Donald Quarrie

Donald O'Riley Quarrie was born on 25 February 1951 in Kingston, Jamaica, and attended Camperdown High School, where his speed soon became clear. At 17 he made the Jamaican team for the 100 metres at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, but injured himself in training and could not run.

In 1970, at 19, he burst into the front rank at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, winning the 100 and 200 metres and, anchoring the Jamaican relay team, the 4x100 metres, three gold medals in all. The next year at the Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia, he won the 100, 200 and 4x100, running the 200 metres in a hand-timed 19.8 seconds, a world record at that distance.

In 1972 he went to the Munich Olympics as the favourite in the 200 metres, but injured his hamstring in the semi-final. He returned to the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch in 1974 and won the 100 and 200 again, the first athlete to retain the title in either event. He was ready for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where he carried the Jamaican flag and, in perfect form, won the 200 metres in 20.22 seconds, Jamaica's first medal in the men's 200 metres.

He also took silver in the 100 metres in Montreal, losing the final by just 0.01 seconds in 10.08. At the 1978 Commonwealth Games he won a third straight 100 metres title, but was eliminated from the 200 with cramp. Quarrie went on to compete in five Olympic Games, winning four medals: a gold, two silvers and a bronze, including the 200 metres bronze in Moscow in 1980 and a 4x100 metres relay silver in Los Angeles in 1984.

He won six Commonwealth gold medals, the first male athlete to do so. After a career that placed him among the world's top sprinters of the 1970s, with personal bests of 10.07 for 100 metres and 19.86 for 200 metres, he was honoured with Jamaica's Order of Distinction and a school in Kingston, Donald Quarrie High School, was named after him.