SPORTS SECTION E
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2016
US OPEN
The Final, Page 7
Anfernee Seymour and Braves make team history By RENALDO DORSETT Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
ANFERNEE SEYMOUR
ANFERNEE Seymour and the Rome Braves made team history by reaching the Class A (Full) South Atlantic League Championship series for the first time in 13 years. The Braves will take on the Lakewood BlueClaws in the championship series which begins 7:05pm tonight at State Mutual Stadium in Rome, Georgia. Rome booked their berth to the series when they closed out the Charleston RiverDogs in the final game of the three game semi-finals with a 4-1 win Saturday night. They claimed the South Atlantic League Southern Division title
with the win. Max Fried struck out 11 over 7 2-3 innings. Lakewood swept Hagerstown in two games to win the Northern Division title on Friday. It will be the first time the Braves played in the championship series since their inaguaral season in 2003. The Braves won the title that season. This is the first time since 2012 that the Braves have been in the postseason when they won the Southern Division second-half title to advance to the division playoffs. A slow start to the season paced the Braves well behind the pack and, in the first half, they finished with just a 27-42, just good enough for sixth place in the Southern Division.
Seymour came on board for a torrid second half and the Braves went 43-27 the rest of the way. Braves manager Randy Ingle told Wayne Cavadi that the turnaround was due to the teams wealth of young talent reaching their potenential. “We have a lot of talent on this club, and a lot of young talent on this club,” Ingle said. “The youngest in the league by far. I was looking the other day, I think [Charleston] has one teenager over there and we have nine.” In 20 games with the Braves thus far, Seymour is hitting .243 with four RBI, an OBP of .278, an OPS of .535 with six stolen bases. Seymour was traded from the Miami Marlins to the Atlanta Braves in a three-player deal
Gardiner’s visit home By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
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t was a return to Moore’s Island where it all got started for Olympian Steven Gardiner four years ago. Gardiner, the 20-yearold national 400 metre record holder, returned to his birthplace in Abaco last week following his appearance in the Diamond League Race the previous weekend in Zurich, Switzerland, where he finished in a two-way tie for fourth place in the men’s 400m with Nery Brenes of Croatia with 10 points. Gardiner, coming off his semifinal appearance in the men’s 400m and a bronze medallist on the men’s 4 x 400m relay at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last month, placed fifth in Zurich in 45.66 as American LaShawn Merritt ran away with the race in 44.64. Merritt, the bronze medallist in Rio, won the title with 50 points. His nearest rival was Grenada’s Bralon Taplin with 24. Isaac Makwala of Botswana was third with 20. Republic of South Africa’s Wayde van Nirkerk, who set a world record in picking up the gold in Rio, along with silver medallist Kirani James from Grenada, didn’t compete. Last week during his visit home, Gardiner headed over to Moore’s Island where he reunited with his first coach Anthony Williams. For the two years of his career, Williams had Gardiner running the 400m before he was turned over to George Cleare, who then converted him to the 400m. “It was a great joy to have him. He’s such a manly and humbled young man,” Williams said. “He came over and spent the day with us. He walked around town and had lunch with us. We all remembered how he was a little puny fellow and now he has grown up to be a man. “My wife was very excited to see him because he lived with us for the two years that we had him before he came to Nassau. So it was a great feeling for all of us on
the island to walk around with an Olympian and a bronze medallist.” During the visit, Gardiner was able to display the medal he won as a member of the men’s 4 x 400m relay team, running the fastest split on the third leg. The Bahamas team, comprising of Alonzo Russell, Michael Mathieu, Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown and Stephen Newbold (who ran in the heats instead of Mathieu), finished behind the United States of America and Jamaica in Rio. During his Olympic debut, Gardiner also contested the men’s 400m, but fell short in the semi-final. He competed along with Russell and Brow, who both failed to get out of the first round. “I’m very impressed with his progress so far, but I know that he still has a long way to go,” Williams said. “I think this split of 43.7 on the relay will inspire him to do even better. I was impressed with his improvement and I know and I’m looking for some bigger and better things from him in the future.” Although he’s no longer a part of the programme, Williams is still grooming more athletes in Moore’s Island to replace him. “I think the athletes here will be even more determined to train harder and compete now that they have seen him,” Williams said. “They believe that if he can do it coming out of Moore’s Island, then they can do it too. Some of them were able to touch the medal he had around his neck and so they want to achieve the same goal that he has accomplished.” Williams was hoping that by now, the new facilities being built in Moore’s Island would have been completed. In conjunction with a private firm headed by Nick Dean, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture was to assist the community of Moore’s Island with the construction of the facility that included a dormitory and a track and field surface. “The dormitory is under construction right now and we are hoping that it will be completed soon,” Williams said. “We have the new students coming in for the new school year and they are
which also saw the Braves acquire pitcher Michael Mader in exchange for relief pitcher Hunter Cervenka. He entered the Braves’ lists of prospects ranked at No.19, according to MLB.com’s 2016 Prospect Watch. He is ranked fourth among shortstops after No.1 overall prospect Dansby Swanson, No.2 Ozzie Albies and No.8 Kevin Maitan. Seymour was ranked No.8 in the Marlins farm system but goes to a Braves organisation known for its deep talent pool in the minors. In 124 games this year, Seymour hit .253 with 70 runs scored, 43 stolen bases and 30 RBI. He has recorded a slugging percentage of .300, an OBP of .293 and an OPS of .593 and 146 total bases.
NACAC CONSIDERS MORE AREA PERMIT MEETS FOR REGION By Michael Bascombe
STEVEN GARDINER with coach Anthony Williams in Moore’s Island. staying with me. A lot of them are in grade nine, which gives me more time to work with them rather than having them come in at grade 12. So I think it’s going
to be better for us.” In the meantime, Williams said the residents and the student-athletes are all pitching in to get the dormitory completed.
SANTO DOMINGO, September 10, 2016 – Track and field athletes in the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) region will have an expanded calendar of events in 2017 as more Area Permit Meets (APM) are considered from a proposed calendar. The NACAC Board is meeting here this weekend and among agenda items will be the NACAC Calendar of events for 2017. Chair of the Competitions Committee, Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas, said that NACAC is answering the calls for more track and field competitions within the NACAC area and fans could expect to see more of their athletes competing at home or in a nearby territory. “Our athletes have been speaking to us loud and clear. They have been telling us we want to stay more in the region because it’s very exhausting going to Europe,” Davis-Thompson told GrenadaSports. “At least from the end of March to probably the end of June and then if they need to go to Europe then they go. We have heard our athletes. We have the best athletes in the world and we should showcase them in the NACAC region.” NACAC has already provisionally awarded Area Permit Meet (APM) status to the Penn Relays and the Drake Relays in the United States as well as in Martinique, Grenada and Puerto Rico.
SEE PAGE 3
In Brussels, Donald Thomas 7th overall in high jump By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net WHILE quarter-miler Shaunae Miller shut down her season and opted not to compete because of a contractual breakdown, high jumper Donald Thomas took advantage of the opportunity on Friday to compete in the AG Insurance Memorial Van Damm in Brussels, Belgium. Thomas, 32, came seventh in the men’s high jump with a leap of 2.26 metres or 7-feet, 5-inches as American Erik Kynard went on to post the win with 2.32m (7-7 1/4), beating out Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar on the countback to secure the Diamond League Race title in the process. Kynard finished with 20 points and earned $50,000, inclusive of $10,000 for the event win and
another $40,000 for the Diamind League title. Thomas, however, was not eligible to contend for the Diamond League Race title as he didn’t participate in as many of the seven meets in the series over the year. Miller, fresh off her dive across the finish line to win the Olympic Games’ gold medal over American Allyson Felix, had a chance to also pull off the double feat in Brussels as she trailed Jamaican Stephanie Ann McPherson by just one point going into the final race. But Miller’s manager, Claude Bryan, confirmed to The Tribune last Tuesday that the national 200m record holder will skip the final IAAF Diamond League Meeting. “Kindly note. We were unable to come to terms with the Brussels Diamond League so unfortunately Shaunae Miller will not be
DONALD THOMAS competing in the Belgium capital,” Bryan confirmed with The Tribune.
“Her season has effectively ended and she hopes for a healthy and successful 2017.” Bryan said it was fiscal in nature when pressed about the decision for Miller not to compete. In her absence, McPherson eventually clinched the Diamond League Race title and a purse of $40,000, although she lost the race in third place behind Caster Semenya from the Republic of South Africa and American Courtney Okolo in that order. The week before in Zurich, Switzerland, Semenya added the Diamond League Race 800m title to her Olympic crown. McPherson, who didn’t have a great showing at the Olympics, ended up taking the 400m title over American Natasha Hastings in the absence of Miller, who was considered a sure bet to win, if she had competed.
A week before, men’s national record holder Steven Gardiner completed the men’s 400m series in Zurich tied for fourth place with Nery Brenes of Croatia with 10 points. Gardiner, 20, placed fifth in Zurich in 45.66 as Merritt ran away with the race in 44.64. The other six meetings for their series were the same as the men’s high jump in Doha, Rabat, Rome, Birmingham, Monte-Carlo and Lausanne. American LaShawn Merritt, the bronze medallist in Rio, won the title with 50 points. His nearest rival was Grenada’s Bralon Taplin with 24. Isaac Makwala of Botswana was third with 20. Republic of South Africa’s Wayde van Nirkerk, who set a world record in picking up the gold in Rio, along with silver medallist Kirani James from Grenada, didn’t compete.