The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Caribbean has garnered a reputation as the sprint capital of the world and will have a major presence at the inaugural edition of the IAAF World Relays.

Caribbean countries make up 12 of more than 40 member federations scheduled to compete in this weekend’s meet at the Thomas A Robinson stadium.

The 12 teams include the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and the US Virgin Islands.

The Caribbean contingent will include 146 athletes (92 men and 54 women, according to the latest IAAF entry list published on Monday, May 19.

Caribbean athletes will figure prominently in the traditional sprint relays - 4x100m, 4x200m, and 4x400m, while the Bermudan men, along with the Jamaican and Trinidadian women, will contest the 4x800m.

Jamaica’s 39-member team is second in size only to the United States and is expected to contend in a number of events, even without the services of an injured Usain Bolt.

Led by Olympic medallists Warren Weir and Yohan Blake, who teamed with Kenroy Anderson and Michael Frater, Jamaica’s Racers Track Club leads the Caribbean on the IAAF top lists in the 4x100m with a time of 38.41s.

In the men’s 4x400m, the Bahamas’ Golden Knights head the Caribbean and are listed as No.3 overall on the IAAF top list. In April, the team of Michael Mathieu, Demetrius Pinder, Chris Brown and Ramon Miller ran 3:00.78s at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Team Trinidad & Tobago will field a star-studded team as well led by Olympic medallist Richard Thompson and Keston Bledman.

In the 4x400m, they will feature four quartermilers among the top 25 on the IAAF top lists - Deon Londre (44.90s), Lalonde Gordon (44.91s) Machel Cedenio (45.23) and Renny Quow (45.36s).

Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos will lead the Dominican Republic’s charge in the 4x400m, with the second fastest 400m time this season, 44.53s. Only American Lashawn Merrit has run faster this season.

In the rarely run 4x200m, Jamaica leads the men’s field thus far this year and features four athletes who have broken the 20-second barrier on the season in Blake, Weir, Nickel Ashmeade and Jason Young.

On the women’s side, Jamaican teams lead the top lists for the Caribbean in each of the three sprint relays. At the Penn Relays, the team of Carrie Russell, Kerron Stewart, Anneisha McLaughlin and Thrisha-Ann Hawthorne stopped the clock at 42.81s, the fastest time in the world this season.

Hawthorne was the only member of the quartet not named to the World Relays team.

The women’s 4x200m should present a number of interesting match-ups within the region as both the Bahamas and Jamaica can field teams with at least three runners that have broken the 23-second barrier this season.

Anthonique Strachan (22.59s) and Sheniqua Ferguson (22.97s) will lead the relay pool for the Bahamas while team Jamaica boasts Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (22.53s), Anneisha McLaughlin (22.72s) and Samantha Henry-Robinson (22.85s).

In the women’s 4x400m, Jamaica expects to contend with four athletes among the top 15 on the season’s top lists - Novlene Williams-Mills (50.26s), Stephanie Ann-McPherson (50.54s), Kaliese Spencer (51s) and Christine Day (51.42s).

In the middle distance relays, Aaron Evans will lead Bermuda in the men’s 4x800m while Natoya Goule leads team Jamaica among the women.

Both athletes are the only members of the English-speaking Caribbean on the IAAF top lists in the individual event.

During one of the IAAF’s many site visits to the Bahamas, Essar Gabriel, the secretary general, called the Caribbean, and the Bahamas in particular, a “land of relays,” one of the determining factors in the decision to make the country hosts of the first two editions of the event in 2014 and 2015.

“This is a land of relays, this is a land of champions and this is a land of athletics,” he said. “We are in pioneering times. When you look back at where many of these events started there is always an act of faith. That’s where we are now as an organisation and we are trying to get together on that course with the Bahamas and this event. There was also a strong wave put forward by government teaming up with the BAAAs.”

IAAF council member Alberto Juantorena-Danger, who was a voting member in the selection process, said he was impressed with how engaged the Bahamas was in their role as hosts.

The Cuban former Olympic champion in both the 400m and 800m, from the perspective of a former athlete, heralded the Bahamas’ success on the track and the commitment toward the event at the administrative level.

“What put the Bahamas over the top was their results on the track. Team Bahamas has always, always performed well at this stage and especially in relays. The legacy, the tradition,” he said. “From the top, the Prime Minister to the people, the support the country has shown has been fantastic. That is why we are here and so happy and so committed to work with the beautiful and wonderful people here in the Bahamas.”