Jamaican sprinter Herb McKenley, who delivered medals at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, died here Monday evening.

The 85-year old died in hospital after ailing for some time.

He won gold in the 4x100 metres relay in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, while also capturing silver in the 100 metres and 400 metres.

McKenley also captured silver in the 400 metres at the 1948 Olympics in London.

MONTE-CARLO – Asafa Powell has won the IAAF Performance-of-the-Year award.

The IAAF announced last Sunday at its annual gala and awards ceremony that the 100 meters World record-holder from Jamaica had clinched the title ahead of Zersenay Tadese of Erithrea and American Jeremy Wariner.

Powell established a new mark for the 100 meters World record mere days after missing out on the glory of a 100 meters World Championship gold medal, when he faded to finish third behind American Tyson Gay, who the IAAF announced at the Male Athlete-of-the-Year – and Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas.

Powell clocked 9.74 seconds at a Grand Prix meeting in Rieti, Italy, on September 9 while easing off. His time was a full tenth of a second quicker than any other this year.

Tadese had been considered for scoring the biggest upset of the year by dethroning Kenenisa Bekele at the World Cross Country Championships and winning by 23 seconds in 35.50 seconds over a 12-kilometre course in Mombasa on March 24.

Wariner got into the frame for his 43.45 seconds in the 400 meters at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, on August 31. He won the World title by more than half a second with a time bettered only by two men in history.

The 25-year-old Gay, Powell’s main challenger this season and the athlete identified to break the 100 World record, and Ethiopia’s 23-year-old Meseret Defar were crowned as the male and female World Athletes-of-the-Year.

“To follow in Carl Lewis's footsteps (the first winner of the IAAF Athlete-of-the-Year) is just a great honor,” Gay said.

On the heels of two impressive wins in recent international friendlys, Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz have waltzed back in to the top 100 in the latest FIFA World rankings released Friday.

In the October rankings, the Reggae Boyz has tumbled spectacularly to 103rd in the world, one of their lowest ever rankings.

They now occupy 98th in the world, rising five spots, after wins over El Salvador and Guatemala at the National Stadium in Jamaica. They first beat El Salvador 3-0 and also beat Guatemala 2-0.

Jamaica have also moved up two places in the CONCACAF rankings and are now 12th, behind the top-ranked Mexico who have retained their overall world ranking of 15th.

St Vincent and the Grenadines remain the highest ranked English-speaking Caribbean team at 77th but have dropped four places.

The embattled Trinidad & Tobago’s Soca Warriors are ranked behind SVG at 83rd but have lost five places while Guyana also dropped one spot to 93rd.

Barbados have plummeted 31 places from 93 to 124th but Antigua and Barbuda experienced movement in the right direction, moving up 11 spots following their 3-0 win over St Kitts and Nevis last week.

Despite the loss, St Kitts have moved up three places.

In the top tier of CONCACAF, the United States are second to Mexico but have dropped one place to 19th in the overall rankings.

Honduras, third in the regional rankings, are up one overall to 54th while Canada are fourth but have dropped four places to 55th.

Argentina have remained No. 1 with Brazil second and world champions Italy, third.

England meanwhile, who failed to qualify for Euro 2008 earlier this week, have tumbled out of the top 10.

Jamaican batsman Brenton Parchment is poised to make his West Indies debut after being named in a 15-man squad for the tour of Zimbabwe later this month.

The 25-year old, right-hander scored 154 runs at an average of 38.50 with one half-century, in helping Jamaica capture the recent KFC Cup regional one-day tournament.

Guyanese batsman Narsingh Deonarine, who was chosen for the Twenty20 World cup in South Africa in September, has also maintained his spot in the side despite his recent poor form.

The 24-year old Deonarine, who has played four Tests and ODIs, had a poor run in Guyana’s KFC Cup campaign managing just 71 runs from four innings.

Prior to the Twenty20 World Cup, he had been ignored by selectors for nearly two and a half years following the turbulent tour of Sri Lanka in 2005.

The selectors have also persisted with 33-year old leg-spinning all-rounder Rawle Lewis who last played for the West Indies on the tour of New Zealand back in 2006.

One-day specialist, all-rounder Dwayne Smith has been overlooked.