Jamaican-born high jumper, Germaine Mason died early this morning following a motorcycle accident in Harbour View, Kingston.
Mason, 34, was riding a CBR motorbike on the Florizel Glasspole Boulevard when he reportedly lost control of the bike and crashed. The accident occurred about 4:20 AM.
Mason won a silver medal in the high jump for Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
He holds the Jamaican high jump national record of 2.34 meters. While representing Jamaica, he won gold at the Junior Pan Am Games in 2000 and again in 2002, in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Bridgetown, Barbados respectively. At the World Junior Championships held in Chile in 2000, Mason won the silver medal in the high jump. He also won the high jump title at the Pan American Championships in 2003.
Mason was a close friend of eight-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt and former English Premier League and Reggae Boyz footballer, Ricardo Bibi’ Gardner, with whom he attended the Wolmer’s Boys School.
At the time of his death, Mason operated a micro-financing business in Kingston.