* Island nation home of world's top sprinters
* Hope for 'golden' anniversary of independence
* World record holder Usain Bolt hopes to repeat 2008 gold
KINGSTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Jamaicans crowded around a giant
television screen in the busy Half Way Tree section of Kingston
on Friday, anxious to witness the highly anticipated 100-meter
races at the Olympic Games in which the Caribbean island's men
and women are the favorites.
"Jamaica's girls look good," said a beaming Bridgette
Plummer after watching women sprinters Shelly-Ann Fraser and
Veronica Campbell Brown win their respective first-round races.
Three Jamaican men also hope to make history at the Olympics
on Sunday, equaling a feat by the island's women sprinters in
Beijing four years ago.
Jamaican women sprinters swept the 100-meter competition at
the 2008 Beijing games. The last time that was done by male
sprinters was in 1912, when an American threesome took the
podium in Stockholm.
The Caribbean nation of less than 3 million people will come
to a virtual standstill on Saturday and Sunday afternoon as
Jamaicans turn their attention to first the women's, and then
the men's 100-meter finals.
If the Jamaican men pull off the gold, silver and bronze in
London it would also give this nation of speedsters an extra
reason to celebrate on the eve of its 50th anniversary of
independence from Britain.
The favorite in the race is Jamaican Usain "The Lightning"
Bolt, the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder. But
he will be challenged in London by fellow Jamaicans Yohan "The
Beast" Blake and Asafa Powell.
"Bolt is the boss man," said Alex McNeil, while watching the
Olympic Games opening ceremony at Bolt's downtown Kingston
restaurant, Tracks & Records, where the walls are decorated with
reggae album covers and pictures of sporting feats.
The signature cocktail is dubbed "The Finish Line."
"He will be crowned king of the 100 meters," McNeil
predicted, adding that he expected Bolt to repeat the feat in
the 200 meters on Thursday as he did four years ago in Beijing.
No man has ever won back-to-back Olympic 100-meter gold medals.
The two floors of Tracks & Records will be packed on Sunday
with an array of TVs tuned into the Olympics and servers wearing
the black, gold and green colors of the Jamaican flag.
Clients will be offered a lunch special, "Out da Blocks,"
jerk chicken served with yams. Bolt's father, Wellesley Bolt,
told Reuters after his son won gold in 2008 the secret to his
speed lay in the yams grown in the northwestern area of Jamaica
where the sprinter was born.
LARGE CROWDS, EYES ON PROFITS
Local excitement is on the rise as businesses seek to cash
in on the Olympic frenzy, offering discounted TV sets to
potential buyers. Large-screen TVs have been set up in shopping
malls and other public places around the capital.
On Friday, traffic virtually halted along the normally busy
thoroughfare that separates the southern section of Kingston
from the north.
"Our girls are for real," Glenroy Spence said. "But it is in
the men's 100 meters where the name Jamaica will be heard the
loudest. We are going to cream (wipe out) the world," he said.
Organizers of an international cricket match at Jamaica's
famous ground Sabina Park have arranged to stop a match
involving the West Indies team and visiting New Zealand so fans
can catch the 100-meter finals.
Bolt, who turns 26 later this month, is a living legend in
his home country. He has more than 714,000 followers on Twitter
and is the island's top celebrity after reggae's Bob Marley.
The London Olympics are a golden opportunity to promote the
island's best features, blocking out other more negative traits,
including one of the highest murder rates in the world, largely
due to gang-related violence fueled by drug money.
The island's tourism board has featured Bolt in ads
promoting its sunny beaches and laid-back Caribbean culture, and
Air Jamaica promotes its flights to the homeland of "the world's
fastest man."
In 2008, Bolt won three golds - in the 100- and 200-meter
competitions, as well as the four-man 100-meter relay - all in
world record times.
Some critics say Bolt, famous for his signature archer-like
victory pose, may have grown too cocky. Blake beat his training
partner twice in three days in the 100-meter and 200-meter races
at Jamaica's National Championship in June.
Callers to local radio talk shows shine a spotlight on his
late-night partying. One Catholic priest, Father Richard Holung,
chastised Bolt for his lifestyle, urging the sprinter to seek an
"audience" with God to guide him.
Concerned by his late hours, some have even asked the
governing body for athletics in Jamaica to provide Bolt with a
driver. He has crashed two BMWs in the last year, one on his way
home in June from a Kingston nightclub.
(Writing by David Adams; editing by Todd Eastham)