The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

With four of the ‘Golden Girls’ in the stands watching with anticipation, the new crop of sprinters took another step to regaining international prominence in the women’s 4 x 100 metre relay.

The team of V’Alonee Robinson, Sheniqua ‘Q’ Ferguson, Tayla Carter and Anthonique Strachan failed in their bid to get into the final of the IAAF inaugural World Relays.

On Saturday, the quartet was third in the last of three heats in 43.54 seconds for the 10th best time overall on Saturday night at the

Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, dropping the Bahamas into the B final.

In the B final, Cache Armbrister replaced Carter on the third leg and the Bahamas ended up second in a season’s best of 43.46 behind the winning time of 43.33 by Canada. The United States set a championship record in 41.88 to snatch the title as Jamaica got second in their season’s best of 42.28.

“It was really good. It was kind of sad not making it to the final, but we still got into the B final and so we had to regroup and we came

out here to give it our best before the home crowd,” she said. “You never want to let them down. So there was no way we would come out here and not give it our best.”

On replacing Carter, Armbrister said she was just glad to have been given the opportunity by the coaching staff. “I know I can trust them and everybody was coming out here to give it 110 per cent, so it was good,” she said. “It would have been good to have been in the A race, but we did our best.”

And Robinson said her job was simply to get the team started. “I really wanted to give our team a push to get us a good start,” she said. “We dropped our time by a tenth of a second, so it was good to have a slight change in our lineup. It just shows what we are capable of doing.”

The quartet is still reeling over the success of the Golden Girls’ team of Sevatheda Fynes, Chandra Sturrup, Pauline Davis-Thompson, Debbie Ferguson and Eldece Clarke. All but Fynes were present after they were reintroduced to the public with other competitors who represented the Bahamas in previous IAAF World Indoor and Outdoor Championships during the opening ceremonies.

Fynes was the only member who didn’t make the trek home for the championships.

The Golden Girls are famed for winning back-to-back gold medals in the women’s 4 x 100m relay at the World Championships in Seville, Spain in 1999 and the Olympic Games in 2000 in Sydney, Australia.

For the record, Fynes, Sturrup, Davis-Thompson and Ferguson ran 41.91 in Seville to leave their mark in the history books as the national record holders.