The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT’S not how you start, nor how you get there, but more importantly, it’s how you finish.

The Finish Line, a weekly column, seeks to invoke commentary of the state of affairs on the local sports scene, highlighting the highs and the lows, the thrills and the spills and the successes and failures as we transgress from one week to the next.

The Week That Was

All the way in New York City on national television at the famous Madison Square Gardens, middleweight Tureano ‘Reno’ Johnson moved one step closer to inking his name in Bahamian history by following in the footsteps of his idol, Elisha Obed, the first Bahamian to win a world title.

Based on his performance and his rapid climb up the ladder, on his return home in the VIP Lounge of the Lynden Pindling International Airport, Johnson vowed that his handlers are arduously working to get him a world title fight before the year is out. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to have it right here in the Bahamas.

Unlike Johnson’s return home, there was quite a bit of traffic jam around Montagu Bay as the inaugural King Eric Gibson All-For-One Regatta was held over the Majority Rule Day holiday. Not only did the majority of the sloop sailing boats show up to participate, but there was hardly any space to move around as the spectators came out and paid their tribute to the deceased sporting and entertainment icon.

If the first one was any indication, organisers are confident that they can make this a sample on the local sporting calendar.

And talking about calendar, the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations continued its 2015 season by hosting its first full fledge meet over the weekend at the original Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium with the T-Bird Flyers Track Classic. The track season, as they would say, is off and running.

The Making of a Champion

Lest we forget, Reno Johnson has had the World Boxing Council’s Continental Americas title in his possession, but after his fifth round knockout over Colombian Alex Theran on the first professional boxing show promoted by entertainment mogul Jay Z and his Roc Nation team, he added both the World Boxing Association’s International and WBC’s Silver titles to his collection.

None of the three titles may be as prestigious as the WBC’s light middleweight crown that Elisha Obed captured by defeating Miguel de Oliveira in 1975 in Paris, France, but Johnson is getting himself in a position to contain for his major title, moving up the rankings to No. 8 in the WBC, No. 12 in the WBA and No. 12 in the IBF, while improving his record to 18-1.

The 30-year-old Johnson had a storied career as an amateur, advancing to the Olympic Games in 2008 in Beijing, China where he just fell short of winning a medal. But after he felt he had accomplished all of his goals, he ventured into the pro ranks on March 5, 2010 where he was successful in his debut over Cleoney Fuqua at the Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia.

Since then, Johnson has reeled off 13 more victories, all in the United States and the Dominican Republic before he suffered a controversial 10th round loss to American Curtis Stevens at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 4.

That seemed to motivate Johnson, who regained his winning form in his last three fights, ending the year at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium in his first fight ever at home with an impressive sixth round TKO over another Colombian Humberto Toledo on December 14 before he started the year off on the right track.

A decade ago, Johnson did the best thing. He packed his bags and he left home to pursue his dream of becoming a world champion. Not knocking the Bahamas because Elisha Obed was actually based here when he accomplished his feat, but it’s obvious that 40 years later in a sport that requires so much more technical support, the best place for Johnson to pursue that dream is to do so in the United States.

Out of all of the Bahamian boxers currently still active, Johnson has the best potential to excel all the way to the champion. You’re definitely looking at a champion in the making.

King Eric Remembered

As was mentioned during the awards presentation at Bahama Grill, King Eric Gibson was surely looking down and singing his own praises for the tremendous support that he was given during the inaugural King Eric Gibson All-For-One Regatta in Montagu Bay.

He couldn’t ask for a better showing collectively from the boat owners, sailors, entertainers, sponsors and spectators who packed the waterfront over the three days of the holiday weekend. It was indeed a tribute fitting for a king, as he’s been dubbed for his symbolic style during his heydays as a performer.

The regatta was predicted to be the biggest ever held in Montagu and based on the performances and the incentives that the boat owners received in compensation, everybody left looking forward to the second annual one, the date of which has already been set for January 8-10.

Veteran captain Emmit Munroe aptly put it: There was no better way for him to keep the memory of his long-time friend than for his original Courageous to win the A Class title, taking both of the races contested to go down in history with the Susan Chase in the B Class and the Eudeva in the C Class as the first champions of what is expected to become a prestigious regatta in Montagu Bay.

While joining Gibson’s son, Minister of Labour Shane Gibson, in presenting the awards to the various winners, Minister of Agriculture, Marine and Local Government V Alfred Gray not only revealed that the Bahamas government backed the organising committee by providing a grant of $50,000 for the regatta, but he’s going to lobby on behalf of the sailors to have Prime Minister Perry Christie declare sailing as the national sport of the Bahamas.

However, what I agreed with Gray on was his comment that in order for him to get that done, the sailors will have to come together and put together one sporting body that they can all operate under. He noted that there’s no reason why there should be this splitter group working over here and another group over there and one in the middle.

Although it was good to see so many boat owners and sailors come together in Montagu for the regatta, it would be even better to carry out one of the mandates that King Eric was pushing for during his tenure on earth. Unfortunately before he died on December 28, 2013, he never got that feat accomplished.

This is an opportunity for the sailors who are left behind to come together and work together for the common good of the sport and, in that way, they can really help to keep the memory of King Eric Gibson alive.

Changes in CARIFTA

Selection

During the T-Bird Flyers Track Classic, held last weekend at the original Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium, Bahamas Amateur Athletic Associations (BAAA) president Mike Sands made a sterling revelation in that only athletes who would have qualified for the CARIFTA Games will get to travel to St Kitts and Nevis to represent the Bahamas at the Silver Jubilee Stadium over the Easter holiday weekend.

In the past, the BAAA used a combination of results from the previous three games to come up with its own qualifying standards for the games, which is designed as a developmental junior meet in the Caribbean and as such didn’t have any specific standards set as any other major international event like the CAC, Commonwealth, Pan Am, Olympics or World Championships.

In the past, the BAAA selection process would have been sparked with coaches lobbying to get their athletes added to the team based on the fact that they were just shy of the standards and could have been taken to be added to the relay pool or fill in at events where the Bahamas didn’t have the full participation.

In recent years, the Bahamas would have ended up matching only Jamaica with a full squad. But Sands said last year’s trip to Fort-de-France, Martinique where the Bahamas had a disappointing showing in seventh place with just 19 medals, inclusive of one gold, eight silver and 10 bronze, was an eye opener.

Jamaica, tightening their stranglehold on the top spot, repeated as champions with 89 medals, 42 of which were gold. They also had 34 silver and their 13 bronze almost surpassed the Bahamas’ total medal tally. If you were posting by total medals, the Bahamas would have actually finished third behind Trinidad & Tobago, who had 25, six of which were gold. 

But like all international meets, the performances are measured by gold and the Bahamas’ only one came from the boys 4 x 100 metre relay team of Kinard Rolle, Tyler Bowe, Keanu Pennerman and Javan Martin in the under-18 boys’ division.

I always felt that the BAAA did an injustice to the selection of the team because there were times when athletes should have been given opportunities to travel in some of the distance races and even in the field events, who were often times overlooked because the emphasis was more on the sprints and the relays.

There’s no use setting standards for athletes to attain and even though often times they didn’t, they were still allowed to compete. By taking out the element of surprise, athletes will now have to outright earn their berth on the team. This should even the playing field and allow athletes and the coaches to work harder in order to be selected to represent the country.