The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

LONDON, England — Team Bahamas will line up in lane nine in the first of two heats in the women’s 4 x 100 metre relay today in a bid to get into Friday night’s final.

But women’s head coach Dianne Woodside said they’re still not yetready to reveal who will run.

“We have to really, really wait until we see how Debbie (Ferguson-McKenzie) and Chandra (Sturrup) are really feeling,” she said. “Then we will determine how we will run the team. We’ve gone through many, many combinations of persons on different legs, but it will all depend on how those two girls feel. That’s the reality.”

Ferguson-McKenzie, 38, is coming off two sluggish performances in the first round of both the women’s 100 and 200 metres where she failed to advance to the final. Sturrup, the oldest member of the team at 40, didn’t compete in any event, but like Ferguson-McKenzie, she’s nursing a slight injury.

The other members of the team include Sheniqua ‘Q’ Ferguson and Anthonique Strachan, who made it to the semifinal of the 100 and 200 respectively before they too were eliminated. Also in the relay pool, but didn’t compete in any individual event are Christine Amertil, V’Alonee Robinson and Aymara Jones.

While the Bahamas has drawn lane nine, the United States will be coming out in lane nine, followed by Nigeria (in three), Trinidad & Tobago (four), Japan (five), Switzerland (six), Brazil (seven) and the Netherlands (eight).

In the second heat are Poland in two, Belarus (three), Ukraine (four), Colombia (five), Jamiaca (six), Russia (seven), France (eight) and Germany (nine).

The top four teams in each heat will advance to Friday’s final.

“I think we have better foot speed than most countries,” Woodside said. “But it’s all about getting the exchanges down packed and that is what we’ve been working on for the past two weeks or so. Debbie and Chandra are the main ones, so it depends on how they feel.

“But the other girls are good. They’re ready to go. They’re anxious to see who is going to run. All of them are ready. What’s good about this is the Olympic committee has allowed us and all countries who have asked the same question to be very open. They haven’t limited us to six persons. We have to just put in the first four persons in the running order a hour before the event and then we can substitute two as always, according to the IAAF rules.”

As a result of not having any limitations, Woodside said the coaching staff that included relay coordinator Henry Rolle didn’t have to eliminate any athlete from the relay pool as they had originally thought they would have.

“So everybody is now available and able to to run at any moment, all seven of them,” she said. “We have seven women ready to run. They are excited because our medal hopes are diminishing. So hopefully they can get into the final and we can be in a position just like the men’s 4 x 4 and Leevan Sands in the triple jump to win a medal.”

The Bahamas has not won a medal since the ‘Golden Girls’ team of Eldece Clarke-Lewis, Sevatheda Fynes, Chandra Sturrup, Pauline Davis-Thompson and Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie carted off the gold at the 2000 Olympiad in Sydney, Australia, improving on the silver the same team clinched in Atlanta, Georgia at the 1996 Olympiad and the gold in 1999 in Seville, Spain at the IAAF World Championships.

There have been several attempts at other meets to get the Bahamas back on the podium, the latest coming at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea where Nivea Smith and Anthonique Strachan collided on the second exchange. A bruised Strachan got up and still passed the baton on to Ferguson-McKenzie, but the Bahamas failed to advance to the final. Sheniqua Ferguson ran the first leg.