The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

JEFFREY Gibson and Steven Gardiner, in their tune-ups for the 2018 Commonwealth Games next month, pulled off victories in different events they normally compete in at the University of Central Florida’s Black & Gold Challenge in Orlando, Florida, over the weekend.

Both competitors, named to the 31-member team heading to the Gold Coast, Australia, for the big event April 4-15, also teamed up on the third and anchor legs respectively with fellow Bahamian training partners Teray Smith and Blake Bartlett to win the men’s 4 x 400m relay.

The quartet, running under the banner Empire Athletics, clocked three minutes and 06.48 seconds to beat out the rest of the field that saw Ohio State finish second in 3:06.72. “We are all training partners, so it felt pretty easy running with them. We just wanted to have some fun,” said Gardiner, a room-mate of Bartlett. “It was good to put the team together.”

Gibson, named to compete in his specialty in the men’s 400m hurdles, opened his season by returning to the 400m where he won the one-lap race in 47.21 ahead of Calvin Smith, unattached, who got second in 47.47.

“I’m just progressively working on techniques and getting much stronger in the hurdles,” Gibson pointed out. “I’m not really focusing too much on the event itself. I just want to be ready to compete.”

This weekend in Jacksonville, Florida, Gibson will make his season debut in the 400m hurdles before he competes in the Florida Relays (March 29-31 in Gainesville, Florida) in the lead up to his trip ‘Down Under’ for the Commonwealth Games.

“I know on this Gold Coast trip, I’m looking forward to doing much better,” said Gibson, the reigning bronze medallist in the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2014.

“At the last one, I was so very young and inexperienced in running in a major final, but I was happy that I rose to the occasion and won a medal. So with me being more experienced as an athlete for this one, I want to win the gold medal.”

Gibson, 27, said he hopes to redeem himself after Glasgow.

“I know that with the pool of competitors that I competed against, I should have won the gold, but that didn’t work out,” he said. “So going back and being much stronger mentally and physically, I think my chances are much better to achieve that goal.”

In preparation for this season, Gibson moved from Raleigh, North Carolina, and is now training with the Bahamian connection in Clermont, Florida, under coach Gary Evans.

“It’s been going very well,” said Gibson, who has been there since October. “I felt what I was lacking in personal training in Raleigh, I’m getting it here with coach Evans and I noticed the difference and I’m taking advantage of it. I’m pleased with the results I’m seeing.”

Adidas representative Gardiner, selected to run the men’s 400m and on the 4 x 400m relay at the Commonwealth Games, dropped down to the 200m where he took the half-lap race in 20.35 well ahead of his nearest rival, Kentucky freshman Jalani Walker, who was second in 21.00.

Also during the UCF meet in other individual events, Teray Smith, representing Puma, was fourth in the men’s 100m in 10.49 with Blake Bartlett, unattached, 13th overall in 10.82. Smith is also heading to the Commonwealth Games to compete in the men’s 200m and 4 x 400m relay.

Another Bahamian, Tavonte Mott, ran the lead off leg for Ohio State’s B team that finished 11th overall in 3:22.84. Mott, in his freshman year, was also ninth in the men’s 110m hurdles in 14.82. He also ran on their A team in the 4 x 100m relay, but they were disqualified.