The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net’

Lashawn Merritt powered past Michael Mathieu in the final 30 metres as the United States finally redeemed their last two meetings against the Bahamas in the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay.

“Tonight just wasn’t our night,” said Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown after the thrilling run that had the 17,000 fans on their feet from the start to the finish of the race at the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium on Sunday night.

The United States avenged their losses to the Bahamas at the 2014 Olympic Games in London, England, and the 2014 Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Both came without Merritt in the line-up.

In his return for the epic showdown for the final night of competition in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) inaugural World Relays, Merritt anchored the team of David Verburg, Tony McQuay and Christian Taylor to the world leading time of two minutes and 57.25 seconds.

The Bahamas, one shy of the ‘Golden Knights’, saw LaToy Williams replace an injured Ramon Miller, as the remainder of the team - Demetrius

Pinder, Brown and Mathieu - finished in a season’s best of 2:57.59 and the fastest time ran in Bahamian history.

Trinidad & Tobago finished third with a national record of 2:58.34.

“I like what I did. I don’t know what the split was, but my job was to put them in front of the race and I did my job,” said Williams, who actually trailed Trinidad and Tobago after they came through ahead of the field on the first exchange.

“With that crowd, I was so hyped. I was hyped from the beginning. I like them.”

After Miller suffered an ankle injury on Saturday, Williams said he was delighted to have been given the nod to step in and put on a show. He admitted that as it was his first time running before such a large crowd, he wasn’t prepared to let the country down.

On the final leg, Mathieu said he knew the Bahamian people were rooting for him to hold off Merritt.

“I knew it was going to be hard to hold him off,” he said. “I tried my best.”

The strategy was to hold him off for as long as he could, but Mathieu said Merritt “was so strong, At the last 50 metres or so, I saw him coming. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything that I could do.”

The Bahamas got the lead from Pinder on the back stretch of the second leg and he maintained it as he passed it off to Brown. On the third leg, Brown came through with a blistering split of 44.20 to keep the Bahamas out front.

“I want to thank God for allowing us to come home and compete before the home crowd,” Brown said. “Ramon went down in the call room yesterday and so we had to make a quick adjustment. We were expecting to run the original Golden Knights, but that didn’t work out.”

Brown said his only regret was that he didn’t get to match up against Merritt.

“I was praying and hoping that he would run my leg,” Brown said. “Things happen. Hopefully next year, we will be back stronger and the younger guys will step up.”

For Pinder, he felt he went out and gave it his all.

“The crowd was behind me and I know my team-mates were here to support me,” he said. “So I just tried to go out there and give it my all.”

Even without Miller in the line-up, Pinder said the Bahamas should be proud of their effort.

“Ain’t nothing much you can do with LaShawn Merritt on the end,” Pinder said. “We were right there at the line. We have to give God

thanks. Everybody came out healthy.”

And with that in mind, the fans can get ready for the rivalry to continue. But for now, Merritt said it’s the United States’ time to celebrate. “I got the stick and I knew that I wasn’t that far behind,” he said. “I said coming in we wanted to win. We heard the Bahamas talking and we were in their country and they fed off the crowd. But all of the guys ahead of me ran their legs strong, so I just wanted to do my job.”

Mission accomplished.