LONDON (Reuters) - Bud Winter, the American sprint coach who mentored a generation of world record-holders including Tommie Smith and John Carlos, held a series of seminars in Jamaica in 1966.

Among the attendees listening to the man who revolutionised sprint training were Glen Mills and Steven Francis. Forty-six years later Mills coaches Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake while Francis guides Asafa Powell and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

Between them that quartet collected three individual gold medals and three silvers at the London Olympics concluding on Sunday where a Caribbean island of 2.7 million people reaffirmed it is the cradle of world sprinting. Bolt and Blake also took gold in the men's 4x100 relay and Fraser-Pryce was in the Jamaican quartet who claimed relay silver.

Two years after Winter's visit Smith and Carlos shocked the world and infuriated the establishment when they bowed their heads and held black-gloved fists aloft during the victory ceremony for the Mexico Olympics 200 metres final.

Their silent protest on behalf of their oppressed fellow-blacks in the United States still resonates. A similar determination and pride swept through the Caribbean with the music of Bob Marley in Jamaica and the success of the West Indies cricket side.

"There is a tremendous sense of pride, if two Jamaicans run in to each other in the street they say 'Respect'," said Jason Hall, deputy director of tourism at the Jamaica Tourist Board who helped run the hugely successful Jamaica House at the London Olympics. "Respect is very important. National pride is an extension of that."

Winter's visit to Jamaica came at the invitation of Dennis Johnson, who equalled the world 100 yards records four times in the space of six weeks in 1961. Johnson was coached at San Jose State University by Winter.

On his return to Jamaica, Johnson resolved to help mentor coaches who would help produce world-class athletes. They in turn would not then feel they needed to accept university scholarships in the United States in order to progress.

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As a promising young athlete Hall, now 41, clocked 10.2 over the 100 metres and studied in the United States.

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U.S. coach inspired Jamaican sprint success