Four years ago in Athens twin brother John Howard set the FSM record in 100 meter at 10.85 seconds in a fast heat in which John ran at the immediate right of Ato Bolton of Trinidad. Almost as soon as that record was set, Jack Howard (other half of the pair of twins) vowed to challenge his brother's record at the next Olympic Games -- Beijing 2008.
FSM Athletics sort of gave the chance to Jack to put his dream in action. John took nearly two years off from any major athletics (track and field) competition since 2004, which paved the way for Jack to be selected by FSM National Olympic Committee as the "would-be" track male olympian comes 2008.
A three-way aggreement was reached between FSM Athetics, Jack Howard, and Mr. Carl Cruz, Jack's coach in Guam, that layed out a focused plan of action for Jack 6 months leading to the Beijing Olympics. Although it was never explicitly stated in some sort of pledge or aim, it was everyone's hope -- reasonable hope, that Jack Howard would run faster than 10.85 in Beijing.
On August 15, 2008 at around 11:45 am, Jack ran a time of 11.03 to his own dissapointment -- and dissatisfaction of the FSMAA and the FSM National Olympic Committee. Jack's personal best in this event was set in Samoa back in 2003 leading to the South Pacific Games in Fiji that year in a time of 10.87 seconds, which was the FSM record for a while until it was broken by John in Athens a year later. So what went wrong for Jack Howard at Beijing!!!??? Or, leading to Beijing?
That's something Jack will never be able to retrace and FSM must have to swallow.
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