The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ON Tuesday, the CV Bethel Stingrays boys and girls and Queen’s College boys teams will get a chance to compete in the 3rd annual Toronto International Track and Field Games at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Centre.

The three teams will represent the Bahamas as they join Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago as they compete in the Scotiabank International High School 4 x 100 metre Relay Championships against high schools in Ontario, Canada and Michigan, USA.

Scotiabank’s senior manager of marketing and public relations Leah Davis said the sponsorship of the teams is a way of seeing their Scotiabank Bright Future programme in operation.

“We are providing opportunities for young Bahamian athletes to perform on the international platform,” said Davis as the bank gave the teams a send off on Thursday. “We are proud to be sending the best of the best from the Bahamas to represent us in Toronto.”

Kaz Flinn, Scotiabank’s vice president for corporate social responsibility, said they are excited to provide the support of the teams throughout the Caribbean and they are looking forward to their success.

“Through the Scotiabank Bright Future programme, we are committed to providing support to sports programmes in schools around the world because we believe youth can apply the same initiative, teamwork and leadership skills both on and off the field.”

The CV Bethel team, coached by Rupert Gardiner, will comprise of Cliff Resias, Devon Cox, Vernon Varence, Yurick Dean and Keano Ferguson in the boys division and sisters Monisha and Monicah Tilme, Danielle Fox, Iesha Lockhart and Angel Miller in the girls division.

They left on Saturday.

“I expect them to run fast because we’ve been having some light practices and they really look good,” Gardiner said. “They have been running together from last season, but we have changed the line-up a bit, so we just have to execute when we get into the meet and I know they will do well.

“I’m also appreciative to Scotiabank for giving our athletes an opportunity to compete in a meet like this in Canada. I think this will open their eyes to see what athletics can do for them, travelling and meeting people. I’m sure this will inspire them to do good in athletics and academics because if they don’t do the two together, they won’t be able to get into college.”

Resias, speaking on behalf of his team-mates, said he’s confident that they will be victorious. “We’re going there to put it down. We are looking for the gold,” he said. “I feel we have a very good chance of winning.”

Theotis Johnson, representing Queen’s College, said they are all thrilled to have been invited to compete in the meet.

“From our performance at the Penn Relays, we got the opportunity to compete, so we are real excited about that,” he said. “We want to come back with at least a medal because we know we can do it.

“I think this will be a good opportunity for us because we are in grade level and we know that there will be scouts out there looking at recruiting us, so it should be a good opportunity for us to go out there and show what we are capable of doing.”

Gary Markham will coach the Comets team that will comprise of Johnson, D’Mitri Charlton, Ian Kerr and Christoff Cornish. They are scheduled to leave town today.