The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

In the best interest of the team, Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown said he decided to concentrate on the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay rather than the 400m at the 16th IAAF World Indoor Championships.

The sacrificial move on Sunday at ‘Track City USA’ in Portland, Oregon, helped Brown to anchor the team of Michael Mathieu, Alonzo Russell and Shavez Hart to a silver medal performance behind the United States of America.

While the USA clinched the title with a world-leading time of three minutes and 02.45 seconds, the Bahamas got the silver in a national record time of 3:04.75 ahead of Trinidad & Tobago’s bronze in their national record of 3:05.51.

“We decided not to focus on the main 400m because I’ve been there five times and so I said to myself that I wanted all of the guys to get a medal in the relay,” said Brown of the Bahamas’ historic medal performance indoors.

“We’ve been coming to these championships and our relay team have been going home empty handed so I decided not to run the 400m and let two other people run it so I can put all of my focus and attention on the 4 x 4. I told the guys to let’s go out there and make it happen.”

Although he only ran in the preliminaries, 20-year-old Ashley Riley made his debut at the senior major international meet, running the third leg on the team that included Mathieu, Hart and Brown as they ran a season’s best of 3:07.55 to finish second in their heat behind Belgium to advance to the final.

“This is motivation for him (Riley) to go home and train because he can say I’ve been there and I’ve done it with the guys and I know what it takes for me to be able to get back there for the team going to the Olympic Games,” Brown said of Riley.

“But the guys are all happy. They got a silver medal. It wasn’t just a chance for me to walk away with an individual medal. A national record and a smile on the guys’ faces and watch the excitement on their faces meant a lot to me. I have no regrets and if I had to do it all over again, I would do it.”

Brown, the elder statesman of the team, admitted that earning the hefty cash prize for an individual event would have been good, but he didn’t have a problem sharing the $20,000 with his team-mates.

“I’ve been there five times and I think at this stage in my career, let me at least level the playing field and at least allow these guys to get some hardware too,” he said. “So it was just a great accomplishment for us as a relay team.”

For Russell, it was indeed a thrill to have been a part of the team’s success in Portland.

“It was pretty good. Everything worked out as planned. Everybody was pleased with the way their legs worked out,” Russell said. “I think Mike did a pretty good job putting the team out front and I think I did my part in keeping us in the race. I think everybody did their part for us.

“Indoors is actually my favourite, so I was really pleased to get a chance to run with this team. I thought it was a pretty good team.  There wasn’t any surprise. We did what we had to do to get on the podium to get the medal.”

Brown, the 37-year-old from Eleuthera who has won a gold, a silver and three bronze in the 400m at the World Indoors, said there was no greater feeling than to win the medal with his team-mates.

“I give all praise and credit to the Lord. We trusted in him, went out and executed and we achieved our goal,” Brown stated. “We wanted the gold, but a silver medal is better than nothing because for the past few World Indoors that I went to, we have not won a medal. So to get this medal is a great accomplishment and to do it with a national record is more than we could ask for. The performance by all of the members spoke for itself.”

Brown admitted that Mathieu was a little timid on the first leg after he was qualified in the open 400m, but he managed to get the baton to Russell first. As he headed to Hart on the second leg, the USA surged out front and the Bahamas was unable to catch the anchor leg once Brown got the baton.

“The guys ran well, the chemistry was awesome. The chemistry started from when we got here. I would say this was one of the best teams and officials that the BAAA organised and I give them a lot of props and respect for that,” Brown said. “They showed up and they communicated with us and they made us comfortable. So the chemistry was set in place from the start and we went out there and executed our race and we represented the Bahamas to the best of our ability.”

As a newcomer to the international level, Brown said a lot of credit should be given to Riley for running an awesome leg in the preliminaries to help the Bahamas get into the final.

“Hats goes off to Mr Riley for an awesome leg in getting us into the final,” Brown said. “Without him, we would not have been able to get there. But this now sets us up for Rio.”

Brown was referring to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August and if they are going to contend for another medal, all of the quarter-milers will have to be fit and ready to compete because it’s obvious that the Americans will be ready.

But before the Olympics, Brown will be coming home next month to host his second version of the Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational April 16 at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium when a number of top international stars from around the world will be competing.

The Bahamas is also expected to get a taste of what to expect in Rio when the men’s relay team will be reunited with the United States as they clash in the 4 x 400m relay.

Russell, the Grand Bahamian native based in Athens, Georgia, where he trains, has indicated that he will be coming home to compete in the meet and looking forward to helping Brown put on a show for the public.