Can Caribbean stars hold on to their crowns?

In Jamaica, the popular mantra goes "we likkle but we tallawah" which, basically translated from patois to English, means "we are small but we are talented".

That was borne out on the greatest stage of all this time last year when the Caribbean island of about three million souls wowed the word. The country swept the men's and women's sprint events at the Beijing Games on its merry way to a record haul of 11 medals including half a dozen of the most important hue, gold.

The athletes' heroics sent the island into a nationalistic frenzy not seen since Jamaica's Reggae Boyz soccer team qualified for the 1998 World Cup and then Prime Minister PJ Patterson declared a public holiday.