The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE waiting until the eleventh hour, the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations has secured the necessary funding to enable the team to travel to the IAAF World Championships in Athletics.

On Sunday and Monday, the contingent of 38, including 25 athletes and 13 officials, left from various destinations in the Bahamas, United States and Europe en route to Moscow, Russia, in time to make final preparations for the championships slated for August 10-18.

“On Friday, we had all of the tickets purchased. Those who were in Europe got their tickets earlier,” said team manager Ralf McKinney. “We got the other tickets after we got some help from the Zonta Club, Diamonds International and the Caribbean Bottling Company - Coca-Cola.”

Female athletes representing the Bahamas are Sheniqua ‘Q’ Ferguson, Cache Armbrister, Anthonique Strachan, Nivea Smith, Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, Shaunae Miller, Bianca Stuart, Shekietha Henfield, Miriam Byfield, Lanece Clarke and Cortrell Martin.

The male competitoes are Ryan Ingraham, Donald Thomas, Jeffery Gibson, Michael Mathieu, Adrian Griffith, Jamial Rolle, Shavez Hart, Chris Brown, Ramon Miller, Latoy Williams, Wesley Neymour, O’Jay Ferguson and Warren Fraser.

Originally, McKinney said the BAAA was trying to secure a bank overdraft, which would have taken care of their expenses for the entire team. But he noted that they were unable to finalise the deal before the holiday break. “We will have to travel with not having enough money on hand,” he said. “We will just have to make do with what we have, It’s not the first time that we find ourselves in this position and it won’t be the last time, unless we can find some other means in raising funds long before we travel.”

One of the problems the BAAA encountered this year was waiting for the passports from the athletes to have them sent off for the Russian visas. The passports, according to McKinney, had to go to Cuba to be processed. “I spent three days in Cuba having them processed,” he said. “Once I got back here, I had to send the passports off to those persons who are not in Nassau. So it was a tough push to get everybody sorted out. We had to wait because the majority of the athletes competed in the Senior Central American and Caribbean Championships and so we had to wait until they came back. Then we had a few athletes who were competing on the European circuit and we had to wait until they were finished.”

McKinney said the travel agents worked diligently with the BAAA to ensure that the cost of the tickets didn’t exceed too much over the $2,100 they had bargained for, so they were quite pleased with that aspect. Team Bahamas is scheduled to arrive in Moscow today and will have the next three days to get acclimatised before the championship opens on Saturday. “That part is over. Now we just have to get everybody settled into the games village once we get into Moscow,” McKinney said.

McKinney will be assisted by Mabelene Miller. The technical leader is Frank Rahming. The team officials are Drumeco Archer, Philippa Arnett-Willie, Michael Sands and Phillip Clausen. The coaching staff are head coach George Cleare, assisted by Fritz Grant, Tyrone Burrows and James Rolle. The medical team members are Keir Miller and Khalid Hanna.