The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

MOVE over Moore’s Island. There are two other clubs from from the Family Islands - Andros and Exuma - who are preparing to make their presence felt in the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations.

The Heats Athletics, from Andros, is headed by John Ingraham. They have yet to form their association, but you can clearly see them in their brand new bright orange t-shirts as they compete in the local track and field meets at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium.

“This club has been in existence for the past three years, but we were just slowly making the kind of strides that we expected the athletes to make,” Ingraham said. “I think once we can establish our association, we will be able to do a lot more things with the athletes in Andros.”

Over the weekend, Ingraham brought in about 39 athletes to compete in the Club Monica Track Classic where they had a couple of outstanding performances. Among the list of performers was Donovan Storr, who won the under-18 boys’ 200 metres in a time of 21.65 seconds to attain the qualifying standards for the CARIFTA Games in St Kitts and Nevis over the Easter holiday weekend.

Others included Sandra Mitchell, silver medallist in the under-14 girls’ 200m in 26.55 after she held on to win the 400m in 1:04.21 over team-mate Angel Pratt (1:05.25), Brendisha Russell, also second in the under-14 girls’ long jump (4.28m), Samara Mitchell, second in the under-16 girls’ high jump (1.47m) and the long jump (4.80m), Deshon Joseph, second in the under-14 boys’ 400m (1:01.73), Khyheil Mackey, third in the under-14 boys’ long jump (4.47m), Oracha Munroe, second in the under-16 boys’ 200m (23.28) and Ricardo Russell (5.93m), Delamp Newton (5.82m) and Ross Thompson (5.16m), sweeping the under-18 boys’ long jump.

“I was pretty happy with their performances,” said Ingraham, a former sprinter who represented the Bahamas at the CARIFTA Games. “The children are doing very good over there. They are more enthusiastic about track and field. In Andros, I have a lot of people coming to work out.”

Ingraham, however, said softball is still a very vibrant sport on the island.

As for Exuma, Kenroy Williams said he’s coaching a squad from the Limitless Athletics comprised of a combination of athletes from Georgetown and Black Point and he too is pleased with the progress they are making.

“We had a chance to speak with Andretti Bain and Chris Brown, who inspired the kids to continue to push because they both understand the challenges the less fortunate athletes are faced with,” Williams said. “We are trying to do whatever we can to get the athletes prepared to compete.

“We’re on the cays where we still don’t have any training facilities and so we are making use of the beach and doing our drills. We don’t even have a grass track over there. We just recently established our EAAA (Exuma Amateur Athletic Association) and so we are trying to get some crown land so that we can establish a much stronger track team so that we can continue to come here and compete on a large scale.”

Felicia Saunders got third in the women’s 200m in 26.65 and she won the 400m in 1:04.87 after running 1:00.00 in the preliminaries and Vladamir Armbrister was third in the under-18 boys’ shot put (12.99m) to lead the competitors from the Limitless Athletics, who joined the Rickey Moxey Athletics, also out of the mainland of Exuma.

“I’m looking forward to bringing back a bigger group and actually continue to recruit kids out of the cays,” Williams said. “This is something that I desire to do. This isn’t something that I was asked to do. This is something that I volunteered to do and it has been a source of inspiration to the kids in Exuma.”