“Riddle me this, riddle me that, guess me this riddle, and perhaps not: A we run things, things no run we. Who could that be?” One possible answer: Jamaican sprinters. Enquiring minds want to know: Why do Jamaicans run so fast? Usain Bolt may be the most recent and the most spectacular Jamaican practitioner of the art of speed, but he and Shelly- Ann Fraser stand on the shoulders of giants of both genders, heirs to a pedigree that goes back at least a hundred years to the teenaged Norman Manley and before. For years before the explosion of “Lightning” Bolt on the Beijing Olympics track, the consistent speediness of men and women from this small island had been the subject of serious and humorous speculation, pride and “su-su”. What is the “gold” that is mined so consistently by Jamaican sprinters that permits the little country to claim a place among the top five countries, measured in terms of medals per capita of population, in almost every Olympics since the Second World War – and all on the basis of athletics, mostly the sprints (400 metres and under)?