The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WOMEN'S 100 metre hurdles national record holder Pedrya Seymour will not be making the trip to Doha, Qatar, for the 17th IAAF World Championships, scheduled for September 27 to October 6.

But Grand Bahama men's junior national 200m record holder Terrance Jones has accepted the invitation from the IAAF and will keep Team Bahamas' total to nine athletes participating in the championships, which are held every two years.

Seymour, who moved from Illinois to Texas to continue her studies and to take on a new coach, said she decided to skip the trip because of a recurring injury that prevented her from training.

"I really wanted to go because this would have been my first World Championships," Seymour said. "But I've been dealing with this injury all season long and my coach told me to get an MRI and the doctors told me I need to take at least 4-6 weeks off."

Coming off her victory at the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations' National Championships in July in Grand Bahama, Seymour said she returned to Texas to prepare for Doha.

But she admitted that after she was unable to complete her workouts last week, she was advised to get checked out. Based on the injury, Seymour said it was recommended that she not compete.

Seymour, 24, went into the championships having ran the qualifying time of 12.88 seconds. The former 400m hurdles specialist lowered the national record to 12.64 at the Olympics. She had a season's best of 12.78 she ran on July 16 in Padova, Italy before going to Grand Bahama for the nationals.

She would have joined the Bahamian delegation that includes female sprinters Tynia Gaither (11.04 in the 100m and 22.69 in the 200m) and Anthonique Strachan (22.81 in the 200m) and quarter-miler Shaunae Miller-Uibo (22.09 in the 200m and 49.05 in the 400m).

Jones, 17, will be competing in the men's 200m and will be the only male sprinter on the team after qualifier Samson Colebrook opted not to compete after running 10.01 to qualify in the 100m, but rather head to Purdue University for his junior season and to continue his studies to prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Jones, a student of Tabernacle Baptist Academy and a member of the Heats Athletic Track Club, established the new junior national record of 20.43 in the 200m to get on the IAAF waiting list for the championships. He will join men's quarter-milers Steven Gardiner (20.04 in the 200m and 44.45 in the 400m) and Grand Bahamian Alonzo Russell, (45.28 in the 400m), high jumper Donald Thomas (2.30m)and twin brothers Lathone and Latario Collie-Minns with leaps of 16.99m and 17.04m respectively in the triple jump.

Jeffery Gibson, the Bahamian national record holder, was also hoping to get an invite to compete in the championships after he failed to automatically qualify for the men's 400m hurdles. But the newly elected BAAA athletes representative said he withdrew his name because he felt he wasn't competing at a standard to be competitive at the championships,

Had she made the trip to Doha, this would have been Seymour's first appearance in the World Championships. It would have added to her résumé after she made her first Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she finished sixth in the final.

Prior to transferring to Texas, Seymour competed for the Fighting Illini and racked up All-American honours in 100m and 60m hurdles. At the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships, she set a 7.66-second PR in the latter event to take third, but failed to advance past the prelims in the 100m hurdles at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

BAAA President Drumeco Archer had indicated that in order for Team Bahamas to travel to Doha over the weekend, that they were still waiting to secure the $116,000 to cover the expenses for Team Bahamas at the championships. Archer, before leaving to attend the IAAF Congress before the start of the championships, said they had received funding in part from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Bahamas Olympic Committee and corporate Bahamas to make the trip.

During the 52nd sitting of the congress, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, the IAAF will hold its election of officers and Mike Sands will officially be introduced as the new president of the North American and Central American and Caribbean (NACAC).

Also during the congress, long-time coach Ronald Cartwright will become the latest Bahamian to receive his Veterans Pin from the IAAF.

The championships will feature more than 1,900 athletes from 210 teams as they compete in the 40,000-seat Khalifa International Stadium.

It is an historic and iconic Qatari sporting venue that holds a special place in the hearts of people in Qatar, the GCC and the Arab World - having played host over the last four decades to several Asian, Gulf and Arab championships and events.