The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHEN Team Bahamas heads to this year's Olympics, coach Henry Rolle said they are going to make every effort to ensure that all four relay teams are present at the Games in London, England.

Rolle, an assistant coach at Auburn University, has been given the responsibility of co-ordinating the relay coaching staff that will include Dianne Woodside, David Charlton and Tyrone Burrows.

Yesterday, Rolle said he included University of Georgia's assistant coach George Cleare to the coaching squad, which he feels will certainly enhance their quest to select the best teams possible.

"The priority is to try to qualify as much teams as we can, which we are trying to qualify all four," Rolle said. "We have to be on the top 16 in the world. I think that's very possible based on the talent that we have.

"One of the key things that I've been trying to do, along with the other members of the relay pool staff, is to try and eliminate getting to London and worrying about what type of shape our relay team is in."

If the coaching staff can assemble the teams a few times before London, Rolle said the Bahamas will be in a much better position to compete for a medal.

"After the trials (BAAA National Championships in June), we will be in a much better position and the BAAA and the Bahamas Olympic Association will be pleased with the efforts of the team," he said.

The coaching staff intends to assemble the teams to compete at the Penn Relays in Pennsylvania where the Bahamas has already secured an invitation to compete in both the men and women's 4 x 100 and men's 4 x 400 relays.

Rolle, however, said they are working on trying to secure a spot for a women's 4 x 400 team, which will need to run three minutes and 30 seconds or faster - an average leg of 53 seconds.

The first step for teams will be a relay camp, which will serve as a tune-up for the Penn Relays, set to be held in Auburn over the weekend of April 21.

"What we will do is try to identify those men and women who are available and look at who has competed already," he said. "You want to try to use people who have competed already to give yourself a fair share of being able to run very fast."

Without naming any athlete in particular, Rolle said there are two juniors who are both running exceptionally well.

And when they are added to the field of elite sprinters, he said, the women's 4 x 100 should be poised to make a good showing this year.

"We're not going to force anything on anybody," he said. "It's going to be something that they want to do and I think if they come with an open mind and be objective, I think they will do very well."

As for the men's 4 x 100 team, Rolle said the opportunities are just as optimistic, considering the fact that they have an outstanding junior male to add to the mix of the veteran sprinters.

Rolle said the men's 4 x 4 team should be solid again with a cadre of quarter-milers to work with. But he said fielding a women's 4 x 4 team will be a challenge.

"I don't want to come out and signal out anybody," he said. "We're just going to see who is available and who is open- minded to representing the country in that capacity. But if we find that it's not viable for us to field a women's 4 x 4 relay team, we won't go with it.

"We don't just want to put four women on the track and call it a national team. We want something that the Bahamas will be proud to see out there."

When asked about the issue the teams have had in the past with regard to not assembling the best quartet on the track, Rolle said the Bahamas can be assured that the coaching staff will look at correcting that mistake.

"We're going to put the best four on the track that is available," he said. "If you are healthy and you are in the relay pool, we will run the best four. It's going to be where the best four is available, but more importantly where they all want to do it. This is just to get the relay teams to qualify for the Olympics. Then they will be turned over to the BAAA when they select the official coaches for the Olympics."

With his hands full working with a diversified group of athletes from the US, Bahamas and Caribbean, Rolle said he hopes to be more of an advisor and has no desire to be an Olympic coach.

"I hope to be more of an advisor than a coach. I have no desire to be an Olympic coach," said Rolle, who noted that he's committed to getting the relay teams ready for the games.

"It's a great honour, but because of the amount of individuals I'm involved in at the level that they are involved in, I need to be more readily available for them at the Olympic Games than anything else."