athlete who developed and honed his athletics skills in his home country. He won a number of regional and international athletic medals while he was still in high school in Grenada.

      • Tiger
        August 29, 2012

        I don’t disagree with you on his early development in Grenada. However, at that level the winner and 4th/5th…places is determined by very narrow margins. Most times you get to a certain level and you plateau, and it may take someone with a differnt skillset or someone who applies different techniques to take you over the top. The point I was making is that we have limited resources in teh smaller islands and to have realistic shots at being medal contenders at these events, we need to have the best training at out disposal. That is not to say our guys in the islands are no good at coaching. The Jamaicans have proven that they are as good as or better than many of those other coaches out there.

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