The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

WHILE the country eagerly anticipates the performance of Team Bahamas at next month’s IAAF World Championships in Athletics, athletes continue to compete on the European circuit in preparation for the big event.

Three Bahamians appear on entry lists to compete this weekend at the next meet in the Diamond League series, the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games in London, England.

Ramon Miller is slated to compete in the 400 metres, Anthonique Strachan in the 200m and Bianca Stuart in the long jump.

Miller currently has two Diamond League points, tied for fourth place with American Tony McQuay.

Kirani James of Grenada leads the list with 10 points followed by American Lashawn Merrit with eight and Youssef Ahmed Masrahi with three.

James, Masrahi and McQuay are all expected to be in the field in England alongside Miller.

In the women’s 200m, Strachan comes with the fastest season’s best time of the field at 22.32 seconds.

Allyson Felix, LaShauntea Moore and Shalonda Solomon of the United States and Anneisha McLaughlin of Jamaica are all also expected to compete.

Felix has recorded a time of 22.36, Moore posted 22.40, Solomon at 22.41 and McLaughlin 22.58.

In the women’s long jump, Stuart has the fourth best leap entering the event with a season’s best of 6.77 metres.

Jenay Deloach Soukup of the United States heads the field at 6.99m.

Miller and Sheniqua Ferguson have been the most visible athletes recently on the circuit, competing in Madrid, Switzerland and Finland in recent weeks.

Donald Thomas also recently qualified for the IAAF World Championships after he achieved the A standard in the high jump at the Ernie Sims Track Invitational in Tallahassee, Florida.

At the Lahti Games in Finland, Miller set a new national record in the 300m, an odd distance event, with a time of 32.40.

Two weeks ago, at the Madrid IAAF World Challenge in Madrid, Spain, Miller, the reigning 400m national champion, won his signature event in 45.20.

Manteo Mitchell of the United States finished second in 45.25 and Arman Hall of the United States was third in 45.30.

Miller has recorded the ninth fastest 400m time on the IAAF top lists when he claimed the national championship in Freeport, Grand Bahama, in 44.93.

His time in Madrid was tied for 18th on the top list, giving him the top two times for Bahamian quartermilers for the season.

Also in Madrid, Ferguson took the women’s B 100m in 11.33, for a seventh place finish overall.

A trio of US sprinters dominated the event led by Barbara Pierre in 10.92, Shalonda Solomon second in a season’s best of 11.04 and Alex Anderson third in 11.07.

Racing at the European Athletics Classic meeting, Ferguson was the lone Bahamian in competition. She finished third in the 100m in 11.36 in the race won by Carrie Russell of Jamaica while Krasucki Franciela of Brazil was second in 11.29.

One of the events in the Diamond League, normally the the British Athletics London Grand Prix and now the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, will include discus, triple-jump and 3,000m steeplechase. 

There will also be the running of the trademark Emsley Carr Mile, which was founded in 1953 by the famed sports writer who encouraged the four-minute mile barrier to be broken in the United Kingdom.

The Diamond League is composed of 14 of the top ranked meets on the circuit, dispersed across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, and is made up of the top tier of the IAAF’s global one-day meeting competition structure.

It will be the first time a major international athletics meet returns to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on the anniversary of the 2012 London Games.

The meet will have two different segments in three days with Friday and Saturday featuring the Diamond League athletes in the British Athletics Grand Prix and Sunday will feature the Paralympic champions of 2012.