The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DEMETRIUS Pinder’s Olympic gold medal has been stolen in Florida.

The “Golden Knight” is now keeping his fingers crossed that the stolen 2012 Olympic Games men’s 4 x 400 metre relay gold medal, which he had dedicated to his deceased sister, will eventually surface with all of the media attention and support he’s getting from the Police Department in Bradenton, Florida.

Pinder, 24, woke up on Wednesday morning at the Springs at Palma Sola Apartments to find that his $45,000 24-carat gold medal attached to a purple neck band had gone missing from the console of his 2011 Dodge Ram 1500, although there were no signs of forced entry.

“It really felt bad. I always try to keep the medal with me,” Pinder told The Tribune in an interview yesterday.

“At first I thought I took it out, but I didn’t realise that it was missing until the next morning. That was when I realised that my wallet and also my iPad was missing.”

The Grand Bahama native, who is in Bradenton training with the IMG Academy under coach Loren Seagrave, said it’s not unusual to keep the medal with him. He said it had a lot of sentimental value for him because when he won it as a part of the Bahamas team of Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller in London, it was dedicated to his sister, Claudia, who had passed away while he was in a training camp prior to the start of the games.

“It was hard. Right now, I’m still disappointed that it’s gone, but I believe that it will somehow show up,” he said. “This is a really big place, but there’s too much attention being placed on it missing for anything to happen to it. I’m really surprised that they are giving it so much media attention over here. And the police are calling me every minute to find out if I heard anything.”

Pinder, who got the baton from Brown on the second leg, helped the Bahamas to beat the United States for the first time in 60 years in the relay event to snatch the country’s only medal at the games. Mathieu trailed on third and Miller ran a brilliant anchor leg as the team lowered the national record to two minutes and 56.72 seconds in their upset win over the USA (2:57.05). Trinidad & Tobago had to settle for the bronze in a national record as well (2:59.40).

“We put a lot of hard work into getting the medal,” said Pinder, who got injured competing at the inaugural Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational in April and didn’t compete anymore this year. “So I was really hurt when it went missing. I really hope that they can find it. I know the Police are trying to see if they can get a replacement for it, but there’s nothing like having the original thing.”

When contacted at his home in Atlanta, Georgia, Brown said he sympathies with Pinder on his loss.

“I had a chance to speak with Demetrius after it went missing,” Brown said. “He’s taking it very hard and I can understand. We worked very hard to get the medal and it was something that he had dedicated to his sister. So I can understand what he’s feeling right now.”

Brown, the Bahamian national record holder from Eleuthera, said he’s been concerned about losing his precious medals after the report of Golden Girl Pauline Davis-Thompson having had her western New Providence home broken into.

Stolen were her silver medal from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and gold medal from the 1999 World Championships as a member of the women’s 4 x 100m relay teams among other items, including flat screen televisions.

Her items have not yet been recovered.

“I have mine secured in a safe place,” Brown said. “I won’t say where, but they’re all in a safe place.”

In addition to running on the relay team, both Brown and Pinder also competed in the 400m final at the games where they were fourth (44.79) and seventh (44.98) respectively.