SPORTS SECTION E
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2016
US Open
Tennis, Page 2
IAAF approves the Bahamas World Relays in 2019 By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
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t seems as if the International Amateur Athletic Federation will make the World Relays its home in the Bahamas for the next few years. The biannual event, which gave birth at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium in 2013 and continued in 2015, will return for the third edition next year and again in 2019 for the fourth time. Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations president Rosamunde Carey said after she and IAAF Councilwoman Pauline Davis, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson and Director of Sports Timothy
Munnings met with IAAF president Lord Sebastian Coe at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Bahamas was granted the rights to continue to host the relays. “The IAAF Council met in Rio and they approved the Relays to be hosted in the Bahamas for 2019,” Carey said. “In November they will make a decision for 2021 and 2023, but we believe that they will grant them to us too. “We are really excited about that because they had some other countries like Dubai, China and countries in the region. But the IAAF said they were quite pleased with our performance and they had great confidence in us putting on the world-class event.”
As was the case in the previous two relays, the 2017 relays will serve as the qualifier for the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London, England and Carey said they are just waiting on the IAAF to confirm that the 2019 edition will serve as the qualifier for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. What that means is that the top eight teams in both the men and women 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 metre relays at the consecutive World Relays will automatically qualify for the World Championships and hopefully the Olympics. “We know that the United States will be coming ready to defend the Golden baton that they won last year,” Carey said. “They came here and they dominated the relays and they qualified their
teams for the World Championships. “With the World Relays back here and being a qualifier for the World Championships, we are going to ensure that we put the best teams possible so that we can qualify for the four relays and not have to wait until the last minute as was the case with the women’s 4 x 400m relay.” The Bahamas was only able to get the men’s 4 x400m team qualified for the Olympics at last year’s World Relays. The other three fell short. But the women’s 4 x 400m team took advantage of the last chance meet at the Blue Marlins to secure their spot, although they had to wait on a court ruling against Russia before they were finally in. In Rio, while the men’s 4 x 4
team held on for the bronze medal, the women’s 4 x 4 team set a national record while finishing with a world ranking of No. 11. Carey said she’s confident that the women can make the final at the World Relays and book their ticket to the World Championships. She said she’s also looking at the resurgence of both the men and women 4 x 100m relay teams and is just as confident in both of them making the final and also qualifying for London. “The World Relays are in our backyard and this is going to be an opportunity for us to qualify early, so we are going to make sure that we get our best teams assembled so that we can qualify early and not have to wait on the last minute.”
What happened to Olympic team celebrations? By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net WHAT happened to the team celebrations for the 2016 Olympic Games? Leevan ‘Superman’ Sands, the newly appointed athletes’ representative, said the entire team was shocked to hear that there was a celebration for Shaunae Miller for her gold medal performance in the women’s 400 metres in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the rest of Team Bahamas was not included. Sands, who competed in the preliminaries of the men’s triple jump in his comeback from an injury he sustained at the previous Olympics in London, England in 2012, said they were all looking to join in the celebrations, not just for Miller but for the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay team that won the bronze medal. “We felt a little slighted about it because she made history and that was our second gold medal after Tonique (Williams),” Sands said. “We were hoping that there would be a big celebration with the whole team. I had a conversation with Shaunae before she left and she even stated that she wanted the whole team to be there. “So when I heard about the celebrations this weekend, we felt bad because we were not even given a chance to state whether or not we could attend. We wanted to celebrate with her and the 4 x 4 boys like we have done in the past. “We normally get a
BRONZE BOYS: The Bahamas men’s 4x400 metre relay team of Michael Mathieu, Steven Gardiner, Chris Brown and Alonzo Russell who won the bronze during the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 20. (AP Photo/David J Phillip) month so that everybody can finish their competition and then they set a date based around the time that we are all free. So when I heard about the celebrations, I was shocked.” There are some plans afoot to celebrate the achievement of the team in a few weeks. There’s even a celebration for Miller at St Augustine’s College, her alma mater, where there are two signs erected at the front and back entrance of
the school, acknowledging the Big Red Machine accomplishment. The sign congratulates Miller for her achievement as the Olympic champion. A full day of activities is being planned for Thursday, September 15 on SAC’s campus in Fox Hill for Miller, who still has to complete the Golden League series on September 9 in Brussels. Miller is currently sitting in second place and has a chance to duplicate the
feat that Williams achieved when she won the Olympic gold and shared the Golden League jackpot in 2004. Since the Olympics, both quarter-miler Steven Gardiner, who was also a part of the relay team, and high jumper Donald Thomas, who was sixth in the final, have continued on to compete in Europe. All of the other athletes have returned to their various destinations, including school in the United States,
or are here at home. “A lot of us want to come home and celebrate with Shaunae and the men’s 4 x 4 team,” Sands said. “We have been contacted by a private company and even the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture about a celebrations for the team. We are still working out the details. But it’s not going to be the same after they have already had a celebration for Shaunae.”
Whatever happens, Sands said they will be prepared to celebrate. It is hoped that the celebrations, according to Sands, will not just include the track team but also the swim team of Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Joanna Evans and Dustin Tynes, as well as Emily Morley, who made history as the first rower to represent the Bahamas at the games. Sands said they are all waiting to see what will transpire.
‘TEDDY’ LONGS FOR DAY WHEN BAHAMAS CAN PLAY INTERNATIONAL BASEBALL AGAIN By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS Baseball Federation president Theodore ‘Teddy’ Sweeting said he longs for the day when the Bahamas can regain its rightful place as a member of the international baseball fraternity. But while they work out the knits with the Bahamas Baseball Association that has prevented that process, Sweeting said he applauds the efforts of the professional players to keep the dream alive. For the second time, Antoan Richardson of theSouthern Maryland, Atlantic League and Albert Cartwright of the Ottawa, Can-Am League will be playing for Great Britain in the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifier that will take place from September 22-25 at the MCU Park in Brooklyn, New York. And for the first time, they will be joined by Ali Knowles (Garden City,
Pescos League), Jasrado Chisholm (Arizona Diamondbacks, MLB), Kyle Simmons (Pittsburgh Pirates, MLB), Todd Isaacs (Cleveland Indians, MLB), Reshard Munroe (Cincinnati Reds, MLB), Byron Murray (San Francisco Giants, MLB) and Champ Stuart (New York Mets, MLB). Brazil, Great Britain, Israel and Pakistan will compete over the course of the four-day contest to decide the 16th and final entry in the 2017 WBC. After playing for the first time in 2013, Sweeting said Richardson began the process again in2015. “Antoan wants to see the Bahamas play in the qualifying rounds of the World Baseball Classic,” Sweeting said. “So this time around, he was the one who initially did the introductions with the Baseball Federation and the Great Britain Baseball Federation. “From that point, after the introduction, the two federations started collabo-
rating on the possibility of other qualified Bahamians participating on the team for Great Britain. I formulated a committee headed by Patrick Adderley out of Grand Bahama, who liaisoned back and forth with Liam Carroll, the manager of Great Britain team, who began the process of reviewing our professional ball players.” Once they identified the players they were interested in, Sweeting said Great Britain made contact with the relevant baseball teams to grant approval for the players to play, if they so consented. For those who were interested, their grand parents had to be born in the Bahamas before the Independence of the Bahamas in 1973. Additionally, Sweeting said Great Britain is also looking at the possibility of including Byron Ferguson Jr, Chad Burrows and Desmond Russell from Grand Bahama on their roster. As for why the Bahamas, with so many players availa-
THEODORE SWEETING ble to make up a team, is not playing as a country, Sweeting said they are working on developing a strong relationship with Major League Baseball with the view of granting the Bahamas the rights to be included in international play. “We have been in contact with them back and forth from the beginning of 2015, trying to see whether the Bahamas could have submitted a team in the prelim-
inary rounds, which would then afford you, if you win your pool, the opportunity to play in the actual World Baseball Classic,” Sweeting said. “We were advised that they will do some research and get back to us. When they came back, they advised us that the International Baseball Federation does the recommendation for all of the countries that are afforded the opportunity to play in the World Baseball Classic.” When they did, Sweeting said the federation was informed that the Bahamas would not be granted permission due to its inactivity in international baseball. “We had set out a plan, which was to begin in 2015 when we, in collaboration with us sending a youth team to compete, didn’t compete because we were not properly registered,” Sweeting said. “So we did not attend in 2015. “This is now 2016 and we are now in preparation to sending a under-16 youth
team to Mexico to compete in the Pan Am qualifier for 2017. That looks very promising so that we can actually start the process of qualifying for the World Baseball Classic to be considered for the preliminary rounds.” Despite the ongoing feud with the BBA, Sweeting said the BBF is forging ahead with the view of getting its national teams prepared for the road to the World Baseball Classic. “Our goal now is to get a team prepared to compete next month, then prepare for the under-23 AU next year in 2017 and then in 2018 prepare to send a team to represent the country at the Central American and Caribbean Games,” Sweeting said. “If we do well in that, which is a qualifier for the Pan American Games, the following year, that would move us into 2019 and hopefully 2020 at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan where baseball is added back.”