The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

GOLD Coast, Australia — Joanna Evans, now the face of the country’s international swimming competition, will carry the flag for the Bahamas during the official opening ceremonies for the XXI Commonwealth Games on Wednesday night.

Evans, the 19-year-old Grand Bahamian from Bishop Eldon High School and now attending the University of Texas at Auburn, will lead the Bahamian delegation as the Gold Coast welcomes thousands of fans, athletes and officials in the biggest event in its history for 11 amazing days of world-class sporting competition at Carrara Stadium.

Expected to join Evans during the march pass are her swimming team-mate N’Nyhn Fernander, boxers Carl Hield and Rashield Williams, triathlete Cameron Roach, cyclists Jay Major and Anthony ‘Biggie’ Colebrooke and sprinter Anthonique Strachan, the first set of the 31-members of Team Bahamas that have arrived ‘Down Under’ in Australia.

Evans, a multiple distance events national record holder, was unavailable for comments, but Chef de Mission Roy Colebrooke said Evans was selected based on the fact that she has emerged as the female to watch in swimming in the absence of Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, who didn’t make the team.

Team Bahamas was officially set to be welcomed into the Games Village on Tuesday. It is at this time that Colebrooke will be recognised and honoured by the Mayor of the Games Village for his role in leading the Bahamas delegation that is mourning the sudden death of the Bahamas Olympic Committee’s office manager Debron Moxey, who was killed in a car accident in Nassau.

Colebrooke, who has served as Chef de Mission for a number of International Olympic Committee teams, including the Commonwealth and Olympic Games, said they expect the remainder of the team to arrive here by the end of the week as only competition for boxing, swimming, cycling and triathlon will be here once the games start on Thursday morning.

“The team is settling in very well,” Colebrooke said. “We are trying to organise a memorial service here at the village when everybody is here for Debron because she played a pivotal role for Team Bahamas in the organisation for these games.”

Swimming, whose officials here are Sarah Knowles, John Bradley and Andy Loveitt, will be out of the blocks first for the Bahamas along with boxing. Evans will be contesting the women’s 200, 400 and 800m freestyles while Fernander will participate in the men’s 50 and 100m butterfly and the 50 and 100m free. They are expected to be joined by Lilly Higgs and Izaak Bastian, who are coming from Trinidad & Tobago where they participated in the CARIFTA Swimming Championships.

The boxers, however, will have to go through their mandatory weigh-in first to determine if they will compete in the 69 kilogram for Hield and 64kg for Williams. They are accompanied here by coach Valentino Knowles.

Roach is being accompanied by his brother Dorian as he makes history as the first Bahamian to compete in the triathlon.

Anthony Colebrooke, now residing and working in Grand Bahama, will have double duties in the time trials and road race in cycling, while Major will only do the road race. Their coach is Roshawn Jones from Grand Bahama.

Although Strachan is the first of the track athletes to arrive, it’s expected that 19 athletes, excluding Steven Gardiner, who has been replaced by Ojay Ferguson, will be arriving later this week in time for their competition next week. Shaunae Miller-Uibo is expected to lead the track team.

Ralph McKinney will be the team manager with Rupert Gardiner as the head coach and Frank ‘Pancho’ Rahming as the technical director.

Other members of Team Bahamas are wrestlers Rashji Mackey (men’s freestyle 88kg) and Sean Wrinkle (men’s 74kg) with Clarence Rolle as coach and Adrian Rollins, who will be the lone competitor as table tennis makes its debut at the games when he competes in the men’s singles.

Team Bahamas is a part of a contingent of 6,600 athletes and team officials housed at the Games Village.

And there are 18 new buildings with 1,252 dwellings (1,170 apartments, 82 townhouses and 526 accessible beds) in are developed portion of the 29-hectare Parklands adjacent to Griffith University.

After the games, the Commonwealth Village will be transformed into a mixed-use residential, commercial and retail community at the heart of the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct.

Apartments and townhouses will become available for public rent and possible purchase from early 2019.

During a media tour of the facilities, it was said that more than 3,400 pillow cases and 3,400 sheets will be changed daily, 2,053 bathrooms.

And 3,300 bedrooms cleaned and approximately 20,000 meals with 800,000 pieces of fruits, 240,000 assorted bread, 100,000 fresh eggs, 52,000 ice-creams and 40,000 smoothies served daily.