AS a guide as to what may be in store for the rest of the year, the first quarter of 1998 has given few clues.
World record-chasing Ato Boldon had not yet put on his running shoes. And the CAC and Commonwealth Games were still distant landmarks on the sporting horizon.
However, there was time for the Clico T&T Marathon to race into the record books through the feet of Vincentian Pamenos Ballantyne and for Sheldon Monderoy to crown himself the national indoor 3,000m record holder.
But while 1998's first three months are otherwise fading quickly into hazy memory, visions of Brian Lara, West Indies cricket are still clear. Crystal clear.
First there was the serious, almost burdened look we saw in Antigua one January afternoon when West Indies Cricket Board president Pat Rousseau introduced the 28-year-old as the new regional skipper.
What had replaced it less than a month later, mere minutes before a less buoyant Rousseau announced Test cricket's first abandoned match because of an unfit pitch, was a coy smile that fateful morning in Jamaica
More abiding, however, more significant, far more satisfying were some of Lara's other looks. Like the one on a mad Monday afternoon in February when the Prince, in his 50th but first full Test as WI skipper, embraced Carl Hooper on the Queen's Park Oval steps after a thrilling Second Test victory.
Then there was the stare of triumph after Curtly Ambrose and company had won for him the Fourth Test in Guyana. And then most poignantly came the joyful flush that took place on the Antigua Recreation Ground outfield when the captains, both the appointed Lara and the disappointed Courtney Walsh shook each other, hugged each other, shared a winning moment in the cause of the West Indies.
It was a season of many looks for West Indies cricket. One in which international success settled a few nerves even if it did not answer all the perturbing questions that have swirled around the region's favourite game and its Test team over the last twelve months.
The Lara appointment immediately gave the cricket a fresh face and put an end to an unhealthy period of speculation and rumour, fanned, it seemed, by insular ambitions.
To his credit, the new captain was able to smooth over potentially deadly cracks. His handling of elder statesmen Walsh and Curtly Ambrose both on and off the field was superb. And his side took the six-Test series 3-1.
But Lara, while approaching something like his former royal stature in compiling 417 runs at an average of 52.15, did not do it alone. Far from it.
For while his tactics were inventive (if not always successful), it was his men who got the job done. Ambrose especially.
Refreshed, relaxed, remarkable ``Ambi,'' with a career-best 30 wickets against England, began the turnaround in the titanic Second Test at the Oval with his fifth five-wicket haul on the ground. And by the time he got Atherton for the 16th time in Tests in Antigua, the fate of England and their soon-to-be ex-captain was assured.
But if the Test series was the highlight of the season, if Lara's success was the hoped-for sunrise over the gloomy horizon, Trinidad and Tobago's President's Cup campaign brought back the darkness. This was no sight for sore eyes.
T&T's captain Lara was a shadow of his West Indian alter ego. Available for just three matches, he averaged 23.80 and did not appear to be a man always focussed on the present.
His team seemed to follow his indifferent lead, winning their first and last matches and losing everything in the middle to finish one-from-bottom on the six-team table.
Still, there seemed to be hope for the youth. Richard Smith found the maturity that had previously eluded him, to get his first regional hundred (108 not out) in compiling 319 runs and teenaged Daren Ganga made real progress in also getting his first ton in ``big cricket''-138.
That was the kind of signal to the future the sport needs locally. But it is progress that will not be rapid and continuous if the cancers that have persisted for another season in the T&T game, are not excised. Soon.
However, there was no stuttering in Ballantyne's stride. For the second year in a row, he was the marathon winner. But this time, the Vincentian covered the 26-mile course with its new finish in front of the Queen's Park Oval in a record 2 hours, 15 minutes, 37 seconds. The effort shaved some three minutes off Venezuelan Reuben Maza's old mark and relegated Ronnie Holassie to also-ran status again.
Still on the positive side, the US-based runner moved up from third in 1997 to second. Monderoy will also be hoping to keep putting his best foot forward.
His 3,000m record (8 minutes, 30.52 seconds) qualified him for the CAC Games in Venezuela. It also gave him another foothold, a place on the map of local track and field.
Swimmer Sebastien Paddington was also aiming to carve out a space for himself in world swimming. But less than ideal preparation (Paddington arrived in Australia two days before his event), worked against the Canada-based Trini's doing better than 36th place in the 200m freestyle at the World Short Course Championships.
There was also disappointment for the Barbadian lass Leah Martindale. She too was 36th in the 200m free. And before Martindale got back into the pool for competition, she ended her successful association with her T&T coach of about three years, Anil Roberts, the 1997 male Coach of the Year.
Like the early Martindale, US PGA golfer Stephen Ames made a powerful first impression when he returned home for the Trinidad and Tobago Golf Association's Week of Golf. He broke the St Andrew's course record with his 8-under par 64. But the T&T pro could not conquer the American Tripp Isenhour in the CL Financial T&T Open.
Starting strong but also finishing with less power were the Concacaf Gold Cup footballers. The national team's talented attackers, Jerren Nixon and Stern John, brought them an impressive 3-1 win over Honduras. But careless defending condemned them to a 4-2 defeat against eventual champs Mexico.
And the interest generated by the pre-season Champions Cup tournament won by the hungry ``Eastern Lions'' Joe Public, was encouraging in this Shell Cup year.
A flattering beginning was also cycling's fate. The new, ambitious Ian Atherly administration, was slapped with a court injunction one month into its work. It was an unneeded distraction for a struggling sport. But as the second quarter began, the persevering riders were staying in the race.
And like their colleagues in sport, they will hope to be holding the prizes come year's end.