The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

After an off day on Monday for the BTC Team Bahamas, the last boxer and the track and field squad will be in action today at the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.

After watching his teammates Rashield Williams and Keishno Major bow out of the competition over the weekend at the Exhibition Center, Carl Hield will step in the ring today when he takes on Alberto Palmetta of Argentina in the quarter-final round of the welterweight division.

A win by Hield and he will advance to the semi-final where he will be guaranteed at least a bronze when he takes on the winner of the quarter-final match between Marvin Cabrera of Mexico and Roniel Igesias of Cuba on Thursday. The final is set for Saturday as boxing comes to a close.

On Sunday, Major lost a 3-0 decision to Cuban Lenier Pero in the quarter-finals of the super heavyweight division. Major, 30, followed Williams, 25, who was beaten in a close 2-1 decision by American Luis Feliciano in the first bout for Team Bahamas.

Boxing was the fourth of the five disciplines representing the Bahamas at the games.

Tennis player Philip Major Jr was the first to see action, losing in the first round in singles, while gymnast Kianna Dean didn’t advance in the sport’s international debut. The five-member swim team wrapped up competition over the weekend with Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace winning two medals and setting one Pan Am and two Bahamian national records, while Dustin Tynes and Joanna Evans inked their names in the record books as well. The other two members on the swim team were Ariel Weech and Laura Morley.

The majority of the athletic team, comprising of more than 30 members, are in the Games Village with the remaining three scheduled to arrive by today. The five days of competition for track and field will get underway today at the CIBC Pan Am/Parapan Am Athletics Stadium.

Athletics team manager Ralph McKinney said the athletes went through a light workout on Monday and would have had a team meeting last night following the technical meeting to give an update on all of the speculations on which athletes will be allowed to compete and who, if any, will not.

According to McKinney, the Pan Am organisers had advised the BOC in a letter that some of the countries were going to have to take a cut on the amount of athletes competing. While Canada will have two athletes per event, those countries will only be allowed to have one.

McKinney, who heads the management team that includes head coach Rudy Ferguson and assistant coach/relay coordinator Rupert Gardiner, said the Bahamas Olympic Committee and the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations made an appeal and was able to secure two spots for two athletes each in the men’s 400m, the high jump and the triple jump.

Therefore, national championship second and third place finishers Michael Mathieu and LaToy Williams are expected to contest the 400m, while games’ defending champion Donald Thomas will be competing with national champion Ryan Ingraham in the high jump and national champion Latario Collie-Minns will contest the triple jump with Leevan ‘Superman’ Sands, who is making his comeback from an injury he sustained at the Olympic Games in London, England in 2012.

“We are just waiting to go to the technical meeting today to finalise everything,” McKinney said.

On the men’s side, the Bahamas is expected to be represented by Shavez Hart (100m, 200m, 4x100m); Jonathan Farquharson (100m, 4x100m), Elroy McBride (200m, 4x100m), LaToy Williams (400m, 4x400m), Michael Mathieu (400m, 4x400m), Jeffrey Gibson (400mH, 4x400m), Ryan Ingraham (high jump), Donald Thomas (high jump), Latario Collie-Minns (triple jump), Leevan Sands (triplr jump), Raymond Higgs (long jump), Teray Smith (4x100m), Warren Fraser (4x100m), Ramon Miller (4x400m), Alonzo Russell (4x400m) and Andretti Bain (4x400m).

The females are Adanaca Brown (100m, 100mH, 4x100m), Anthonique Strachan (200m 4x100m), Sheniqua Ferguson 200m (4x100m), Lanece Clarke (400m, 4x400m), Bianca Stuart (long jump), Tamara Myers (triple jump), Devynne Charlton (4x100m), Tayla Carter (4x100m), Carmeisha Cox (4x100m), Christine Amertil (4x400m), Katrina Seymour (4x400m), Shakeitha Henfield (4x400m) and Miriam Byfield (4x400m).

“Everybody is here. We’re just waiting for Leevan (Sands), Raymond (Higgs), Donald (Thomas) and Michael (Mathieu), who should all arrive here by Tuesday,” McKinney said. “Everybody else is in. We are just waiting for the technical meeting to find out where all of our athletes lay when the meet gets underway.

“Our problem is that the deadline for the submission of the team was on the first day of our national trials, so we have been working with the BOC to make the necessary adjustments and the Pan Am organisers have allowed our athletes to get in for the most part.”

On schedule today are the heats for the women’s and men’s 100m, the men’s long jump qualifying, the women’s triple jump final and the women’s 100m hurdles semi-final and final. On Wednesday are the semi-final for the women and men’s 400m, the men’s 400m semi-final, the men’s long jump final and both the semi-final and final for the women and men’s 100m.