The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE track and field community is mourning the loss of another former athlete.

Former SC McPherson Sharks sprinter Brian Babbs, who advanced from the junior ranks to compete for the Bahamas at the senior level, including an appearance at the IAAF World Championships, passed away on Thursday. His cause of death was not revealed. Babbs, 39, was recently married and living in Eleuthera with his wife.

Babbs first participated at the CARIFTA Games in Barbados in 1994 where he earned a silver medal behind Barbados’ Obadele Thompson in the 100 metres. That same year, Babbs joined Judson Jervis at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Lisbon where they both were disqualified because of lane violations.

At the IAAF World Championship in Gothenburg in 1997, Sweden, Babbs teamed up with Renward Wells, Andrew Tynes and Alfred Stubbs on the men’s 4 x 100m relay team that ran 39.37 seconds for fourth place in the preliminaries. The team qualified for the semi-final, but Babbs was replaced by Iram Lewis as that team failed to advance to the final.

The Bahamas, however, did pick up two medals as Troy Kemp clinched the gold in the men’s high jump and Pauline Davis-Thompson came up with the silver in the women’s 400m.

Two years later, Babbs participated in the 100m at the Senior Central American and Caribbean Championships in Barbados in 1999, again running on the men’s 4 x 100m relay team of Dennis Darling, Dwight Ferguson and Renward Wells as they secured the bronze.

Babbs’ final competition for the Bahamas was at the Senior Central American and Caribbean Championships in 2001 in Guatemala on the men’s 4 x 100m relay.

Condolences were pouring in all over the weekend for Babbs.

One of his team-mates, quarter-miler Paul Saunders, who came in Cat Island, said once he started training with Sidney Cartwright, he met Babbs, Tonique Williams and Dennis Darling. But he noted that he was shocked to see how fast Babbs was running as a high school student.

“They said he had ran 10.3 in the 100m, but it was hand timed. That was still amazing back then,” Saunders said. “Babbs was also a heavy built guy but he didn’t look like he was that fast. But it was amazing to watch his turnover and speed. He ran all of the sprint events for SC McPherson.

And then after he won both of those races, they put him to run on their 4 x 400m team and he ran an impressive leg to put them back out front.”

According to Saunders, he remembers Babbs as a “happy young man, jovial mood, who was also in a jovial mood, but he was very talented.”

Making his first national team in 2001 at the Sr CAC Championships, Saunders said he got to travel with Babbs and he got a chance to see him compete on the men’s 4 x 100 relay team that won the gold medal.

“He was a very talented guy that really didn’t need to train a lot to compete,” Saunders said. “He was a gifted, natural athlete. He was down to earth, a loving young man to be around. He was always happy and was always trying to make you happy. He was a good guy and I know that he will be missed. I think he is gone too soon. He was one of the most talented young men that I’ve ever seen come right out of high school and be as dominant as he was.”

Although Babbs came out of SC McPherson a few years after him, Timmy Gray said he remembers how successful he was. “He came out of South Beach and although he was a bad boy at the time, Babbs way out was track and field,” Gray said. “After Babbs realised how good he was, he started to compete and that changed his life. While he was winning the sprints events, Avard Moncur was the dominant factor in the 400m. Together, they carried SC McPherson’s track team.”

Gray said he never got to compete against Babbs, but his brother Dion Gray always talked about him around the house. May his soul rest in peace.