Jamaica's bobsleigh team all set to make history

A member of the Jamaican bobsleigh squad aspires to achieve the country's best ever finish at the Winter Olympics. Ashley Watson, a student at Sheffield Hallam University, is a member of the four-man bobsleigh team racing in Beijing.

A four-man crew will represent the country for the first time in 24 years, emulating the achievements of the 1988 team that inspired the film Cool Runnings.

The team's goal, according to Mr Watson, is to break records. Jamaica made its Olympic début in 1988 in Calgary, Canada.

Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White, and Nelson Stokes crashed out of the race and had to carry their sled across the finish line, but they won the hearts of spectators all around the world.

Their plot was loosely based on the 1993 film Cool Runnings. The four-man bobsleigh team from Jamaica last competed in the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, in 1998, finishing 21st.

The team's best finish was 14th at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

"This would be a reasonable bar to beat if you want to be the best team in Jamaican history," Mr Watson said, adding that "there is no point entering a competition unless you think you can win a medal."