The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, adding to her glaring accomplishments as the most decorated swimmer ever, inked her name on the pages of The Tribune as the Bahamas’ most outstanding athlete for 2014.

Vanderpool-Wallace, 24, beat out a talented field of achievements by male athletes Antoan Richardson in baseball, Jeffery Gibson and Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown in athletics and Tureano ‘Reno’ Johnson in boxing, along with fellow female counterparts Waltiea Rolle in basketball, Shaunae Miller and Anthonique Strachan in athletics and Joanna Evans also in swimming.

Vanderpool-Wallace, now under the sponsorship of FINIS and competing for the Mecklenburg Aquatic Club (MAC) under the watchful eye of US Olympic coach David Marsh, had a momentous year that began with her gold-medal performance during the 2014 Grand Prix race series, winning the women’s 50m freestyle in Orlando and also capturing podium finishes in Austin for the 50m and 100m freestyle.

The former Auburn University standout who collected 18 NCAA All-American honours while at Auburn University, 10 SEC Championships and two NCAA National Championship crowns, just kept stacking up the accolades as she competed in one international meet after the other.

In preparation for her third trip to the Olympic Games (2008, 2012) in Rio de Janeiro, 2016, Vanderpool-Wallace clinched a spot in the final in every major international meet she competed in and won medals in all, but the FINA Short Course World Championships that ended her phenomenal year in Doha, Qatar.

The highlight of her year, no doubt, came at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico in November where Vanderpool-Wallace was just sensational, winning four of the six medals achieved by swimming as the sport took the spotlight over perennial athletics.

To put the icing on the cake as she celebrated her accomplishments, which also included a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland in July, Vanderpool-Wallace lowered her national records in every event she participated in this year. Not bad for the swimmer, who was head and shoulders above all of the other Bahamians who competed this year.

WALTIEA ROLLE

ANOTHER huge professional accomplishment came from Waltiea Rolle. After being drafted by the Minnesota Lynx in the third round a year ago, Rolle finally pursued her journey in the Women’s National Basketball Association. She was all set to make her debut on May 14 against the Washington Mystics when she released just a day before gametime.

Rolle, however, eventually suited up for the Seattle Storm, playing in their final six games, averaging 11 minutes with her best performance coming on August 15 against Los Angeles when she scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a 77-65 loss.

The six-foot, six-inch 24-year-old centre, who played in Europe in Bulgaria’s NBL League before she reported to the WNBA, was in China where she continues to hone her skills in her bid to return to the top women’s league in the world next year.

TUREANO JOHNSON

IN the boxing ring, Tureano Johnson outlasted American Mike Gavronski on July 11 at the Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton, Washington DC to clinch the vacant World Boxing Council’s Continental of Americas middleweight title.

Johnson, 30, came home and in his first fight of his young impressive pro career, knocked out Colombian Humberto Toledo at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium in the sixth round and his now preparing to defend his WBC title and fight for the vacant WBA International crown on January 9 in Madison Square Gardens against another Colombian, Alex Theran.

ANTOAN RICHARDSON

ON the flip side of the coin, the most outstanding performance from a male athlete came from Antoan Richardson, who after starring for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in the New York’s minor league organisation, the outfielder was called up to the Yankees major league team on September 2.

But it was on September 25 that Richardson got a pinch running role for Jose Pirela in the bottom of the ninth inning and he squeezed as much publicity out of it against the Baltimore Orioles. He ended up scoring the winning run on a walk-off single by Derek Jeter in Jeter’s final Yankee Stadium at-bat in his career.

Unfortunately, the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs and instead of remaining in New York, the Grand Bahamian eventually signed a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers on December 11 as he prepares for his third sting in the majors.

The first appearance for the former sprinter, who was able to utilise his speed on the base path on the diamond, came in 2011 with the Atlanta Braves when he recorded his first career hit with a single to right field off Los Angeles Dodges pitcher Clayton Kershaw on September 11.

WORTHY OF NOTE

AMONG the other performances of note, Chris Brown and Shaunae Miller got the ball rolling for the Bahamas when they claimed the silver and bronze respectively at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland, in March.

And at the Commonwealth Games, Jeffery Gibson was the only member of the athletic team to return from Glasgow with an individual medal around his neck after his record-breaking bronze in the men’s 400m hurdles to go along with the silver from the men’s 4 x 400m relay team of Andretti Bain, Alonzo Russell, Chris Brown, Latoy Williams and Michael Mathieu.

Anthonique Strachan, although injured for the majority of the season, was the lone athlete to represent the Bahamas as a member of the Americas Team at the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech, Morrocco, where she placed fourth in the women’s 200m.

There were so many other performances achieved this past year that deserve special recommendation, including the triumph of the Bahamas Swimming Federation’s team at the CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Aruba in April and the hosting of several major international events such as the inaugural IAAF World Relays in May and the historic Popeyes Bahamas Bowl collegiate football game last week.

Already, there’s a lot of excitement brewing as the future unfolds in 2015, one of which is the resolve of the two decade dispute between the Bahamas Baseball Association and the Bahamas Baseball Federation, just about two months before the death of longtime BBA president Jim Wood at the close of the year. Happy New Year.