The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT’S been a whirlwind for sports since the Bahamas gained its independence in 1973.

Forty years later, the Bahamas has seen the transformation of sports into an era that has been catapulted by a series of activities on and off the playing field that drew its share of attention on the world stage.

The Bahamas’ flag has been hoisted high and the lines of the national anthem played throughout so many arenas because of the remarkable achievements of our athletes and executives in just about every sporting discipline that we’ve had some representation.

At the highest level of competition at the four-yearly Olympic Games, the Bahamas has achieved its share of success, winning a total of 20 medals in the post-Sir Durward ‘Sea Wolf’ Knowles era when he teamed up with Sloane Farrington for the bronze in the star class of sailing in Melbourne, Australia in 1956 and the gold in Toyko, Japan in 1964 with Cecil Cooke.

Frank Rutherford has been inked as the first track and field athlete to ascend the podium with his bronze medal in the men’s triple jump in Barcelona, Spain in 1992.

His performance led to the Bahamas capturing at least one medal in each Olympiad since, including the first gold medal by Pauline Davis-Thompson in the women’s 200m before she joined the Golden Girls team of Sevatheda Fynes, Chandra Sturrup, Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie and Eldece Clarke in the women’s 4 x 100 metre relay.

The Bahamas flag is still flying high after the ‘Golden Knights’ men’s 4 x 400 metre relay team stunned the United States of America to help bring the curtains down on a dramatic global meet in 2013 when Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller cemented their place in history with another gold medal.

Also at those same games, Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace continued her spectacular splash in the pool when she became the first Bahamian to advance to the final in her specialty in the women’s 50 metres, following her historic appearance in the final at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai, China the year before.

Perhaps the most glaring performance came from Oswald ‘Elisha Obed’ Ferguson, who captured the Bahamas first and only world boxing title when on November 13, 1975, he defeated the reigning world champion in

the junior middleweight category to become the World Boxing Council’s Junior Middleweight Champion of the World.

After enduring eleven gruelling rounds, and displaying the utmost skill and courage, Obed, that night, defeated Miguel de Olivera of Brazil, to become the first Bahamian to win a World Title in boxing and the first Bahamian to win such a title in an Independent Bahamas.

Another historic feat for the Bahamas came in 1993 at the Olde Providence Racquet Club in Charlotte, North Carolina where the men’s Davis Cup team of Mark Knowles, Roger Smith and John Farrington, captained by John Antonas, fell three matches shy of upsetting the United States led Andre Agassi in the qualifying round of the World Group of the Davis Cup tie.

Knowles, however, would go on to create a niche for himself by being ranked as high as number one in the world in doubles on the ATP circuit in 2002 and he added 55 titles, including all four Grand Slam

titles (albeit one coming in mixed doubles at the Australian Open with Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld) to his resume before he retired after a record 20-plus career on the tour.

In a less publicized sporting discipline, the Bahamas has had six Bahamians earned their professional status as a result of their performances at the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding and

Fitness Championships. The recipients are Charles Kemp, Joel Stubbs, Natasha Brown, Gena Mackey and James ‘Jay’ Darling. Stubbs has even held the distinction of possessing one of the biggest back as a bodybuilder in the world, as illustrated in a number of popular international magazines, including Muscles & Fitness and Flex.

And off the playing field, the Bahamas has had the distinction of having two Bahamians to sit on the executive board of the most prestigious track and field organization in the world – the International Amateur Athletic Federation. Alpheus ‘Hawk’ Finlayson

broke the ice in 1999 when he served as a council member. He was followed by Golden Girl Pauline Davis-Thompson, who got voted in the same position she is currently serving since 2007.

In another important electoral move, Sir Arlington Butler, who was regarded as the “Keeper of the Olympic flame,” was voted out of office in 2007 as president after serving since 1972, one year before

Independence.

The giant killer is Wellington Miller, who is now into his second consecutive term at the helm.