The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

As a locally based athlete, nobody can second guess half/quarter-miler Wesley Neymour anymore. He made a decision to step down from the men’s 800 metres to run the 400m and it paid off big dividends as he’s now on his way to represent the Bahamas at his first Olympic Games in London, England.

Not that he will get a chance to run the individual 400, but Neymour’s fourth place finish in the 400m at the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations Scotiabank National Open Track and Field Championships last month has secured him a spot on the men’s 4 x 400 relay team.

“It’s the best decision that I’ve ever made. I feel good going to my first Olympics,” Neymour said. “I’m going to go there and do my best and give the team all I got.”

Despite the fact that he clinched a berth on the team in the one-lap race, in hindsight, Neymour said if he had to do it all over again, he probably would have stayed with the 800.

“But this was a dream come true. I pulled it though,” he said. “Thank God. I’m on my way to London.”

Neymour, a 23-year-old graduate from Central Andros, is just the second athlete from Andros to make an Olympic team. He follows in the footsteps of Carl Oliver, who also ran on the men’s 4 x 400 relay team at both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and Sydney, Australia, respectively.

And if that’s not enough, Neymour, like Oliver, is one of the few Bahamians who was able to achieve the feat while training right here at home.

“It was hard because I had to work and come to practice,” said Neymour, who is employed with a company in Lyford Cay. “I started out my season running bad because I got hurt, but I came through at the end, so I’m thankful to God. I just had to stay focus and on track of the goal of making the team.”

His coach, Rupert Gardiner, who has coached an Olympic team in the past, said he’s delighted to be able to prepare Neymour for his greatest moment in the sport.

“I feel proud of Wesley in making the Olympic team,” he said. “To see the trials and tribulations that he had to go through and now he’s on the Olympic team, it’s just a great feeling. In high school, he played basketball, but in the two years, he has qualified for the Olympics.”

Gardiner said the good thing is that Neymour opted not to go overseas and train like the majority of the Bahamian athletes have done. He stayed right here in the Bahamas and was home bred.

“It’s good to know that all of our athletes don’t have to go to the (United) States and get trained by the American coaches,” he said. “I don’t have anything against the American coaches, but our coaches are well versed in getting our athletes prepared at this level. So I’m happy to see that I have an athlete that I have prepared to compete at the Olympics.

“He’s not the first because when you look at Chris (Brown), he came out of my programme right out of high school. Neymour didn’t go to college. He came right out of high school and although he came from a basketball background, he made the adjustment to running track, so I feel very good about myself.”

Gardiner’s only regret is that he won’t be there in London when Neymour gets a chance to follow Brown in getting his breakthrough on the international scene. But he noted that as long as Neymour holds his head and do what he’s supposed to do, there will be opportunities in the future where he, Neymour and Brown can be reunited together on a national team.

Neymour considers himself a “tall, dark and handsome” young man, who is quite ready to run. The former basketball player can now call himself an Olympian.

“It’s going to be a good experience for me,” he said. “Hopefully in the next Olympics in four years, I hope to be running the open quarter or maybe even the 800.”

Having earned the rights to be attending the games, Neymour said his only wish is that he can help the Bahamas win a gold medal.

“We really have a good quarter-mile relay team, so hopefully we can beat the United States,” he said. “I know they are going to be our biggest challenge.”

When he came out in 2010 running under Gardiner, Neymour said he knew that he was destined to be a part of something great for the Bahamas and now he’s going to get that opportunity to pursue that dream as he competes on the relay team at the Olympics.

“I started out running 48s and in two months, I dropped it down to 47 and now I’m running 46. Hopefully by the time that Games come around, I could be running 45s and be in a much better position to help our team,” Neymour said. “The way I’ve been progressing, I know that I can do it.”

As a testimony of his own achievement, Neymour said that now that he’s an Olympian, he wants to go to London and get a personal shot of Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant will be representing the United States as a member of their men’s basketball team.

In the meantime, Neymour said he’s looking forward to teaming up with Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Ramon Miller and possibly Michael Mathieu on the men’s 4 x 4 relay team.