The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

TEAM sports are often overshadowed in the country, but 2014 was a year of great achievement for local sporting teams in the running for the Tribune’s Team of the Year.

WINNER: CARIFTA

SWIM TEAM

THE 2014 CARIFTA Swimming Championships will go down in the annals of Bahamian sports history as the event which officially solidified the country as a regional powerhouse in the sport.

Team Bahamas topped both the points standings and medal table to claim the 29th CARIFTA Swimming Championships, hosted in Savaneta, Aruba. It was the first CARIFTA Swimming championship title for the Bahamas.

The 36-member team finished with a total of 736.50 points, more than 100 points ahead of the host team Aruba, who was second with 618 points. Guadeloupe finished third with 540 points, Martinique was fourth with 474 points, while Trinidad and Tobago rounded out the top five with 446 points.

The Bahamas claimed 55 medals en route to the win, including 23 gold, 22 silver and 10 bronze. Aruba finished with 51 medals - 16 gold, 16 sliver and 19 bronze. Trinidad and Tobago won 34 medals - 16 gold, 11 silver and seven bronze, Suriname won a total of 26 medals - 15 gold, three silver and eight bronze, while Guadeloupe won 36 medals - 10 gold, 10 silver and 16 bronze.

It was a wire-to-wire win for the Bahamas led by CARIFTA veterans Albury Higgs and Joanna Evans who dominated their respective divisions. Higgs was the high point scorer in the girls’ 13-14 division with a total of 78 points, 43 points ahead of the second place finisher, Lesy Celini of Guadeloupe. Higgs won a total of seven individual medals, including five gold and two silver. She topped the medal podium with gold medals in the 200m breaststroke (2:41.04s), 200m IM (2:28.48s), 50m breaststroke (34.92s), 400m IM (5:05.62s) and 100m breaststroke (1:14.91s). She also won silver in the 200m freestyle (2:11.93s) and 400m freestyle (4:39.55s).

Evans dominated the girls’ 15-17 division with a total of 70 points, 39 points ahead of Daniella Van den Berg of Aruba. In the pool, she took six gold medals and one silver.

Evans, 16, won gold in the 50m freestyle (27.01s), 100m freestyle (58.51s), 200m freestyle (2:05.52s), 400m freestyle (4:28.67s), 200m IM (2:25.61s), 400m IM (4:14.46s) and took silver in 200m backstroke (2:28.15s). She also added a gold medal in the 5k Open Water swim in 1:14.34s.

The duo combined for a total of 148 points, which would have finished ahead of eight of the 19 countries entered in the meet.

Samuel Gibson was another top performer for Team Bahamas with a third place finish in the boys’ 11-12 points standings with 36. He took gold in the 50m butterfly (28.72s), silver in the 100m butterfly (1:05.83s) and bronze in the 50m free (27.35s).

Dustin Tynes took first in the boys’ 15-17 breaststroke and set a new CARIFTA record in 29.08s. He also won silver in 100m breaststroke in 1:05s.

The Bahamas’ 36-member team won the 29th version of the championships for the first time, accumulating a total of 736.50 points and producing 55 medals, inclusive of 23 gold, 22 silver and 10 bronze.

“It was a total team effort,” said team head coach Andy Knowles. “It’s something that has been coming for a long time. We got second three times so it’s really good to win it. I think one of the biggest differences was everyone has been working hard, knowing that we wanted to go down there and be strong. So for the last two years, I think the kids have been working very hard and there has been more aggressiveness between the clubs as far as trying to get their swimmers on the team. We’re going to try to build on our successes, so we can keep it going.”

RUNNERS-UP: MEN’S 4 X 400M RELAY TEAM

LASHAWN Merritt powered past Michael Mathieu in the final 30 metres as the United States finally redeemed their last two meetings against the Bahamas in the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay at the IAAF World Relays Bahamas 2014.

The thrilling run had the 17,000 fans on their feet from the start to the finish of the race at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium in the inaugural edition of the meet.

The US avenged their losses to the Bahamas at the 2014 Olympic Games in London, England, and the 2014 Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Both came without Merritt in the line-up.

In his return for the epic showdown for the final night of competition at the World Relays, Merritt anchored the team of David Verburg, Tony McQuay and Christian Taylor to the world-leading time of two minutes and 57.25 seconds.

The Bahamas, one shy of the ‘Golden Knights’, saw LaToy Williams replace an injured Ramon Miller, as the remainder of the team – Demetrius Pinder, Brown and Mathieu - finished in a season’s best of 2:57.59 and the fastest time ran in Bahamian history.

Trinidad & Tobago finished third with a national record of 2:58.34.

The Bahamian quartet brought the crowd at the sold-out event to its feet well before the gun went off as the sun settled on the final session of the meet.

While Bahamians could barely hide their disappointment when Merritt, the world’s reigning 400m champion, overtook anchor Mathieu with 50 metres to go before the finish line, the theme around the stadium after the race was that “our boys” did well and silver was good enough.

The crowd even chanted “242” when Williams, Pinder, Brown and Michael Mathieu took to the podium after the race to collect flowers.

It was a fitting climax to an event that has received high marks from spectators and participants alike and it has set the stage for next year’s event, which will also be held in the Bahamas.

Running out of lane four, the quartet led for most of the race, ultimately finishing in a season’s best.

Williams, who ran the opening leg, substituted for Ramon Miller, who famously anchored Team Bahamas to gold at the 2012 London Olympics.

The finish was the only medal for The Bahamas at the event, which also saw three new world records set.

SAC TRACK AND FIELD

ADD another title to the legacy of the St Augustine’s College Big Red Machine track and field dynasty as they surged to a 26th consecutive Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools Track and Field Championship.

With a final score of 1,399.33 points, they finished more than 155 points ahead of perennial second place finishers, the Queen’s College Comets (1,244 points).

The St Anne’s Blue Waves were third with 442 points, St John’s College Giants were fourth with 413.70 points and the Nassau Christian Academy Crusaders closed out the top five with 283 points.

The St Andrew’s Hurricanes finished sixth with 281.50 points, Temple Christian Suns seventh with 150.50 points, Jordan Prince William Falcons eighth with 150 points, Aquinas College Aces ninth with 133 points and the Charles W Saunders Cougars at No. 10 with 75.50 points.

The remainder of the field included the Kingsway Academy Saints with 71 points, Bahamas Academy Stars with 48 points and Westminster College Diplomats with 38 points.

A total of 14 BAISS records were broken over the course of the three-day meet with many of the standout performances coming in the field.

“The meet is not won on paper. You have to get on the track and perform. There’s a lot of talks out there, but there has always been a lot of talks,” Johnson said. “This year, as in other years, sometimes people get fed up with winning, people like underdogs and there are a lot of people that would like to see us lose,” Big Red Machine head coach William Johnson said.

“I think a lot of coaches steer their athletes to other schools as opposed to SAC so there appears to be almost a concerted effort to see SAC fall, but we just go out there and show it like we’ve done for the past 26 years.”

MEN’S BASKETBALL CARIBBEAN BASKETBALL CONFEDERATION

IN AN historic performance on the hardwood, the Bahamas claimed the Caribbean Basketball Confederation championship for the first time in nearly a decade.

The Bahamas defeated Cuba 75-64 in the gold medal game at the Multipurpose Complex in Tortola, British Virgin Islands back in July, led by a combined 44 points from the backcourt of Marvin Gray and Alonzo Hinds.

Gray finished with 22 points, five rebounds and four assists while Hinds’ 22 points included 4-4 shooting from three-point range and 6-6 shooting from the free throw line.

Magnum Rolle finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, Kadeem Coleby added 11 points, while Mitch Johnson chipped in with four points, seven rebounds and two blocks.

By finishing among the three teams in the tournament, the Bahamas advanced to the 2014 Centrobasket Championship in Nayarit, Mexico. 

It was the seventh time a Bahamian men’s national team has captured the CBC title in tournament history, and the first time since 1995.

For the tournament, Rolle averaged 13.8 points, seven rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.

Gray also finished at 13.8 points and added 4.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. Hinds scored 13.4 points per game while Coleby averaged 10.8.

SCOTTSDALE VIXENS

THE Vixens continued their reign as the team of the decade in the New Providence Volleyball Association. It marked the 10th consecutive league title for the Vixens as they swept the best-of-five series over familiar foes, the Johnson’s Cherry Bombers. They lost just two games in the entire series, one in game one and the other in game three and outscored the Bombers 275-232 in the series.