The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BEIJING, China — It wasn’t exactly what they expected, but Team Bahamas manager Ralph McKinney said they will take what they got.

“When you look at the season’s best performances and the national records, that is where we put the icing on the cake,” he said. “We never quantify a performance by a medal.

“In Bahamian terms, it’s medals, but when you look at the season’s best performances that a lot of the athletes have produced, that to me is the most important thing, when they can get a season’s best performance, or achieve a national record.”

Coming into the championships, McKinney said the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations had some high expectations for the 25-member team. “When I look at the Bahamian (4 x 400m) female relay team, Christine Amertil, who ran the second leg, is looking forward to returning to the 400m at this level and that should help even more with our women’s team,” McKinney said.

“The unfortunate thing is that we know the whole Bahamian public will be concentrating on what happened to the men’s 4 x 4. But that’s as we say, what happens at this level. If you make any mistakes, you will find that you are out of it.”

McKinney gave a prime example of the United States of America men’s 4 x 100m team that finished second behind the United States, but got disqualified for running out of the last zone.

As for the men’s 4 x 400m team’s DQ, McKinney said they had a chance to speak with all of the members. “They were sober afterwards. We got some inquiries from them, but what could we do,” he said. “We had a good spirited team meeting this morning and we took a team photo, which is something that we haven’t done in many, many years.

“We got together this morning and we talked. So that’s the most important thing. We have some interesting things in the making. The national trials will be the pinnacle event for us next year because there is no CAC, which also allows us an opportunity to compete prior to going to the Olympics or the World Championships.”

With none of those events in place, McKinney said the athletes will have to ensure that they can come home in June to compete at a high level in order to qualify for the team for the Olympics.”

“The easiest event that we will try to use next year to get our teams ready are the meets in the Florida area,” McKinney said.

“The other is also the Penn Relays and we hope that Chris Brown’s meet will still be on and so we would like to see if he can put on a relay event and allow some things to come in to compete.”

Barring all of those scenarios, McKinney said assistant team coach Tyrone Burrows has made a suggestion to the BAAA to host an All-Comers Meet in the Bahamas.

“After the national trials and about three weeks out before the Olympic Games, that is an alternative for us,” McKinney said. “That will require some funding, but the same money we use to send people to CAC, we could do an invite for persons within our region. Even if we don’t offer prize money, we could offer accommodations. You get yourself there and we could offer you with the hotel and ground transportation. I think that’s an excellent idea. We can throw about $30,000 into a project like that and it will all work out well for us.”

All of those suggestions, according to McKinney, will hinge on what happens at the BAAA election of officers in November and who is elected to serve in the new administration.