Meet the most famous man in the Netherlands Antilles

Thousands of his compatriots wear his T-shirt, he is close friends with the Prime Minister and he has had three songs written about him – spikesmag.com meets sprinter Churandy Martina, the most famous man in the Netherlands Antilles.

Now in most circumstances you might expect some shred of disappointment from a nation whose star sprinter has finished fourth in the men’s 100m final and crossed the line second in the 200m only to be later disqualified and denied a silver medal. But this is the Netherlands Antilles, a tiny island nation just off the coast of Venezuela, so any success is to be cherished.

And boy did the nation celebrate when the wonderfully named Churandy Martina returned home earlier this month. Thousands of people, most of whom were wearing specially designed Churandy Martina T-shirts, greeted his arrival at the airport and fireworks were launched as his home island of Curacuo went into party overload.

The following day the locals were shoehorned into the national stadium to celebrate his achievements and he completed his grand tour of the island with a parade through all the local townships. For the modest Martina it was a mind-blowing experience.

“Coming off the plane I wondered what was happening,” explained Martina. “There was fireworks and everything. It was good for myself, and something good for the country also. As it [the memory] comes back to me it makes me very, very happy. On YouTube I saw a clip with people paying their tax when all of them stopped what they were doing, and turned to the TV to watch my race. Everyone was screaming and going crazy, I had goose bumps watching.”

Of course, when reflecting on the sprints at the Beijing Olympic Games, Usain Bolt springs to mind but Martina was in many ways the other great male sprinter in Beijing. And, certainly, his nation of just 183,000 people have taken the affable athlete to their hearts. Three songs were written in their native Papiamento language (a mix of Spanish, English and Dutch) – the titles of which were Running Leave Them Behind You, Churandy You Are The Centre of Attention and Churandy For Us You Won Gold.

Meanwhile, his achievements have not gone unnoticed by the island’s Prime Minister, Emily de Jongh-Elhage, who has helped support Martina to the tune of $60,000 in the countdown to Beijing. “She really helps me and she sponsors me,” explains Martina. “She gave me a gold medal, with my name on it and wrote that I was the people’s champion.”

A gifted all round sportsman as a child – Martina also played volleyball, basketball and football – he turned to track at the age of ten or 11 where he was discovered by local coach Wendell Price.
 
He quickly established a reputation as an athlete of some promise, but with no synthetic track in his homeland moved to live and study at the University of Texas in El Paso, USA in 2005. Since then Martina has seen a rapid rise in fortunes on the international stage, although as he explained his hopes of success in Beijing were hampered by injury.

After running the Golden League meeting in Berlin he picked up a groin injury and was out for a month before he aggravated the problem on his return in Madrid. “I still had the injury coming in [to the Olympic Games] but I knew it would be another four years to the Olympics, so I really want to do my best." He reached the final in Beijing, setting national records from lane nine and surpassing expectations to finish fourth in 9.93 in the final after which he received some encouraging words from Bolt when Martina explained the giant Jamaican said to him: "If you had started good, you would have been on the podium."
 
In the half-lap event, while all eyes were on Bolt smashing the world record at the front of the field, Martina crossed the finish line second to what everyone assumed was the Netherlands Antilles first ever Olympic track and field medal.

Drama ensued when US athlete Wallace Spearmon, who had crossed the line third, was disqualified after running in his lane but after the US lodged a protest it was later found Martina had committed the same offence and lost his silver medal – Shawn Crawford and Walter Dix, the US pair, were upgraded to silver and bronze. It is a memory which Martina is happy to share.

“Firstly, I was mad,” he explains. “I didn’t understand why they didn’t disqualify me on the track because Wallace did it and they disqualified him right on the track. Then I was a little sad but I know what I did... I ran in another lane, so I had to be disqualified. But now I’ve got to leave it behind and move on.”

And move on he does. Martina is, arguably, established as one of the top men in pursuit of Bolt on the international stage and at the age of 24 has a bright future. But does he believe the world 100m and 200m record holder is beatable?

“The same thing was said about Asafa – they thought he couldn’t be beaten,” said Martina one of the genuine nice guys of track and field. “Then in the 200m nobody thought anyone would come close to the world record of 19.32. Anything is possible.”

Five facts you didn’t know about Churandy Martina

***Martina says his father named him Churandy after an English soccer player

***His father is a fireman and his mother works in a medical laboratory

***At the University of Texas he is studying multi-disciplinary studies

***He is a keen follower of soccer and follows the fortunes of Barcelona and Real Madrid

***He has been coached by the same man – Wendell Price – since he first started running seriously 14 years ago