SPORTS SECTION E
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2016
Pedrya falls short in 100 hurdles final Seymour lowers her national record, ends up sixth best in world
form, if she had won, to talk about gun violence,” Seymour said. “I told her by brother (Keron Dean), had also died (from violence) and I would have been super happy if she had gotten a medal.” She didn’t win a medal but Seymour came behind Cindy Roleder
DEE DEE TROTTER DEFENDS SHAUNAE’S DIP AT LINE By ANTHONY FOSTER Track Alert Special To The Tribune
from Germany, who got fifth in 12.74 and beat out Great Britain’s Tiffany Porter, who faded to seventh in 12.76. Canadian Phylicia George brought up the rear in 12.89. Seymour, 21, was the second Bahamian in a final on the track at these games, following the gold medal performance by Shaunae Miller in the women’s 400m. Donald Thomas and Trevor Barry got seventh and 11th respectively in the men’s high jump final as the Bahamas completed the individual performances with four finalists. All that’s left for Team Bahamas is the men and women 4 x 400 metre relays that will be contested on Friday and Saturday with the
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PEDRYA SEYMOUR (left), of the Bahamas, competes yesterday in the 100-metre hurdles final at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/David J Phillip) Rollins and Nia Ali - in lanes six and four - had already gone. “I can’t remember the start of the race, but I remember the last part of the race,” she reflected. “The hurdles started to get close and I tried to run hard and I ended up clipping the last hurdle. But it’s all good.” Rollins, the top qualifier, stopped the clock in 12.48 for the gold, followed by Ali in 12.59 for the silver and Kristi Castlin took the bronze in 12.61, just ahead of Great Britain’s Cindy Ofili, who had a season’s best of 12.63 for fourth. “I’m really happy for them (Americans), especially Kristi. We had a conversation in the warm up area and she was telling me that her father had died and she wanted to use this plat-
Rio Olympics, Page 5
SINCE Shaunae Miller’s incredible victory in the Rio 2016 Olympics women’s 400m, several negatives have flooded social media. Miller, who literally came to a standstill with less than 10 metres to the finish line, stretched and fell across the line in 49.44, a personal best to take a legitimate gold, according to finish rules. But several fans of the sport have since taken to social media to criticise the athlete’s victory, describing the “dive” as unfair. Dee Dee Trotter, the American 400m bronze medallist from the London 2012 Olympics, has blasted Miller’s critics. “I am so disappointed with the negativity that surrounds the women’s 400m results, and Shaunae Miller’s awesome win to the finish line,” said Trotter, who helped USA to 4x400m gold medals in London 2012 and Athens 2004. “Let me tell you something, I’m Team USA baby, I am Allyson Felix, Natasha Hastings, Phyllis Francis all day,” the two-time World Championships (2003 and 2007) 4x400m relay gold medallist said in her support for the ladies who represented Team USA in the 400m. The 33-year-old, in her video post, explained what happened to Miller at the finish line. Trotter said that there is a lot of pain associated with the 400m. “The last 10 metres, Shaunae Miller has no legs, if you go back and watch this race, slow, more than last 10 metres, you will see she starts to collapse and buckle. She has literally ran all the gas out of her body, she gave it everything she has,
By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net RIO de Janeiro, Brazil — Pedrya Seymour has to be more than satisfied with her 2016 Olympic Games debut. Sixth place in the world in the women’s 100 metres hurdles. Not bad for starters. Less than two hours after she lowered her national record to 12.64 seconds in the semi-final, Seymour came back in the final last night and ran 12.76 to finish sixth in a race that had an unprecedented American sweep of the three medals. “It was a good run, definitely not my best because I ran my best in the semi-final,” said Seymour, who was coming off a sensational season that included appearances at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships for the University of Illinois and a trip to the IAAF World Indoor Championships for the Bahamas. “I give all praise and thanks to God because without him, none of this would have been possible. I’m really happy because this is my first time running the event and I made it to the Olympic final, so this is a huge deal.” Sandwiched in the middle of the field in lane five, Seymour once again didn’t get a good start and, by the time she tried to make up some ground, Americans Brianna
BOLT IN 200 FINAL
Maybelene Miller: ‘We prayed so hard for this’ By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net RIO de Janeiro, Brazil — Long before they arrived here for the 2016 Olympic Games, Maybelene Miller said they got a divine intervention that her daughter Shaunae Miller would become the women’s 400 metre champion. So said, so done. “We prayed so hard for this, fasted and prayed for it and she has a personal prophetess that is assigned to her, and she (prophetess) fasted and prayed for this and she told her (Shaunae) before she came here,” Miller said. “She said the Lord spoke to me and told me that you will win this race, this 400m, so she went into the race really comfortable that she was going to be victorious.” Monday night, Miller said she was in the stands in the Olympic Stadium watching her daughter complete the prophecy when she stum-
bled across the finish line to hold off a late surge by American Allyson Felix in a personal best time of 49.44 seconds. Felix, who had ran away from Miller last year to win the title at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, had to settle for second in a season’s best of 49.51. Jamaican Shericka Jackson, third place finisher at the Worlds, once again got the bronze in 49.85. It was a complete turn around for the 22-year-old Miller, who four years ago in London, England, was unable to finish her preliminary heat of the 400m in her Olympic debut when she suffered a slight hamstring pull coming off the first curve and had to stop. Monday, she exhumed that ghost by becoming only the second Bahamian to win a 400m gold, following national record holder Tonique Williams-Darling, who achieved the historic feat in 2004 in Athens, Greece.
OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST Shaunae Miller and her mother, Maybelene, share a special moment at the Rio Olympics. Her mother, who was accompanied here by her husband, Shaun, an assistant coach on Team Bahamas, said she clearly remembered going to London and how disappointing it was to watch as Shaunae stopped and walked off the track. “It’s my second time
watching her at the Olympics, the first time she had to stop because of an injury, but this time it feels really good,” she said. “After the race was over, I was like, ‘oh gee,’ I don’t know what was the outcome. I had to wait and watch the screen, and
when the screen flashed up with her name. “I guess she properly heard when I made the loud scream, and maybe that was when she realise I did win this race.” Shaunae Miller, in her post race interview with the local media in the mixed zone at the stadium, said she heard her mother screaming ‘get up, get up,’ as they advised her to start the celebration. “At that time I was trying to tell her get up, get up, go get the flag, come get this flag because you did win this race,” her mother said. “Get the flag. She looked over, I was like, get up, you won, you won.” From the start of the race, May, as she’s affectionately called, said she was a little jittery at the start of the gun. “Well, I was a little nervous, actually I did not watch it,” she stressed. “I kept my face turned until I heard the gun shoot off and they started to run and then I turned back to the race and
watched it from then. I just wanted to see the race in action as opposed to watch ing them in the blocks and all of that. It had me a little nervous.” It’s not an abnormal thing for Miller to either be in the stands as a spectator or on the team in some type of management capacity. In fact, since she’s been competing as a junior athlete, her role as an official and now an executive of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations has afforded her the opportunity to attend every single international meet her daughter competes in. “The very, very first time she competed on an international scene in 2011, I was there and at World Youth Championships,” she recalled. “I literally was hot cold, nervous, sweating, you name it. But I am starting to get a little used to it now. I was not that nervous last night, but was a little more
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