The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

GLASGOW, Scotland — Manager Ralf McKinney said he was quite pleased with the performances of Team Bahamas in the athletic competition of the 20th Commonwealth Games.

A silver medal from the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay team of LaToy Williams, Michael Mathieu, Alonzo Russell and Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown, Jeffery Gibson won a bronze in the men’s 400m hurdles, breaking his own national record and the men’s 4 x 100m relay team of Adrian Griffith, Shavez Hart, Warren Fraser and Teray Smith also inked their names in the record books.

Not bad for a team that also saw the women’s 4 x 400m with Shaunae Miller running for the first time, advancing to the final of its first major international competition.

“When you look at the mix of youth and the more seasoned athletes, that made the difference,” McKinney said. “More than 3/4 of the team made it to the semi-final and half of them actually got into the final. So that was significant. Then, in the relays, we put four relays in the final. That is almost unheard of in any major international track and field event. With them going to the final, we got two national records to go along with that. That in itself is also significant.”

Looking at the 4 x 4 teams, McKinney said it is going to be imperative for the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations to send a full relay squad to the meets like these in the future where they can be like the other countries who are putting more priority on those events which we are accustomed to being strong in.

McKinney acknowledged the efforts of Miller, who ran in the heats of the women’s 4 x 100m team with Sheniqua ‘Q’ Ferguson, Krystal Bodie and Nivea Smith to get them into the final and then teamed up with Christine Ameril, Lanece Clarke and Miriam Byfield to run in the final on the women’s 4 x 4 relay team.

Miller was replaced by Katrina Seymour and Cache Armbrister came in for Bodie as the women’s 4 x 100 relay finished sixth in 44.25 and Miller replaced Shakeitha Henfield on the 4 x 4 as they came in seventh in 3:34.86.

“We went out there and gave it our best,” McKinney said. “It was a very good competition. This year’s Commonwealth Games has far surpassed any games held in terms of the amount of records that were broken, both nationally and for the games itself.”

McKinney said his only concern going forward and even as the BAAA prepares for the 15th IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, the 17th Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016 and the 21st Gold Coast City, Queensland, Australia, they need to improve on the relay squad.

“Despite what we had, I think the team still performed exceptionally well,” he said. We came close to winning a couple more medals, but that is something that we have to live with.”

McKinney admitted that there is always the next time to improve on those mistakes.