Portia, Usain race for ‘Time Person of the Year’

Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller and the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt have been nominated by Time Magazine for the coveted Time Person of the Year 2012. The two are among the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012. Readers are encouraged to select the most influential people online. Jamaicans may vote for the Prime Minister and the Olympian, no later than this Friday, April 6, when voting officially ends. The complete list will be chosen by Time editors and revealed on TIME.com on Tuesday, April 17. Simpson-Miller, who is in her second stint as Prime Minister, received her mandate from the people of the country, when she displaced the Jamaica Labour Party at the polls on December 29, last year. She repeated the feat at the Local Government Elections last Monday, March 26. For the 25 year old Olympic champion, Bolt, this is the second time in three years that he has made the list. A year after his impressive triple win in Beijing in 2008, Bolt was named in the top 10. “At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bolt ran a record 9.69 in the 100m, even while slowing down at the finish. In the 2009 Worlds, he clocked a 9.58 — another 100m record.” That is how the Time Specials describes his prowess on the athletic circuit. The two joins an impressive list of nominees which includes artistes, innovators, icons and heroes. Some of the big names on this year’s list include, Grammy-Award winning singer, Adele; actor, Alec Baldwin; US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton; Libya’s Mustafa Abdel-Jahil; Chinese artist, activist and architect, Ai WeiWei; singer, songwriter, Beyonce and the world’s third richest man, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett.