The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

LONDON, England — With all of the hard work done, coach David Charlton said he has just been monitoring the progress of the male athletes as they prepare to compete in the 2012 Olympic Games.

Charlton, however, had to monitor a run off for the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay team on Wednesday. Unfortunately, only two of the seven athletes participated with veteran medallist Avard Moncur holding off newcomer Wesley Neymour.

The run off was also supposed to include Grand Bahamian Andrae Williams. But Williams didn’t show up. “Everything is now falling into place,” Charlton said. “The run off was to get a look at the athletes who are not competing in an individual event. I’m very confident that based on what I saw, we will do very well when we put the team together.”

The remaining four athletes being considered were exempted from competing as national champion Demetrius Pinder from Grand Bahama, runner up Ramon Miller and veteran Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown are all preparing for the men’s 400 metres that will start on Saturday with the first round. Grand Bahamian Michael Mathieu is getting ready for the 200 that starts on Tuesday.

Charlton said now that the run off is over, he and relay coordinator Henry Rolle will decide on who will be the final six athletes who will be submitted for the relay pool by August 8. Once they have done that, he said they will meet with the athletes and come up with the best solution to putting the teams together to compete in both the heats and the final. “We can only run four and we can only take six into the relay pool, so certainly we will take everything into consideration when we put the team together,” he said.

The Bahamas was the reigning silver medallist in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The team comprised of Andretti Bain, Mathieu, Williams and Brown. Moncur and Miller were the alternates. The Bahamas is once again considered to be the top contenders to challenge the United States for the gold.

With all of the work done, Charlton said it’s only a matter of getting the athletes mentally prepared to compete.

“We’re just getting them fine tuned and making sure that all of the pistols are clicking,” he said. “I’m very fortunate to be working with a group of professionals. I’m a head coach of the men’s side of the team and all of them have conducted themselves like true professionals.”

As those competing individually, Charlton said he’s not going to put any pressure on the athletes, but he’s confident that they will all compete very well.

“In the training session that I’ve seen, Michael Mathieu, Ramon Miller, Chris Brown and Demetrius Pinder have been looking exceptionally well,” Charlton said. “So really and truly, they’re all looking very good.”

On Saturday, Derrick Atkins and Warren Fraser are expected to compete in the heats of the men’s 100. And according to Charlton, they too have had some great practice sessions and are eager to start competing.

Charlton said they have been utilising some new world class facilities and everything has been at the tip of their fingers, which has helped to get the athletes all prepared to compete at their best.