The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE the allure of many of the world’s top sprinters heating up the track, the athletes of the future certainly held their own on the “big stage” over the weekend, organisers of the BTC/IAAF World Relays junior competition programme said yesterday.

Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) president Mike Sands said that the inclusion of the youth programme into the world event was “a deliberate way to give the athletes of tomorrow a chance to compete on the world stage”.

Based on the reactions of fans and many of the senior sprinters the opportunity was embraced by the young locals. The Junior Programme Competition featured two unique events, one on each day of the meet.

Saturday’s One Island, One Lane competition pitted teams from all over the Bahamas against each other to decide which island boasted the best sprinters.

Team New Providence emerged as the dominant squad, easily winning all five races with an average finishing time of more than a second ahead of their closest competitors. In the men’s sprint medley relay New Providence finished nearly 16 seconds ahead of the Andros/Berry Island squad.

Mr Sands called the performance of New Providence “a testament to really good coaching”. According to Mr Sands the coaching staff lead by sprinting coach, Everett Frazier, was key because they found a way to get their athletes to buy into the team concept ahead of the meet.

Heading into Saturday’s races there was support for the Abaco/Moore’s Island unit with many selecting the team as a potential rival to New Providence. But the unit seemed to never truly pull it together.

Yesterday’s High School division competition made for even more thrilling races due to the familiarity between teams.

Four of the six races brought Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) luminaires Queen’s College (QC) Comets and the Saint Augustine College (SAC) Big Red Machines head-to-head again.

In March QC stunned the country by dethroning SAC as BAISS Track and Field champions, ending the Red Machine’s 26-year stranglehold on the title. However, less than a week later SAC regained their winning ways and made easy work of the competition at the BTC/ScotiaBank National Track and Field Championships.

Yesterday SAC reproduced that winning formula to take two gold medals in the male and female 4 x 400m races. QC, behind a stellar effort by their female sprint medley team, claimed one gold medal.

Students from both schools labelled it a pleasure to compete against each other, insisting that although the rivalry has grown in recent years, yesterday’s battle was all about performing in front of the massive crowd.

Mr Sands added: “We wanted to use this event to inspire the next generation of stars. This was an opportunity for them to compete on the world stage and be inspired by the senior athletes on display this weekend. In respect to that goal we feel that we were successful.

“For 2017 there is a saying, ‘once is not enough, twice you don’t see all of our stuff’, so the third time is going to be the charm.”

On Friday the world governing body announced that the Bahamas would once again host the IAAF relay championships in 2017.

Junior competition

programme results

One Island, One Lane

Female

4 x 100m: 1 New Providence 46.66sec, 2 Grand Bahama & Bimini 48.58, 3 Exuma 50.57, 4 Eleuthera 52.06, 5 Abaco & Moore’s Island 54.97. Disqualified: Andros & Berry Islands.

4 x 400m: 1 New Providence 3min 47.95sec, 2 Grand Bahama & Bimini 4:00.09, 3 Andros & Berry Islands 4:06.70, 4 Exuma 4:30.71, 5 Central Explorers 4:54.57. Disqualified: Eleuthera. Did not start: Abaco & Moore’s Island.

Male

4 x 100m: 1 New Providence 42.57sec, 2 Grand Bahama & Bimini 43.02, 3 Eleuthera 44.70, 4 Andros & Berry Islands 45.23, 5 Exuma 46.60. Did not finish: Abaco & Moore’s Island. Disqualified: Central Explorers.

4 x 400m: 1 New Providence 3min 16.93sec, 2 Andros & Berry Islands 3:17.34, 3 Grand Bahama & Bimini 3:18.82, 4 Abaco & Moore’s Island 3:33.06, 5 Eleuthera 3:37.53, 6 Exuma 3:47.71, 7 Mica 4:00.10, 8 Central Explorers 4:06.52.

Sprint Medley: 1 New Providence 3min 48.62sec, 2 Andros & Berry Islands 4:04.50, 3 Exuma 4:06.62, 4 Abaco & Moore’s Island 4:07.26, 5 Eleuthera 4:15.07, 6 Mica 5:01.68. Disqualified: Grand Bahama & Bimini. Did not start: Central Explorers.

High Schools competition

Male

4 x 100m: 1 Tabernacle Baptist 40.76sec, 2 St Johns College 41.48, 3 St Anne’s 42.51, 4 Doris Johnson 42.65, 5 Queen’s College 42.89, 6 Abaco Central 43.29, 7 Bishop Michael Eldon 43.37. Did not start: C C Sweeting.

4 x 400m: 1 Moore’s Island 3min 16.69sec, 2 St Augustine 3:16.76, 3 St Georges 3:20.81, 4 Queen’s College 3:23.62, 5 Jack Hayward 3:23.95, 6 C R Walker 3:35.86. Disq: Tabernacle Baptist. Did not start: St Anne’s.

Sprint Medley: 1 C R Walker 3min 37.34sec, 2 C V Bethel 3:38.75, 3 North Andros 3:39.11, 4 St Augustine 3:39.88, 5 St John’s College 3:41.03, 6 C C Sweeting 3:45.90, 7 Tabernacle Baptist 3:48.74. Disqualified: Doris Johnson.

Female

4 x 100m: 1 St Augustine 46.44sec, 2 Queen’s College 46.57, 3 St Anne’s 48.69, 4 St George’s 53.14, 5 L N Coakley 53.40, 6 Sunland Baptist 54.20. Did not start: St John’s College.

4 x 400m: 1 St Augustine 3min 45.45sec, 2 Queen’s College 3:55.02, 3 Bishop Michael Eldon 3:55.54, 4 Sunland Baptist 3:56.99, 5 St John’s College 3:58.42, 6 North Andros 4:09.53. Disq: St Georges. Did not start: St Anne’s.

Sprint Medley: 1 Queen’s College 1min 47.85sec, 2 Mary Star 1:51.42, 3 C V Bethel 1:52.95, 4 Tabernacle Baptist 1:54.82, 5 St Augustine 1:55.56, 6 Kingsway Academy 1:57.18, 7 Sunland Baptist 2:04.46. Disqualified: C R Walker.