The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT was a domino effect as Jacobi Bain set the pace, breaking William ‘JJ’ Fountain’s nine-year-old record for the most consistent rally in the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association.

But after Bain lowered the mark from 586 to 633 on Saturday at the National Tennis Centre, Iesha Shepherd took the record to 1,045 before Trenton Fowler pushed it to 1,544.

By the time the first round was completed, Kayla Frost had extended the mark to 1,568.

“I didn’t expect it. I didn’t think I would be on the court for that long,” said Frost, a 17-year-old student at St Andrew’s School. “It was so hot and I was only using my forehand and now it’s red.

“I was only trying to get as much as the first record. When I got that and I saw Iesha came off the court, I wanted to beat her mark and when the others came off, I wanted to beat them too, I just tried to go as long as I could.”

Larry Rolle, hitting for Frost, said he couldn’t ask for a better performance.

“That was perfect,” he said. “She was focused, but she’s the total package. She’s disciplined and mature. She has a personality and a sense of humour, but I had a lot to do with it too.”

When it was Fowler’s turn on the court, the smallest player in the historic feat looked like the “energiser bunny” as he just kept going and going working with one hitter after the other, including former players John Antonas and Leo Rolle and immediate past BLTA president Derron Donaldson.

“It felt good, but I wasn’t aiming for that. I was aiming for 200 and I barely thought I could get 200, But when I got 500, my goal was 800 and when I got 800, I wanted to go for 1,000,” said the 13-year-old student from Queen’s College.

“When I got 1,000, I just wanted to go for as long as I could go. But my fingers started to hurt and I lost my balance and the ball hit into the net. But I enjoyed it. It was a good experience. I like how I was consistent with the ball and the coaches were trying to keep the ball in play.”

Shepherd, the double national champion in the girls’ 16 and 18 singles, said she got tired too.

“All my fingers started to cramp up when I reached 1,000. I was trying to work through it, but we just decided to keep the ball in play,” said Shepherd, a 15-year-old student of Queen’s College. “We just wanted to keep the ball in play, no matter what speed we did it. It was a lot of fun.”

Bain, getting the ball rolling, said he got a little tight when he reached the 500 mark and that resulted in him not being able to go any further.

“I felt I could have gone a little longer, but my (right) arm gave up,” said the 11-year-old student of St Anne’s School. “When I hit the ball out, it really didn’t matter. I just tried to keep the ball in play.”

Bain got some help from Justin Roberts, who is coming off a sensational year that has enabled him to qualify for the Junior Olympic Games.

“It was fun. Before we started, the goal was to get the record. We wanted to beat that,” Roberts said. “As we went on, we had a lot of fun trying to keep the ball in play for as long as we could.”

As he watched his record of 586 tumble that he set when he was 14 when the last Tennis-A-Thon was held, he said he was impressed with what he saw from Bain.

“I hope he can get to hit his second ball because I know he could take it even further, maybe up to 1,000,” said Fountain, who didn’t realise that there were others who followed and pushed it over 1,000.

Also among those on hand to assist the tournament director was former tennis touring pro Mark Knowles.

“When Kim contacted me, I jumped at the idea,” Knowles said. “I think Kim is really taking a pivotal role in trying to get tennis back and the best way to do it is by getting the juniors more involved.

“Having been a product of that growing up and missing that type of atmosphere, I was glad to be a part of this because I knew what it is like to see a lot of children playing tennis and a lot of coaches giving their time. We have a lot of talent and a great youth and tennis is a good way to get them involved.”

Cartwright said they had a good cocktail party the night before and that momentum spilt over to the tournament. But she said she didn’t envision having the kind of success that was achieved.

“We have about five people who surpassed the record,” she said. “But to have over 1,500 hits is amazing. I did not expect this, but just the level of concentration to keep the ball going that long is amazing. If they can transfer this over to their matches, they will be so much better.”

From their efforts through a sponsor they secured, each player will earn 40 per cent that will go towards their tennis development and travel to tennis tournaments, while the coach will earn 20 per cent and the BLTA will receive the remaining 40 per cent.