Germaine Mason

Germaine Mason was a high jumper born in Kingston, Jamaica, on 20 January 1983 and killed in a motorbike accident on 20 April 2017 at the age of 34. He first made his name as a junior, taking silver and bronze medals at the World Junior Championships in 2000 and 2002, the second of them in his home city. His first senior medal was a gold at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, where he cleared a personal best of 2.34 metres, and he finished fifth at that year's World Championships. In 2004 he added a bronze at the World Indoor Championships, shared with two other jumpers. In 2006 he changed his sporting allegiance, which the governing body ratified, and began to compete for Great Britain, eligible because his father was born in London. At the Beijing Olympics in August 2008 he equalled his best of 2.34 metres and took the silver medal behind Russia's Andrey Silnov, giving Great Britain its first track and field medal of those Games. He became British high jump champion in 2009. His friend Usain Bolt was a pallbearer at his funeral in Kingston.