{"id":312660,"date":"2017-04-21T07:35:07","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T07:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=312660"},"modified":"2017-04-21T07:35:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T07:35:07","slug":"former-britain-high-jumper-dies-in-jamaica-motorbike-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=312660","title":{"rendered":"Former Britain high jumper dies in Jamaica motorbike crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Olympic high jump silver medallist Germaine Mason has died aged 34 after a motorcycle crash in Jamaica.<\/p>\n

The Jamaica-born athlete, who switched to represent Great Britain in 2006, won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.<\/p>\n

He was a friend of sprinter Usain Bolt, who was on the scene soon after the crash at 04:20 local time on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“Usain Bolt was part of the group that came by and he was very, very emotional, and still is,” said Senior Superintendent Calvin Allen.<\/p>\n

Senior Supt Allen, commanding officer of the Jamaican police traffic and highway division, told the BBC: “I understand they are very close friends.”<\/p>\n

He was unable to say whether Mason had been in Bolt’s company that evening, or if the eight-time Olympic champion was in a following vehicle.<\/p>\n

Mason won Britain’s first athletics medal of the Beijing Games, finishing second behind Russian Andrey Silnov.<\/p>\n

British Olympic champions Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Denise Lewis and Linford Christie have all paid tribute, with Christie saying he would never be forgotten.<\/p>\n

‘The entire country grieves’<\/h4>\n

Senior Supt Allen said the former high jumper had been travelling from the direction of the airport towards Kingston when the accident happened.<\/p>\n

“Our information suggests he lost control of the motorcycle and fell to the ground and received serious injuries, mainly to his face, head and upper body,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The evidence suggests he was not wearing a protective helmet.<\/p>\n

\"germaine-mason-and-usain-bolt\"<\/a>
Germaine Mason and Usain Bolt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It is a very mournful time in Jamaica. The entire country grieves for this standout athlete. It is very, very sad. We want to express our deepest condolences at the untimely death.”<\/p>\n

Jamaica prime minister Andrew Holness tweeted: “Our sincere condolences to the entire sporting fraternity.”<\/p>\n

‘A truly lovely man’<\/h4>\n

Mason claimed world indoor bronze for Jamaica in 2003 and recovered after suffering a career-threatening knee injury the following year.<\/p>\n

He was eligible to represent Britain because his father David was born in London, and he switched allegiance two years before the Beijing Games.<\/p>\n

On his Olympic debut, he managed 2.34m at his first attempt, with favourite Silnov the only athlete to clear 2.36m.<\/p>\n

British Athletics senior high jump coach Fuzz Caan, who worked closely with Mason at the time of his Olympic success, called him an “outstanding athlete and a truly lovely man”.<\/p>\n

\"Germaine<\/p>\n

“He had a wry sense of humour and was a pleasure to be around. He was a great ambassador of British high jumping. It is an honour for us to have him as part of our sporting history,” he said.<\/p>\n

UK Athletics chief executive Niels de Vos said staff were saddened to hear of Mason’s death.<\/p>\n

“Our deepest sympathies go to Germaine’s friends, family and the athletics community at this difficult time,” he said.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British Olympic high jump silver medallist Germaine Mason has died aged 34 after a motorcycle crash in Jamaica. The Jamaica-born athlete, who switched to represent Great Britain in 2006, won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He was a friend of sprinter Usain Bolt, who was on the scene soon after the crash at 04:20 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[249],"tags":[6390,6391,3437],"class_list":["post-312660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-sports","tag-athlete","tag-germain-mason","tag-usain-bolt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=312660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=312660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=312660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=312660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}