Rugby: Jamaica Crocs Being Propelled by Weir's Speed

Jamaica's athletes have long established themselves among the fastest in global track athletics.

To become another all-conquering force, the country's rugby seven men's outfit is looking to strike a parallel by infiltrating it ranks with more speed.

This follows their crowning as undisputed kings of Caribbean rugby with a bronze-medal finish at the just-concluded Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, after defeating Trinidad and Tobago 26-5 in the third-place play-off match on Thursday, August 2.

According to Bruce Martin, the coach who describes himself as “head cook and bottle washer”, a large part of that success owes itself to the addition of Warren Weir, a high-class sprinter who has won Olympic bronze at 200m and sprint relay gold, plus World Championships and Commonwealth Games 200m silver.

“The addition of Warren Weir is great. He saved us in so many ways; tackling, we didn't know that his tackling skills was on par like that. He rose to the occasion,” said Martin. “His speed is excellent for where we're going and I'm excited to see how far we'll reach coming onto the qualifications leading to the 2020 Olympics.”

“His contribution — the entire world of rugby is already raving about him, already crowning him as the fastest rugby player in the world and so far he's opened up space for us … we saw [at] the CAC Games what he can contribute to Team Jamaica and we're excited to see what he'll do moving on,” Martin said.