SPORTS SECTION E
MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2016
Nike Elite Youth
Bahamas Camp, Page 5
MEDAL GLORY: The Bahamas men’s 4x400 metre relay team members (l-r) Chris Brown, Steven Gardiner, Michael Mathieu and Alonzo Russell hold their bronze medals during an athletics podium ceremony at the Summer Olympics inside Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday. (AP Photo/Jae C Hong)
‘Bronze Boys’ shine By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunermedia.net
Men’s 4x400m relay team bringing home the medals
RIO de Janeiro, Brazil — They didn’t successfully defend their title from London, England, but the Bahamas still got on the podium in the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay on Saturday night as the athletic competition for the 2016 Olympic Games came to a close at the Olympic Stadium. Using the combination of Alonzo Russell, Michael Mathieu, Steven Gardiner and Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown, the Bahamas had to dig down deep to hold off Belgium and Botswana for the bronze medal as the United States regained the gold well ahead of silver medallist Jamaica. With splits of 45.3 for third on his leg for Russell, 45.1 for seventh for Mathieu, 43.79 for first for Gardiner and 44.20 for Brown for fifth, the Bahamas produced a season’s best of two minutes and 58.49 seconds. With both season best perfor-
mances as well, the United States ran away with the race in 2:57.30 and Jamaica clinched the silver in 2:58.16. The Bahamas’ time surpassed the previous SB’s of 2:58.84 that the quartet of Russell (45.2 for first), Brown (44.6 for fifth), Gardiner (44.90 for second) and Stephen Newbold (44.83 for fifth) ran the night before for second in their heat and sixth overall to secure their berth into the final. While it was a foregone conclusion that the Americans were untouchable this time around, the Bahamians knew they had a shot contesting with Jamaica, Botswana and Belgium. Unfortunately, Trinidad & Tobago and Great Britain, two other contenders, got disqualified in the preliminaries. As it turned out, it was the fourth Olympic relay medal for the Bahamas - three of which were
anchored by Brown - as the men’s team captain in Rio completed his fifth and final appearance in the biggest sporting event on the planet, held every four years. In addition to leading off on the gold medal team in London, he also anchored the silver medal performance from Andretti Bain, Mathieu and Andrea Williams in Beijing, China in 2008 and anchored as well in Sydney, Aus-
tralia in 2000 when he and Avard Moncur, Troy McIntosh and Carl Oliver clinched the first relay medal with the bronze. It was the second medal for the Bahamas as the relay team joined Shaunae Miller, the women’s 400m gold medallist. That pushed the Bahamas tied for 51st overall in the standings with Cote d’voire and the Independent Olympic Athlete, while finishing 14th in the athletic competition. Brown, the elder statesman of the team at age 37, rebounded after dropping to fourth on the back stretch on his last leg as he was passed by Jamaica’s Javon Francis as they trailed LaShawn Merritt from the United States and Gaone Leaname Maotoanono from Botswana. But as they came off the final curve and into the home stretch, Maotoanono stumbled with the
pressure behind him as Francis reeled him in. Brown passed him as well and just as he got closer to the finish line, he managed to dip to avoid Kevin Borlee and Belgium denying the Bahamas the bronze. Belgium, featuring three Borlee brothers, established a new national record of 2:58.52, but they didn’t have enough real estate to catch the Bahamas. The race started with Russell bringing the baton right in the thick of things for the Bahamas. Mathieu was the third to make the stagger to the inside on the second leg, but as he got to the exchange to pass off to Gardiner, he was in fifth place. Gardiner made a final push in the final 200m and came around to put the Bahamas back into contention as Brown
SEE PAGE 2
MAKING HISTORY: BAHAMAS DEFEATS USA 5-4, EXPECTS JUMP IN WORLD RANKINGS THE Bahamas defeated the United States of America in beach soccer for the first time in the country’s history. The Bahamas beach soccer team scored the historic win against the No.15 ranked USA men’s national team in a nail-biting match in Spiez, Switzerland, on Saturday. It was a close match up, but The Bahamas came out on top, defeating the soccer powerhouse by one point with a final score of 5-4. “This is a great day in Bahamian football history,” said Fred Lunn, general secretary of the Bahamas Football Association (BFA). “This is a victory not only for the team, but more importantly, for the country. We are ecstatic about this win, but we won’t get comfortable. Our focus goes back to preparing for next year’s World Cup where we plan to make the country proud on home sand.” A Bahamian contingent attended the game and cheered on Team Bahamas, including Rhoda Jackson, Bahamas Ambassador to Switzerland. “Words can’t de-
THE BAHAMAS beach soccer team scored an historic win against the No.15 ranked USA men’s national team in Spiez, Switzerland, on Saturday. scribe how we’re feeling. USA is a strong competitor and we’ve
played against them several times but were unsuccessful in defeating
them. They were ranked significantly higher than us, so this win
shows that Team Bahamas is on the right track,” said Gavin Christie, the team captain. Lesley St Jean was the game’s highest scorer, netting four of the five goals. Ehren Hanna scored the first goal for The Bahamas in period two. “All of our hard work has finally paid off. We’ve been able to kick it up a few notches and we were finally able to pull off a victory against the US,” Hanna said. The squad is in Europe for a sixweek training camp and a series of tournaments in preparation for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Sixteen countries will compete in the prestigious 11-day tournament slated for April 27 to May 7 in Nassau. With its first ever win against the US, Team Bahamas is gaining confidence heading into next year’s World Cup. “It was an outstanding game and a fantastic result for these players. The team has been training twice a day for the last six weeks and competing against
SEE PAGE 4