The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

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

The Finish Line, a weekly column, seeks to comment on the state of affairs in the local sports scene, highlighting the highs and the lows, the thrills and the spills and the successes and failures.

THE WEEK THAT WAS

So one week after they relinquished their Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ (BAAA) Track and Field Championship to the Queen’s College Comets, St Augustine’s College bounced back with vengeance at the National Track and Field Championships.

‘The Big Red Machine’ refused to roll over and play dead as they stormed into the new Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Championships over the weekend and carted off six of the eight divisions to turn in the most dominating performance at the three-day meet.

Yet, just like the Comets’ victory, their triumph was marred by comments from many that had it not been for a vibrant recruiting process, they would not have succeeded, and that SAC only secured the most points and divisional titles because there was a change in the format.

Once again, there was no overall champion decided because the new Local Organising Committee, headed by Senator Greg Burrows, decided to stick with the policy implemented by the BAAA from the day they formed the meet.

There is no other high calibre event where a champion is not crowned in an event that that they call the national championship. Somebody has to be crowned a national champion. Schools only want to know that after all of the hard work, they can bask in the glory of being the best track and field programme in the country for that particular year.

This decision certainly need to be revisited.

I would suggest to the powers that be that the event be split in two divisions for men and women with the junior high schools competing for their own crown and the senior high schools competing for the other title. It could be listed as the Nationals Senior Division and the Nationals Junior Division and in that way, the dinstinction is made between the top senior and junior high schools.

What’s the use of calling the event the nationals with more than 50 schools from throughout the country participating and yet there is no national champion crowned? Everybody wants bragging rights to say that they are the best in the country and they rightfully deserve it.

The Government Secondary Schools Sports Association (GSSSA) and the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) both compete to determine the national champions and there is much said about who is the best government or private school.

So why isn’t the same done for the Nationals. There is just too much energy being exerted into the preparation of the meet and at the end of it, there is so much confusion, as exhibited this week with who won the amount of divisional titles and who didn’t.

Yes, numbers don’t lie, so when you add it all up, there should be no doubt in determining the winner. There is no need to reinvent the wheel because a template is already in place and the organisers just need to structure a format.

We say it’s about the athletes, so let’s make sure that we do the right thing in allowing them to compete for the right to be called champions. Could that be one of the reasons why we didn’t see teams like the CV Bethel Stingrays, who won the GSSSA title, not perform as well as they should have?

Let’s put the emphasis on the right perspective.

FOR THE RECORD

There has been some dispute over whether St Augustine’s College Big Red Machine won 26 or 25 straight BAISS titles. The debate is that the St John’s Giants won the title 26 years and so SAC only has 25 before they were dethroned a couple weeks ago by the Queen’s College Comets.

For the record, I’ve checked our files and have not come across any article in The Tribune outlining the fact that St John’s won the title in 1988 and not SAC.

I’m not saying that they could not have won it, but there is no record in The Tribune to verify it.

If anyone wishes to provide me with the proof, I would be happy to acknowledge it and give the credit where it is due.

As far as I have checked, all of the records in The Tribune have listed SAC as the champions and as the source of information that I have to rely on, I have used it.

I hope this will clear up any misconception that the Giants are being denied the recognition that they deserve as the champions before the Big Red Machine began their dominance. If I’m proved wrong, I will be happy to admit that I was wrong.

Show me the proof and I will be happy to correct my mistake. I’ve not seen it in our newspaper.

THE WEEK AHEAD

This weekend is going to be an important one for the Bahamas Swimming Federation.

Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, coach David Marsh and team mates of SwimMac are in town to train and compete in the federation’s national trials for the Carifta Championships when the Bahamas defends its title in Barbados over the Easter holiday weekend.

The team will be named on Sunday.

Vanderpool-Wallace will be honoured as well on Saturday night at the Melia Hotel when the federation hosts its inaugural awards banquet for her stellar performance during the 2014 season.

She won a record four gold medals at the Central American and Caribbean Games and a historic silver at the Commonwealth Games.

The federation should be commended for the vibrant programme in which they are now engaged and for how effective their swimmers have been in meets in recent times.

The sport has had its ups and downs, but now they

are making some great strides.

This is a good opportunity not only to show Vanderpool-Wallace exactly how much we support her, but at the same time welcome her team-mates, including American Olympians Ryan Lochte and Cullen Jones, who will be among a list of six international stars competing at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex on Saturday morning.