The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahamian Donald Thomas is starting to round himself into shape as he looks forward to making another trip for the Bahamas to the season’s premier event at the World Championships.

Thomas, who just missed attaining the qualifying standard of 2.32 metres for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, soared a season’s best of 7-5 1/3 (2.27m) to win the men’s high jump at the USATA NYC Grand Prix.

The meet held on Saturday at the Ichan Stadium in New York also saw another Bahamian compete in the same event with Shaun Miller Jr coming in tied for fifth with American Darrlly Sullivan Jr at 6-11 (2.11m).

Miller Jr, the younger brother of Olympic and world champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, was coming off his NCAA Championship appearance in Austin, Texas, over the weekend of June 7-10 where he represented Ohio State with a tie with four others at 7-1 (2.16m).

Both Thomas and Miller Jr are expected to highlight the men’s high jump competition at the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ National Championships, scheduled for July 5-7 at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium before they compete in the sixth Bahamas Games, set for July 6-14. “I felt good. Grateful for the win,” Thomas said. “Was expecting to jump higher. Should be a good result at nationals.”

Thomas, 38, is the reigning two-time defending champion of the nationals. He has won numerous titles for the Bahamas, including the World Championships in 2007 in Osaka, Japan.

Miller Jr, 21, is the current North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Under-23 Championship champion, having won the title in 2021 in San Juan, Costa Rica.

While the duo were going head-to-head in New York, another Bahamian, Shaleem Hall-Smith took his talent to Canada where he participated in a pair of meets in the men’s 400m hurdles.

Hall-Smith, 26, placed third in the 10 flights of hurdles over the 400m in 49.75 on Saturday at the Johnny Loaring Classic, formerly known as the Windsor Open at the University of Wondsor’s Alumni Stadium.

The performanced came three days after he posted a second place finish in a lifetime best of 49.69 at the Royal City Inferno Track & Field Festival at the Alumni Stadium in Guelph behind Jamaica’s Roxroy Cato, who won in 49.55.

Hall-Smith, a third place finisher at the NACAC Championships last year in Grand Bahama, is chasing 48.70 in order to qualify for his first World Championships. The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is the new kid on the block in the event as the two-time defending national champion.