The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE it’s going to be mandatory for athletes to compete in the upcoming Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations National Championships, president Mike Sands is calling for them to ensure that they come home and compete in the events that they would like to participate in at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China.

The nationals, which is expected to assemble all of the top athletes in the country, is scheduled for the weekend of June 27-28 at one of the two Thomas A Robinson Stadiums and will serve as the final trials for the World Championships, scheduled for August 22-30.

“It’s mandatory for athletes to compete and, in so doing, we are also encouraging athletes to compete in the event that they would wish to compete in at the World Championships,” said Sands in his mandate to the athletes. “If they don’t, they run the risk of not being able to compete in the World Championships in their event.

“We have to look at things in perspective and take it case by case because we know there’s going to be the exception and not the norm. We encourage them to compete in the event that they want to compete in at the World Championships because at the end of the day when you don’t do that, you end up putting the selection committee, the administration and the management in a position of subjective decisions versus objective decisions.”

Although an athlete could have a leading time and they opt not to compete in the nationals in their preferred event, if there are two or three athletes who run in the event in the nationals and they qualify, we have to take that into consideration.

“The nationals must be worth something. The trials must be worth something,” Sands said. “If you choose not to compete in your event and someone else does it and meets the qualifying standard, one must ask the question, ‘Is it fair to select an athlete who didn’t compete in the nationals over an athlete who competed?

“The United States has a very high and dry selection procress. You’re in or you’re out. You either run and make the team in that event or you don’t. Unfortuntely, we don’t have the depth to take those decisions, but sometimes we have to sacrifice some things in if you want to move to the next level.”

Sands reflected on the BAAA’s decision only to take those athletes to compete in individual events to the CARIFTA Games in St Kitts and Nevis in addition to athletes to make up the relay pools. As a result of that decision, the Bahamas vaulted back up in the final standings from seventh place a year ago to second place behind perennial kingpins Jamaica.

“When you look at the fact that we took a position that we only took the qualifiers, with the additions for the relays, I think we took the right decision and going forward by us doing that, it took away the subjective of having to decide who we will carry when we look at those athletes who were just short of qualifying,” Sands said.

“So it’s not that we are out to disenfranchise anyone, but more so to be able to field the best team to represent the Bahamas. We took that position for CARIFTA and all of the athletes, the coaches, the officials and the parents understood what we were doing and the results showed.”

And even though Sands said there were the naysayers who felt that the Bahamas should have collected more medals, Sands said it should be noted that combined with Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados, the three countries did not get more gold medals as Jamaica did.

“So when I hear people saying we should have done better, again I say we could have done better. So it’s easy to criticise, but we have to look at what we are trying to achieve and how we have achieved it.”

Having said that, Sands said the selection for the World Championships is almost the same as the athletes will have to first attain the standard and then compete in the nationals in order for them to be selected to the team that will travel to Beijing in August.

Right now, Sands said the BAAA is working with the National Sports Authority to secure the use of the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium - the same venue that was used for the National High School Championships and the World Relays - for the National Championships.

“It is the national championships. It is the national stadium, so it only goes hand in hand that the national championships, like any national championship, should be held in the national stadium,” said Sands, who is waiting on the final approval from the NSA.

Sands said it’s imperative that they get a definite decision because it will put the athletes in a better frame of mind as they get set to come home to compete.