The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IN completing just one season as the interim head coach for track and field, Bahamian Dominic Demeritte has been promoted to serve as the new director of cross country and track and field at Life University.

Athletic director Jayme Pendergast made the announcement yesterday after watching Demeritte guide the Running Eagles to one of their most impressive women’s track and field programmes this season.

“I am very humbled and excited to have the support of Jayme and her staff in tabbing me as the new director of track and field and cross country,” Demeritte said.

“I believe both programmes together, will accelerate the momentum as we strive to re-establish Life as a national powerhouse.”

As a former sprinter of the St John’s College Giants, who went on to compete for the North Carolina Tar Heels, the 42-year-old Demeritte said he’s excited about his new role at Life University.

“Our goal as a combined programme will still be to excel in the classroom, in the community and on the field of play,” Demeritte summed up.

During his initial season at Life University as the interim head track and field coach, Demeritte was credited with the resurgence of their women’s track programme.

The Running Eagles claimed their first Mid-South Conference Outdoor Championship title, while the team tallied 16 total All-Conference honours, including eight individual champions.

For his efforts with Life University, Demeritte was named the MSC’s 2021 Coach of the Year and Bahamian versatile jumper Bria Sands collected the Athlete of the Year honours.

At the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Outdoor Championships over the weekend, Life University lived up to its billing by tying its number 10 national ranking by winning an individual title and earning All-American honours, something that caught the attention of Pendergast. “Dominic has done a great job pulling together a team in a short amount of time,” she said.

“In addition to the clear success he had from a track and field standpoint, he has shown tremendous alignment with our values.

“I can’t think of a better move than to leverage his leadership over both our women’s and men’s programmes. We believe we can have championship track and field programmes and student athletes who graduate with a first-class experience.”

Sands, the younger sister of Bahamian Olympic bronze medallists and national triple jump record holder Leevan ‘Superman’ Sands, brought the curtain down on her stellar career at Life University.

She won the long jump with a leap of 20-feet, 2 1/2-inches (6.16m), won in the triple jump with 41-0 1/2 (12.51m) and finished tied for 11th in the high jump with a leap of 5-4 1/2 (1.64m).

Based on what Demeritte achieved so far, Pendergast said she has the utmost confidence in his ability to get Life University there.

Before he ventured into coaching, Demeritte represented the Bahamas at two Olympic Games in 2000 and 2004 and he has also attended a combined seven IAAF World Championships indoors and outdoors.

At the 2004 World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Demeritte captured the gold in the men’s 200m, leaving him as the last champion as the event was discontinued because the IAAF felt that the competitor running in the outside lane had an unfair advantage over the rest of the field in the one-lap race.

It was Demeritte’s second medal at the championships as he improved from bronze the year before in the same event in Birmingham, Great Britain.

As the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ four-time 100m and seven-time 200m national champion from 1999-2005, Demeritte also won a gold in the Central American and Caribbean Games.

He has produced personal best times indoors of 6.40 seconds in the 55m, 6.73 in the 60m and 20.66 in the 200m as well as 7.19m in the long jump.

Outdoors, his lifetime achievements were 10.36 in the 100m; 20.21 in the 200m; 47.28 in the 400m and 7.61m in the long jump.

At the Commonwealth Games in 2002 in Manchester, Great Britain, Demeritte ran on the Bahamas’ 4 x 100m bronze medal team after he placed fourth in the 200m.

That same year at the World (Continental) Cup in Madrid, Spain, Demeritte was also fourth in the 200m and he ran on the silver medal 4 x 100m relay team.

Demeritte is married to Gianne, a 1998 graduate of St Augustine’s College, and they are the proud parents of three children, Sanae, Saige and Grayson.

He is the son of Charmaine Young and Don (Susan) Demeritte and he has two brothers, Devard and Devon, and a sister Dawn.