The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT has been a while since we’ve seen quarter-miler Demetrius Pinder on the track running. But the Grand Bahamian native said look out for him to put on a show this year as he makes his return from the back burner of the men’s 400 metres.

“I’ve been doing a lot of training, a lot of focusing on me, myself as an athlete in an open event,” said Pinder as he took the time out with the mascot ‘Bingo’ to mix and mingle with the Bahamian public at the National High School Track and Field Championships yesterday at Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

“Lately, I think I’ve been slacking off and just thinking about relays. But I’ve been on my game. I’ve cut out a lot of stuff and just focusing on training and getting ready to compete again this year.”

With just two weeks of training under his belt, Pinder said he got a chance to compete in an indoor meet in Clemson on January 1 and he posted a victory in 47.67 seconds, which was very encouraging as he makes his comeback.

“It’s going to be something special this year,” he projected. “I think the people should look forward to seeing what they usually see from me.”

Right now, Pinder and his coaching staff are debating on whether or not they should make the trek to the Spice Isles for the inaugural Grenada Invitational - being coordinated in part by fellow Bahamian quarter-miler Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown - or stay in Florida to compete in the Florida Relays or the Tom Jones Invitational, the just before the World Relays.

“I’m not just excited about the World Relays, but for the whole year,” Pinder stressed. “I had a chance to sit down and look myself in the mirror and I saw where I’m being doing this wrong and why this has been happening,” he stressed.

“I’ve been in the back burner for a while and I don’t think I should be in that seat anymore.”

Pinder, a two-time national champion, said his goal is to become the first Bahamian to crack the 44-second barrier. The closest Bahamian to achieving that feat is Steven Gardiner from Abaco whose national record is set at 44.27, set here at the stadium at the BAAA’s National Open Championships in 2015.

In winning the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ National Championship title in 2012, Pinder produced his personal best of 44.77 at age 22, but he said his aim five years later at 27 is to run under 44 seconds.

“Running 44s isn’t really in the game plan anymore,” Pinder proclaimed. “We’re probably looking at running some 45s and later 44s, but by the World Championships, we want to be in the 43 second range.”

The “we” Pinder was referring to was his coaching staff in Orlando, Florida where he currently train.

“We are definitely ready for the outcome this year,” Pinder said.

Coming of a big disappointment when he didn’t get to compete in the relays at the Olympic Games last year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Pinder said he’s put that behind him and is concentrating on the upcoming season.

And with the IAAF World Relays coming up next month, Pinder’s only request is that the coaching staff selects the best four competitors to represent Team Bahamas against the rest of the world with a chance to qualify for the World Championships by just simply getting into the final.

“I feel as though we can win it if they just pick the right people and place them in the right order,” he insisted. “We are at home. Anything could happen.”

Pinder, a graduate of Tabernacle Baptist Academy before he went on to compete for Texas A&M, said it’s good to see his alma mater holding their own and he praised coach

Nikito Johnson and the others for the work they are doing with the athletes in Grand Bahama.

“I miss the high school days. I wasn’t always the best. I used to get tear up, but it was fun,” he reflected. “But now everything is business.”

Pinder last represented the Bahamas at a major competition in 2012 Olympic Games where he was a member of the men’s 4 x 400m relay team that picked up the gold medal after he finished seventh in the final of the 400m.

That same year, Pinder claimed a silver medal at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul in 45.34, just shy of his personal best of 44.33 that he clocked in College Station in 2011 in the indoor two-lap race.