The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

LET’S give a hand to Chris “Fireman” Brown.

Not too many of our athletes have had the initiative to put their reputation on the line by stepping out of the box and putting on an event that attracts some of the top athletes in their sport to come to the Bahamas to compete.

Come to think of it, a number of individuals and organisations have staged various sporting events over the years, including Stanley Mitchell, who hosted the Bahamas Invitational around 2002 and Ty Olando in recent times with the Bahamas Open Tennis Tournament for women a year ago.

But there has been no one athlete other than Mark Knowles, who for the past 12 years at Atlantis on Paradise Island has done what Brown is trying to accomplish for the first time this weekend at the new Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium.

Knowles, now officially retired after more than 20 stellar years on the circuit, has brought a list of who’s who of professional tennis such as Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, James Blake, Bob and Mike Bryan, Jennifer Capriati, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Fred Stolle to his December Invitational.

At the end of the day, more than $750,000 has been donated to local charities such as the Sassoon Pediatric Heart Foundation, the Cancer Society, The Association of the Physically Disabled, The Boy Scouts of the Bahamas, the Special Olympics and scholarships for promising junior tennis players.

Like Knowles, Brown is starting his venture while he is still actively competing, which makes it even more significant for the national 400 metres record holder, who instead of anchoring, led the Bahamas men’s 4 x 400 metre relay team to a stunning gold medal performance over the United States at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England.

Brown, who at age 34, could taken the decision to continue to concentrate fully on his pursuit of his first individual medal at the upcoming IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Russia, in August after he fell short once again at the Olympics in London.

But Brown should be commended for taking on such an awesome task of providing Bahamians a rare opportunity to see some of the top world class athletes like arch rivals LaShawn Merritt and Kirani James, sprinters Wallace Spearmon and Justin Gatlin and female competitors Veronica Campbell-Brown and Kelli White.

Of course, a host of Bahamian athletes including Brown’s mile relay team-mates Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller, along with Shamar Sands, Donald Thomas and Trevor Brown and female standout Christine Amertil are all expected to compete.

The stadium has already been christened by the BTC Carifta Games held over the Easter holiday weekend. So let’s hope that the National Sports Authority and the local organising committee will have learnt from the mistakes made and avoid some of the glitches that marred the top junior regional meet.

The stadium is indeed the envy of the region, as attested by many of the visiting delegates, coaches, athletes and media personnel who participated in the four-day meet. But there were so many little hitches that left a bitter-sweet taste in the mouths of many.

Like the Mark Knowles Invitational, the Chris Brown Invitational could become a staple event on the local and even international calendar. However, it will all depend on how well Brown and his crew can pull the initial one off.

Regardless, Brown must be given a lot of credit because of the tremendous sacrifice that he’s making, taking the time off from his training regimen to put the time into making the event a success.

The least we as a community could do is show our appreciation by showing up at the stadium in large numbers in the same type of patriotic display that was evident during the return of the Carifta Games here for the first time since 2002.

Surprisingly, during that space of time, Brown, who was a double bronze medallist in the 400 and 800 at the 1997 Carifta in Bridgetown, Barbados, has carried the Bahamian flag as a top notch competitor on the international scene.

Now he’s bringing the world to our shores.

So let’s come out and wave the flag high in the stadium on Saturday - even if it’s just to show our gratitude for Brown and his noble gesture of putting on an historic event.

BOC ELECTIONS

With the membership going to the polls tonight to elect a new executive team, it seems as if they will be in the right place at the Police Headquarters just in case there is any dispute that comes up and needs urgent intervention.

If you remember, the BOC had to postpone the elections last year because they couldn’t decide whether or not executives should be allowed to vote for themselves. The matter had to go to the International Olympic Committee before a final decision was made.

And even now that they have the green light, it would appear that there could be some fireworks erupting tonight as some members have indicated that they are not pleased with the treasurer’s report not being an audited one.

As the most influential sporting body in the country, there’s more interest being expressed for positions than ever before and it’s not just from the core sports, but just about every discipline associated is looking for some type of representation.

The only issue that I have is that I don’t think that as a president of any of the sporting organisations, it’s hard to be impartial to the others if you are serving as the president, secretary general or treasurer of the BOC.

There’s no doubt that your priority will be on the initial organisation that you serve. We just have to wait and see how tonight’s election unfold - if they are held.

FOR THE RECORD

It should be noted that while Glenroy “Flo” Saunders has been credited as the first Bahamian to roll a 300 game in bowling, he was actually not the first.

According to the reports, Larry D’Albenas bowled the first 300 game during a league at the Palmdale Lanes somewhere around 1971. But it has been noted that the lanes were not officially sanctioned.

The Village Bowling Lanes, which came on stream afterwards, was also not sanctioned.

Saunders’ feat came after D’Albenas, but it was done in Grand Bahama where the lanes were sanctioned. As a result, Saunders performance was officially listed as the first.

It’s certainly not fair to D’Albenas, but whether or not it’s recorded, at least he and those in attendance know that he was the first to roll the 300 game. That’s something that nobody can take away from him.