On Monday night when many people gathered to welcome home two more of Jamaica’s athletes, it was an emotional embrace between Shelly-Ann Fraser and her grandmother that seemed to be the happiest moment of all.

Fraser, the Olympic 100 metre gold medalist and Markino Buckley, Olympic 400 metre hurdles finalist, were welcomed back to Jamaica in a small and hastily arranged reception at the VIP room of the Norman Manley International Airport.

Several minutes into the press conference hosted by Minister of Sport, Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, Phedalia Simpson, Fraser’s grandmother walked in and immediately Fraser began to cry, bowing her head while she quietly tried to compose herself.

The tears however could not be contained and Grange immediately invited Simpson to come and share a moment with Fraser. Both embraced for several minutes crying tears of joy. Simpson later told THE STAR that this was the first time she was seeing Fraser since she won the gold medal and seeing her brought back all the emotions she felt when she won. “Everything came back to me, knowing that she reach thus far,” she said.

Earlier, residents of Waterhouse crowded the airport to welcome home their star. Many arrived from early afternoon on buses that carried people from the community. “Today when I come home from school, I heard she was coming so I decided to come on one of the buses and come and show my support,” Yanique Jarrett, a high school student said.

Although she had homework to do, that did not stop her, but she promised to do it as soon as went home.

As soon as Fraser and Buckley exited the airport, there a mad dash to touch them as many eager people ran with the vehicle until it turned on to the straightway leading out of the airport.

Four days following the highly anticipated Hart Hill Usain Bolt Homecoming event scheduled for September 20th at the William Knibb High School, the triple medal world record holder will be flown to the United States where he is in high demand within the talk show circuit.

The 22 year-old sprint master, renowned Lightning Bolt is being sought by a series of high profile US television shows and has been confirmed to appear on a few of them, while requests keep pouring in from rival programmes.

Norman Peart, Bolt’s manager, confirmed that he will be a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman on September 24. This will be the first in a new series of appearances for Bolt, who until recently has been attracting audiences at mainly track and field meets.

Peart disclosed that Bolt’s other confirmed appearances include: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on September 25th and then the popular Regis and Kelly Show on the 26th.

With no immediate plans to expand the management team, Peart explained that the same team that has been taking care of Bolt’s business since 2003 is capable and poised to continue working with him, even though new demands have unfolded following his amazing Olympic feats.

The world’s new double record holder is not intending on slowing down and he will be presented to billions of eager fans via US talk shows.

Ever since Usain Bolt’s historic performance at the recently concluded Beijing Olympics, rumours of endorsements and a potential move to other sports by the 22-year-old superstar athlete have flooded the Internet.

The latest rumour to be added to the lengthening list is that British telecommunication giant Virgin Media will be naming one of their many Internet packages after the Jamaican sprinter. It is said that the package ‘Boltband’, will provide subscribers with an unprecedented 50mb Internet service.

One of the many online articles about the expected ‘endorsement’ was found on British website www. Digitalspy.co.uk.

The article entitled VM sign up ‘Lightning Bolt’ read: “The world’s fastest man, triple gold medal-winning Jamaican Olympic sensation Usain Bolt, is starting to reap the commercial benefits of his Beijing triumph, with an approach from UK cable company Virgin Media to be the face of its superfast broadband service. Virgin Media, which is set to launch a 50mb broadband product it claims will be more than twice as fast as rivals, is considering calling the product ‘Boltband”.

‘Approach’ made
The article even continued that Ashley Stockwell, Virgin Media’s head of marketing operation, said the company had ‘approached’ Bolt to endorse the new service. Stockwell was quoted as saying: “Our new 50mb service will deliver even faster lightning broadband speeds, which is why we feel that Usain will be the perfect ambassador for our campaign.”

Attempts by The Star to contact Stockwell at Virgin Media were unsuccessful. However, Norman Peart, Bolt’s manager, said they have never been contacted by the company. “I have been hearing about it but so far no one has contacted me or his (Bolt) agent,” Peart said. “It’s not that we would not be interested in it, but to date, no one has approached us.”

One sceptical reader commented on the online article referring to it as ‘gorilla marketing’. The reader, under the username ‘Broonale’, said the company may have only said they approached the athlete to reap the benefit of “publicity now while he is hot”

Just last week, this newspaper reported similar rumours that were circulating online that National Football League (NFL) team the Miami Dolphins were trying to lure Bolt to their line-up. The team however denied the claims.

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