The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

She has held the distinction of being the first Bahamian female to serve on the coaching staff of an Olympic team. Now Diane Woodside-Johnson is going back to London, England, where she will add to her resumé - the first female to serve as head coach of an International Amateur Athletic Federation World Championship team.

Woodside-Johnson has been selected by the Bahamas Coaches Association and ratified by the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations to serve as the head coach for the team that will travel to the IAAF World Championships in London, England.

While the team has not yet been officially selected by the BAAA, Woodside-Johnson will have a good idea of who will probably be travelling to London August 5-13 when the National Open Track and Field Championships is staged this weekend.

The Nationals, all set for Friday and Saturday at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex, will serve as the trials for the team, although there will be a few more opportunities for athletes to attain the standard by the deadline of Sunday, July 23.

“I feel wonderful for the honour. After years of working with the athletes, who too have made it to this stage, it’s a wonderful opportunity to be around them again and to mentor them at this stage as the head coach,” she lamented. “Just to be a part of the environment of world-class athletes again is very important to me. It’s an honour and a privilege to be there.”

Woodside-Johnson broke international barriers for the Bahamas in 2011 when she served as the first female assistant coach at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, Korea. That followed with her biggest feat to date when she served as the female coach of the athletic team at the London Olympics in 2012.

“I think the Bahamas will do extremely well at these championships,” Woodside-Johnson projected. “We have two of the top performers in the women’s and men’s 400 metres in Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Steven Gardiner and we hope they can continue on with their successes.

“Of course we also have the 200 metres for women with a good crop of female sprinters who will be representing us at the championships and they should form the nucleus of our 4 x 100 metre relay team.”

Although there are a number of athletes who have attained the qualifying standards so far, Woodside-Johnson said the trials would provide that opportunity for those who are close to attempt to join those that have qualified.

“This weekend should prove to be very exciting because we should have some competitive athletes competing in events like the men’s 400m, the women’s 200 and 400m, the men’s 100m and the high jump for men,” she said. “Those should be our most competitive events.”

The events from the 100 to 400m should prove quite interesting because its from those performances that the BAAA intent to select its pool of competitors that Rupert Gardiner, the relay coordinator for London, should be able to work with at the championships, once all four 4 x 100 and 4 x 400m teams qualify.

“I guess in consultation with the relay coordinator and the BAAA, we have to look at whatever meets we can send our teams to compete in so that they can officially qualify for London.”

As the head coach for London, Woodside-Johnson brings a wealth of experience to the team as one of a handful of IAAF level five certified coaches in the country. Level five is the highest level of accomplishment as a coach.

The former national and international 100m hurdles specialist has been coaching at her alma mater at St Augustine’s College with the Big Red Machine for more than 20 years.

Together with her twin sister, Dawn Woodside-Johnson, they formed Club Monica Track Club in the BAAA to honor their mother, Monica Woodside, who never missed an event with her children competed.

Woodside-Johnson, 48, is married and a mother of a daughter, whom she hopes will eventually follow in her footsteps as a track athlete.