The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BASED on the performances seen over the last few weeks since he got his assignment, coach Henry Rolle said he's excited about the Bahamas' appearance at the Penn Relays this weekend.

Rolle, an assistant coach at Auburn University, has been put in charge of a coaching staff that will assemble teams in the women's 4 x 100 meters and both the men's 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

The teams are slated to compete Saturday to get one of the top 16 rankings in the world in order to be eligible to compete at the 2012 London Olympics in August.

"Warren Fraser has ran really well at the ACC Championships so that really puts us in a better situation now using him," said Rolle about Fraser's fourth place finish in 10.40 seconds over the weekend.

"He was always on the team but his performance now makes us stronger. He will run with Michael Mathieu, Johnathan Farquharson, Jamial Rolle and Derrick Atkins."

As for the women's 4 x 100 team, they will be made up of Chandra Sturrup, Nivea Smith, Sheniqua 'Q' Ferguson, Anthonique Strachan and Tynia Gather. V'Alonee Robinson will be an alternate.

"Chandra is nursing a slight injury but she will try to do what she can," Rolle said. "But we're excited about the team because all of the girls have been running very well."

The men's 4 x 400 team is expected to comprise Chris Brown, Demetruis Pinder, Michael Mathieu, Ramon Miller. The reserves are Latoy Williams, Andre Williams, Jeffery Gibson, Andretti Bain, Avard Moncur and La'Sean Pickstock.

"The men's 4 x 400 people have been running really well," Rolle said. "The only person that hasn't competed since indoors was Chris (Brown). But he's been there numerous times so I'm not concerned at all."

Going into the relays, Rolle said he's looking for the women's 4 x 1 to run faster than 43.2, the men's 4 x 1 to do better than 39 seconds and the men's 4 x 4 to run below three minutes.

"If they can do those times that will be great for us out of the gate," Rolle said.

While the 4 x 1 teams are expected to arrive in Philadelphia by today, Rolle said the coaching staff will have an opportunity to view them in a practice on Friday before they assemble the running order for Saturday's races.

The men's 4 x 4 team are due in Philadelphia by Friday but there's no practice scheduled. He said he just expects for them to show up and compete. "It's just a matter of order that we will run," said Rolle, who indicated that he would prefer to wait until he consults with the other coaches before revealing the names.

Joining Rolle on the coaching staff are Dianne Woodside, David Charlton, Tyrone Burrows and George Cleare, an assistant coach at the University of Georgia.