Jamaican sledders will be in Sochi

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Jamaican bobsled pilot Winston Watts and the nation's Olympic Committee said on Monday they are accepting an invitation to compete at next month's Sochi Olympics.

It marks the first time the Jamaican bobsled team will compete at the Games since 2002. The invitation comes after Watts accumulated enough points in lower-tier races in North America to qualify.

It will be the fifth Winter Games for a team from the sun-drenched Caribbean island which first qualified in 1988 for Calgary, an achievement that later inspired the movie Cool Runnings.

"Oh, man, it's really overwhelming," Watts said in a telephone interview on Monday.

Watts said in an earlier interview that the team had qualified, but was unsure about its ability to participate because of funding. He estimated he needed up to $80,000 to make the Olympic trip.

Much of that concern went away on Monday, when Jamaican Olympic officials said they and the Sochi Organizing Committee would cover all travel costs for the team.

Watts said he is still doing additional fundraising for equipment, such as different kinds of runners for the sled. Teams typically have several different sets of runners to choose from, depending on ice conditions.

It has been 12 years since Jamaica has had a sled in the Olympics, with Watts finishing 28th at the Salt Lake City Games with Lascelles Brown -now a key part of Canada's national team.

Brown won a medal with the Canadians at the 2010 Vancouver Games, one where the Jamaicans were hoping to compete but were again thwarted by funding issues.

"Once again, the pride of the country is with our athletes who continue to blaze the trail," the Jamaican Olympic Committee said in a statement.

Officially, five people were nominated to the team on Monday: Watts, brakeman Marvin Dixon, backup Wayne Blackwood, coach Thomas Samuel and Chris Stokes, who will serve as the chef de mission.

Stokes was part of the groundbreaking team that represented Jamaica in 1988.

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Anne Ruisi is an editor at China Daily online with more than 30 years of experience as a newspaper editor and reporter. She has worked at newspapers in the U.S., including The Birmingham News in Alabama and City Newspaper of Rochester, N.Y.