The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

SHE was the second Bahamian to win the Austin Sealy Award for the most outstanding athlete since the inception of the Carifta Games in 1977. But Lavern Eve’s back-to-back triumph of the coveted individual award in 1982 and 1983 was the first to be duplicated by a Bahamian until sprinter Anthonique Strachan’s accomplishment over the past two years.

Eve, who made it through four games from 1982-1984, was the only athlete in the history of the games to win three individual events on the field, taking the shot put, discus and her specialty in the javelin. The other field competitor to win it twice was Kareem Streete-Thompson of the Cayman Islands in 1989 and 1990.

For Eve, she clearly remembers when she earned her first award in Kingston, Jamaica, before she repeated in Martinique the following year.

“I was happy, excited that I won it, but at the same time, I really didn’t know the magnitude or how big it was at that time,” Eve said. “It was great that I won the most outstanding athlete award. It was great.”

But after tasting the thrill of victory the first year, Eve said she was even more surprised when she repeated the following year.

“It was great. When I went into the meet, I wasn’t thinking about winning the Austin Sealy award,” she said. “I had never thought about it once, about winning the Austin Sealy for the second time. It happened again, I was like wow, it happened again. When I sit down and look at it now, I never realised that as a junior athlete, I won it. I just won it and it was fine.”

Eve, the most decorated field athlete at the games, followed in the footsteps of sprinter Maryann Higgs, who paved the way as the first Austin Sealy winner the second year that it was established in 1978 when the games was held in the Bahamas for the second time.

Right on the heels of Eve, quartermiler Pauline Davis-Thompson picked up her first and only Austin Sealy award in 1984 in Nassau. The next athlete to achieve the feat was sprinter Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie in 1995 in Georgetown, Cayman Islands. Then it wasn’t until Strachan posted her double feat in 2011 in Montago Bay, Jamaica, and last year in Hamilton, Bermuda.

“When I look at it, those two years were very special for me because I don’t think that there was any athlete on the field or the track that won three individual events,” Eve said. “I never realised it. I never thought about it. I just went out to win my events. I just wanted to win three gold medals.

“Maybe in hindsight, if I was really thinking about it, I might have gone out and tried to win it three years in a row. But I’m very grateful and thankful for the opportunity to first represent my country and secondly to do it in the fashion that I did as a two-time Austin Sealy winner.”

Eve, by the way, lost out to Davis-Thompson for a chance to three-peat.

For the 70 members who will carry the Bahamian flag at the games this weekend, Eve encouraged them to just go out and give it their best shot.

“You at home, you have the fans in the stands, you have people coming out to watch you compete,” she said. “Instead of hearing about you or hearing about you, they can now see you in action, so it’s something to be proud of. I just feel they should be very proud to be competing for the Bahamas.

“I would encourage them to just take it all in and enjoy the moment.”

Having just returned home from her training in the United States, Eve said she’s not as familiar with all of the athletes on the team, but from what she heard, she’s expecting some great things from all of them.

“I know we faced a lot of obstacles this year because we really haven’t had that much time to train or compete in the new stadium,” she said. “The field event competitors, I know, didn’t have as much time as the track people, but I think they are going to be great because a lot of people don’t know how the field events goes and they don’t follow it as much as they do the track events.

“In the track world, you get to see everybody lined up and you get to see who comes first, second or third. But in the field events, we just need to educate people more about the field events, especially the throwing events.”

And with the games being held in the new stadium, Eve said the athletes should be even more motivated because “it’s new, it’s beautiful.”

“I think they will get too hyped up once they step in there and they see the Bahamian crowd with the flag waving. When you are on home turf, your level of competition steps up a notch or two. So it’s going to be very exciting. I think those kids will do great.”

At the age of 47 - with her 48th birthday coming on June 15 - Eve is completing retirement from her long and illustrious career that spanned from 1980 to 2011 when she got fifth in the javelin at the Central American and Caribbean Championship in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and 9th at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“My knees for one, because of the two surgeries, I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself to compete again,” she said. “I haven’t sat down and talked to Mr (Keith) Parker (her local coach), who feels we should wait until after the Carifta Games to get some throws in.

“But I don’t know. I just don’t want any more surgeries because my knees are not in the best shape. They are fine. But to do that kind of training again, it’s not going to do that good for my knees.”

Eve, who has been working with Parker in a talent search programme for the BAAA, has been named as an assistant coach for the Carifta team. But she said if it was up to her, she would prefer to allow one of the coaches, like Dawn Johnson, who has been working in the trenches, to get the nod ahead of her.