The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

SO it was all business once again for the Jamaicans.

The 69-member team came and, after another spirited performance over the Easter holiday weekend, left the Bahamas with their 29th straight victory with a total of 69 medals - 29 gold, 25 silver and 15 bronze. Not bad, considering that their tally should have been 75 medals.

But two events were not included as the Carifta rules state that any event with less than three athletes would be classed as an “exhibition,” while another rule stated “events which may be excluded from this count did not meet the Carifta standard of having a minimum of five athletes from three different countries.”

The events affected were the under-20 boys’ pole vault, the under-17 girls’ 100 metre hurdles and the under-20 girls’ 3,000m.

The only thing the Jamaicans didn’t do was prevail in the sprints in both the under-20 girls and boys divisions.

Team Bahamas, which followed in the medal haul with 31 (eight gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze), rallied behind the home crowd at the new Thomas A Robinson Stadium and completed a sweep of the titles in the under-20 girls’ 100m (Devynne Charlton), 200 and 400 (Shaunae Miller).

The men’s division had a mixture with Anguilla’s Zharnel Hughes taking the century, Bahamian Teray Smith storming back to pull off the half-lap and Trinidad & Tobago’s Mark London breezing through in the quarter-mile race. London even went on to post a rare double triumph in the 800.

London’s achievement was only shortened for outstanding consideration because of Miller’s record-breaking accomplishment in the 200 as she went on to secure the Austin Sealy Award as the most outstanding athlete of the games as she also clinched a third gold on the third leg of the women’s 4 x 100 relay team.

While it is the third consecutive year that the Bahamas has earned the award - following on the back-to-back crowning of Anthonique Strachan in 2011 in Montago Bay, Jamaica and 2012 in Hamilton, Bermuda - Miller completed her appearance at the top junior regional meet by joining an elite list of competitors to hold the distinction.

The others prior to Strachan were Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie in 1995 in Georgetown, Cayman Islands, Pauline Davis-Thompson in 1984 in New Providence, Lavern Eve in 1983 in Fort-de-France, Martinique and 1982 in Jamaica respectively and Mary Ann Higgs in 1978 in Nassau.

This marked the seventh time that the Bahamas has hosted the games, tied with both Jamaica and Barbados. And, while the mechanism for the games has already been established, putting it on in the new stadium proved to be a lot more of a challenge for the local organising committee.

Ticketing, accreditation, internet connection and media services, including a proper tribune and working room, were some of the highlights that marred what was otherwise a successful games. It just shows the kind of respect that is given to the media on the international scene.

I’m sure that based on what they experienced, the local organising committee, Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and the National Sports Authority will have a candid look at all of the glitches and hitches that surfaced as they move forward, not only with the hosting of the Chris Brown Invitational next Saturday, but the big soccer match between the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club and the Jamaican national team (Reggae Boyz) on May 23.

We have a fabulous facility, but there is still a lot of infrastructure that has to be developed.

As for Team Bahamas’ performance, competing at home, I personally felt that we could have structured the team in a better way to combat Jamaica.

How is it that we both had the same amount of athletes and Jamaica was able to field competitors in just about every event, in some cases two each? There were a number of events where the Bahamas was not represented.

Does it mean that we have to take a different look at the manner in which we assemble our team? Maybe, just maybe, we need to re-evaluate our programme and put more emphasis on the events that we either fell short in or didn’t compete in.

The games are headed to the French island of Martinique and during the Congress at the games over the weekend, there were some major changes made through a voting process of 11-8 that will take effect then.

The number of athletes per country has been increased from 70 to 80 while the age limit of participants has been raised from under-17 to under-18, similar to the Central America and Caribbean (CAC) Championships.

This means that each country, particularly the Bahamas and Jamaica, should have an opportunity to submit a total of two athletes per event. In the case of the former, this will provide a chance for those athletes who are on the borderline of the qualification standards to be given a second look at making the team.

Other changes for next year have also been made to the shot put, discus, javelin and sprint hurdles.

In the boys’ under-20 at Carifta Games, 16-year-old athletes (17-year-old in the same year of competition) are asked to throw 1.75k discus, 6k shot put, 800g javelin and 0.99m/110m hurdles.

At CAC, World Youth the following are used: 1.50k discus, 5k shot put, 700g javelin, 0.91 110m hurdles.

The 300m hurdles has been changed to the 400m hurdles and the girls’ pentathlon has changed to heptathlon, while the boys’ heptathlon has been altered to octathlon. These are all in keeping with the standard of other international junior meets around the world.

Minus all of the problems encountered from the start to the finish of the games, the Bahamas should once again be given high marks, especially when you look at the fact that the stadium went through its first major test of hosting such a prestigious event in the new stadium.

We just have to learn from our mistakes and hope that we don’t repeat them in the future.