VCB sprinting towards Games' first
Stretched out near the finish area at a scorching hot National Stadium, Veronica Campbell-Brown goes about her pre-race routine unnoticed, just another speedster among Jamaica's galaxy of sprinting stars.
With Usain Bolt settling into the starting blocks, 100 metre world champion Yohan Blake warming up and Beijing Games' 100m winner Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce holding court in between, it takes a lot for a double Olympic 200m champion to get noticed.
But with Olympic history beckoning, the sprinter Jamaicans know simply as VCB is set to grab the London Games spotlight.
No athlete has reached the top of the Olympic podium in the 200m three times, and with gold medals from Beijing and Athens already in her trophy case Campbell-Brown has a chance to add to Jamaica's already rich sprinting legacy.
"I look forward to the challenge," Campbell-Brown said after qualifying for the 100m and 200m at the Jamaican Olympic trials.
"It's going to be tough at the Olympics but as long as I'm healthy, I'm still confident that I am able to accomplish my goals."
Like many of her fellow Jamaican speedsters, VCB appears much more comfortable racing than talking about her sprinting.
During the four-day trials Campbell-Brown preferred to let her work on the track do the talking, brushing past the media offering only the briefest assessment of her performances, if she had any comment at all, until the meeting was over.
But the message was clear; the 30-year-old sprinter is confident she can add to a cache of five Olympic medals.
As with any first, however, a place in the Olympic record books will not come easy.
SPRINTING PROTÉGÉ
Fraser-Pryce signaled she has an eye on VCB's 200m crown by easily winning the Jamaican trials while Campbell-Brown laboured to a third place finish in her signature event to narrowly claim the last of three qualifying spots.
American Allyson Felix, silver medallist behind VCB in Athens and Beijing, sent her Jamaican rival an ominous warning by clocking the best 200m time in 14 years in winning the US trials in 21.69.
"I don't under estimate any of my competitors," assured Campbell-Brown. "I just make sure I give my best each time I compete. ... Regardless of whether I win or lose I believe in hard work, perseverance, dedication and determination.
"Never give up is my motto no matter how tough it looks so I'm going to have a strong mindset and compete at my best."
A sprinting protege who discovered running barefoot during a school sports day, Campbell-Brown has gone on to be crowned Jamaica's Queen of Speed, winning five Olympic and nine world championship medals.
Her Olympic haul includes two golds from the 200m, another gold from the 4x100m relay in Athens and a silver in the same event in Sydney as well as a 100m bronze from the 2004 Games.
The world championships have brought even more treasure, gold in the 200m at Daegu last year, gold in 100m in 2007 in Osaka along with seven silvers.
Born and raised in Trelawny, the same parish as Bolt, Campbell-Brown spent her childhood racing her five brothers and four sisters eating the same yams grown on the family farm that the Bolt claims helps give him his magical speed.
Her raw talent earned her a place on Jamaica's top high school track programs and eventually a scholarship at an American college.
Helping Jamaica to a silver at the 2000 Sydney Games, VCB became the youngest Jamaican woman to win an Olympic medal and 12 years later she continues to chase her dreams.
"We don't know what the future holds," said Campbell-Brown. "The trials is just a means to get us to the Olympics when we get to the Olympics it is a different thing we all have to show up when it matters most."
