The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Dreshanae Rolle fell just shy of winning the second medal in athletics and the third for the Bahamas at the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

Rolle, the last Bahamian in action for the Bahamas, ran one minute and 02.34 seconds for fourth place in the B final of the women’s 400 metres hurdles at the Nanjing OSC Stadium yesterday.

Winning the gold was Paola Moran Errejon of Mexico in a personal best of 59.74. Coralie Gassama of France won the silver in 1:00.87 and Maria De Lima Peres of Brazil picked up the bronze in 1:02.28.

On Saturday, Henri Delauze of Grand Bahama clinched the second medal and the only one in athletics for the Bahamas with a third place finish in the men’s 400m in his personal best of 46.91. That followed on the heels of another Grand Bahamian, Joanna Evans, securing the bronze in the women’s 800m freestyle on August 19, in a national record of 8:39.75. She came back for a fifth place in the 400m free in 4:12.14 for another national record.

The double-medal feat came on the heels of the Bahamas’ two medals at the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, where Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace won a silver in the women’s 50m butterfly and Jeffery Gibson produced a bronze medal in the men’s 400m hurdles. Both performances were national records.

Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) president Wellington Miller, whose organisation is responsible for the games, said he was quite thrilled by the achievements of all of the athletes.

“The performances at the Youth Olympics was great. It was history making. To win two bronze medals, one in swimming and one in track and field,” Miller said. “It tells you that we have a good young stock coming up. Joanna Evans improved on all of her times, so it just goes to show what she can do.

“The young quarter-miler also did exceptionally well. Both of them are from Grand Bahama. So it shows that not only is New Providence producing good athletes, national and international athletes for this country, but it’s coming from all over the Bahamas.”

Miller said he’s so excited that the BOC can provide the opportunity for the athletes to be able to represent the Bahamas at these types of competitions.

“The Youth Olympic Games is set up in such a way that you are with your peers for about two weeks and you could make friends with them, but you never know after your competitive days, where they could be, but at least they have a friend that they have met at the games,” he said.

“So we want to thank the national sporting associations for their developments of sports in the country. It goes to show that they are doing something to develop the younger athletes so that they can get the exposure to compete at this level. When the senior athletes go off the scene, at least we know that we have some more athletes waiting to take their spots.”

After watching the performances turned in at both meets, as well as the Pan American Sports Festival in Mexico where Jeffery Gibson picked up a gold in the men’s 400m hurdles to lead a fiver-member team at the games, Miller said he’s excited about the future.

“The next big step for us is the CAC Games from November 15-31 in Veracruz, Mexico. We are in preparation for that right now,” Miller said. “We are trying to identify the athletes who will be representing the country. So we are going to be taking a young team down there and hopefully they can perform very well too.”

The Bahamas men’s basketball and men’s volleyball teams have both qualified and should be travelling to compete on the team that will comprise of athletes in swimming, track and field, boxing, judo, wrestling and cycling.

“So we have a good run this year, a busy run starting with the Commonwealth Games, the Pan American Sports Festival and the Youth Olympic Games,” Miller said. “It’s costing us a bit, but we have to do it in order to get our athletes qualified for the Pan Am Games in 2015 and the Olympic Games in 2016.”

While Miller has indicated that it has been a hefty budget that they had to deal with this year, he declined to provide any figures until they have completed all of their tabulations, including the cost of the CAC Games that have not yet been staged.