Over the past few years, since Jamaica started to win medals in bunches at major championships, I have come to realise that many of their greatest critics are some of the most ignorant.

Just this week, this fact became glaringly clear as the nation's junior athletes and senior athletes competed on different fronts in Oregon, United States, and Glasgow, Scotland, respectively. First, because our junior athletes didn't smash everything in sight in Oregon, suddenly our beloved sport was in decline. "Oh woe is me" many cried as the United States dominated the beloved sprints. Jamaica didn't even make the finals in the sprints and there are many reasons for that.

Among them is the fact that some of the athletes arrived late. As such, they didn't have enough time to settle in and get acclimatised and for their bodies to recover in time for competition. Some of our athletes were in their first year as juniors, having transitioned from the youth level the year before. Others have injury-filled seasons that hampered their preparation, some were not mentally ready and most importantly, there are other very talented athletes from other countries who have been preparing for a long time for their moment in the sun.

But for many of us Jamaican 'fans', when the IAAF was planning the World Juniors all the gold medals had Jamaica already engraved on them and were just there waiting for our athletes to come and pick them up. They have now found out that that is not quite how it works.

But let's take a quick look at how poorly the team did. The boy's relay team, despite being beaten by Japan, a country that has been enjoying the successes of a strong developmental programme, ran a season best time. So too did the girls.

Jaheel Hyde had another world-leading time in winning the 400 metre hurdles. Tyler Mason's 13.06 seconds for silver in the sprint hurdles is the second fastest time in history. It took a world record to beat him. That is what we said was not good enough.

Over in Glasgow, Kemar Bailey-Cole won the gold medal in the men's 100m in 10 seconds flat. Still, that wasn't good enough. 'What can he win with that time?' a detractor asked on Facebook. Well, he just won the Commonwealth 100-metre title, or did the poster have an extremely short memory. Speaking of memory, mine tells me KBC's time was faster than the time that Asafa Powell (10.04s) ran in 2006 to claim his Commonwealth title. Look how fast Asafa has gone on to run since then? 9.72 is his personal best.

Comments like these are too common these days, unfortunately, and it suggests to me that there are too many who are already taking our athletes for granted.

Our junior and senior athletes are winning medals at a faster rate than they ever have in our history, yet to some people it is not enough. I guess they have no appreciation for what obtained in the past. If they knew our history, maybe they would have a lot less to say about what is happening now.

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