The Tribune

From BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

in Beijing, China

bstubbs@tribunemedia,net

TEAM Bahamas is all set to begin competition at the 15th IAAF World Championships with Jeffrey Gibson first out of the blocks in the heats of the men’s 400 metres hurdles on Saturday.

Gibson, fresh from his gold medal at the Pan American Games to add to his bronze last year at the Commonwealth Games, will kick things off for the Bahamas when he competes in lane five in the first of five heats at 6.35am EST (6.35pm in China).

The 25-year-old national record holder with 48.51 seconds will need to finish within the top four (the requirement for each heat) or get one of the next four fastest times in order to advance to the semi-finals on Sunday, when only the top four will go on to compete in the final on Tuesday.

Team manager Ralph McKinney said all of the athletes have settled into their games complex at the Kunti Hotel and are looking forward to competing over the next nine days of competition.

“We are waiting to get out with the first event when Jeffrey competes, but everybody is just waiting on their chance to compete,” McKinney said. “Everybody is here. Some came from Europe, some from the United States and the others from the Bahamas.”

The Bahamas is lodging with teams from the United States, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, which could have some adverse effect on their preparations as they get to monitor what each other is doing.

With the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) not getting final word on the inclusion of both 4 x 400m and the men’s 4 x 100m relays teams into the championships - and not the women’s 4 x 100m - until the end of the NACAC Championships on August 10, they were not able to put together a training camp, so all of the preparation for the team has been done here at the championships.

The US and Jamaica, for instance, came in from Tokyo, Japan, where they had the luxury of holding a training camp prior to coming to Beijing to get their team together.

McKinney said that with the help of Puma and the Bahamas government, the BAAA was able to get the athletes into Beijing by Tuesday and the coaching staff had an opportunity to view all of the competitors.

One of the athletes to whom the coaches had to pay some attention was sprinter Shavez Hart. He has qualified for both the men’s 100m and 200m, but McKinney said they were impressing on him the importance of limiting his participation to just the 100m so that he can concentrate more on helping the men’s 4 x 100m relay team, who have an opportunity based on their performance here to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“It’s critical that we get something going for the Olympics, so he’s concentrating on that,” McKinney said. “He didn’t run the 4 x 100 at Pan Am and he didn’t go to NACAC because he’s had a long season in college and the fatigue was starting to show. But if we can put down a good time here and get into the final, we will be assured of a spot at the Olympics next year.”

McKinney said they hoping that the women’s 4 x 100m relay team would have made it too, but without a healthy Antonique Strachan, they missed out on the opportunity at the Pan Am Games.

“So without a World Championship next year, we will now have to go and find a meet where there are at least three countries participating in order for the women’s team to qualify because they are using the top eight teams here and select the others based on their teams for the Olympics next year.”

As for the other two relay teams, McKinney said they are confident that both the women and men’s 4 x 400m teams are in a much better position than the men’s 4 x 100 team in qualifying for the Olympics. But he said it’s a wait-and-see process, even though the athletes are all gearing up and ready to go.

BAHAMIANS IN ACTION

Saturday

Men’s 400m hurdles heats - Jeffrey Gibson (6.35am EST).

Sunday

Men’s 400m heats - Steven Gardiner, Chris Brown and Michael Mathieu (11.10pm Saturday EST).

Men’s 400m hurdles semi-finals - Jeffery Gibson (if he qualifies) (6.40am Sunday EST).

Women’s 100m heats - Sheniqua ‘Q’ Ferguson (midnight Saturday EST).

Monday

Women’s 400m heats - Shaunae Miller (10.45pm Sunday EST).

Women’s 100m semi-finals and final - Sheniqua ‘Q’ Ferguson (if she qualifies) (7.40am and 9.35am EST).

Men’s 400m semi-finals - Steven Gardiner, Chris Brown and Jeffrey Gibson (if they qualify) (8.05am).