The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Over the years, the Bahamas has enjoyed its success at the World Indoor Championships in the sprints and the jumps. This month, Devynne Charlton is hoping to add the hurdles to the list of achievements for the country when the championships take place in Belgrade, Serbia.

Charlton, the Bahamian national record holder coming off a sixth-place finish at the delayed 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan last August, will head into the championships from March 18-20 as the individual winner of the women’s 60 metre hurdles in this year’s World Indoor Tour.

She joins the other female winners, including Poland’s Justyna Swiety-Ersetic in the 4,500 metres, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay in the 1,500m, Australia’s Eleanor Patterson in the high jump and Great Britain’s Lorraine Ugen in the long jump.

The men’s list includes American Elijah Hall in the 60m, Great Britain’s Elliot Giles in the 800m, Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma in the 3,000/5,000m, Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis in the pole vault and Cuba’s Lazaro Martinez in the triple jump.

The 2022 World Indoor Tour Gold series got started in Karlsruhe on January 28 and came to a close in Madrid on March 2. Each gold meeting offers at least $7,000 in prize money for each individual discipline on the programme, including $3,000 to the winner.

In three meets she competed in, Charlton accumulated a total of 22 points to nip Finland’s Reetta Hurske, who trailed by just one point in three meets as well.

Jamaica’s Danielle Williams came in third with 20 points in two meets. “I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot. I set out this year to be on the podium at World Indoors as well as win the World Indoors Tour,” Charlton said. “I already achieved one of those and so I’m looking forward to going to Serbia and accomplishing the other goal.”

Having won the tour, Charlton said she was impressed because she took a gamble not competing in another meet to increase her point total. “I decided not to go, but instead I stayed back and got some more training,” said Charlton, who is currently in Lexington, Kentucky, where she is working as a graduate assistant at the University of Kentucky where she is also training under the supervision of Bahamian head coach Rolando “Lonnie” Greene.

“I felt in the long run, getting back to training would be better for me in the long run. It worked in the end because I still finished with enough points to win the whole thing. So I’m excited that its paid off.” Although she’s ran a season’s best of 7.90 seconds on February 22 in Arena, Torun, Poland, Charlton feels that she will need to run in the vicinity of 7.7 in order to be a medal contender. That would not only enable her to medal, but also lower her Bahamian national record of 7.89.

As she prepares for World Indoors, Charlton is equally excited because Greene will finally get to travel with her at a major international event as her coach.

“Because of his obligations to the university, he’s never been able to travel with me at any competition. This will be the first time,” said Charlton, who first connected with Greene when he served previously as the head coach at Purdue University when she was enrolled as a student-athlete. “So I’m really looking forward to having him there.”

While she will be going to her second World Indoors, Charlton will join two other females on Team Bahamas, including quarter-milers Shaunae Miller-Uibo, a silver medallist in the 400m at the 2014 World Indoors in Sopot, Poland, and University of Kentucky’s sophomore Megan Moss.

“The last time I went, I was the only female with the guys, so I’m definitely looking forward to being there with those two ladies and seeing what we can do,” stressed Charlton, who in 2018 at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, United Kingdom, was the only one of the five-member team that made a final when she placed eighth overall in the women’s 60m hurdles.

Going into the Worlds, Charlton said she feels she’s ranked about eight in a poll from 1-10, but she anticipates that by the time the championships is done, it should be propelled all the way to a 10.

“I still have a lot of work to do, but based on where I’m at, I’m a whole lot better than where I was in previous seasons,” she said. “I’m not too far off my personal best, so I feel the season has been very productive for me so far.”

With the spotlight switching a little to the hurdles, Charlton said it’s all due to what she and former national record holder Pedrya Seymour have done in the past few years.

“It started when Pedrya made the finals in (the Olympic Games) in Rio (de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016),” said Charlton, who had also qualified for the event, but had to sit out with an injury.

“I’m just trying to continue what has started. We have a lot of good hurdlers coming up like Charisma (Taylor), who just put down some really good times last weekend, so I’m really looking forward to see how far she goes and to see how far this wave of hurdles will go.

“I thought I could have convinced her to come to Worlds with me, but she has some other business to take care off.”

The 26-year-old Charlton, who also holds the national outdoor record of 12.61 in the 100m hurdles, said she’s looking forward to meeting up with her on the track later this summer when they all clash in the BAAA National Open Track and Field Championships.

And hopefully she will have some company just before the team is selected from the hurdles crew when the World Outdoor Championships take place in Eugene, Oregon, July 15-24, and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, July 28 to August 8, depending on where the focus is.