The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

SHEKEITHA Henfield can now breath a sigh of relief.

After dropping the baton on the second leg of the women’s 4 x 400 metres qualifying round, the Grand Bahamian native was able to redeem herself as she teamed up with Lanece Clarke, Christine Amertil and Myriam Byfield to get second place in the B final.

Clarke, Amertil, Henfield and Byfield ran a season’s best of three minutes and 31.71 for second place behind Australia, who stopped the clock in 3:31.01. The United States went on to post a championship record time of 3:21.73 to take the title in the A final. They were followed by Jamaica in 3:23.26 as they held off Nigeria, who closed in with 3:23.41 for third, both season’s best performances.

“The three ladies who ran before me, they gave me a good start, so it was just a matter of maintaining it,” said Byfield as she ran out of real estate trying to catch the Australian anchor leg. “After yesterday, it feels really good to come back and get us through it.”

Amertil, the most experienced member of the team, said it was just simply a matter of getting over the disappointment from the night before.

“It feels great. We knew we were capable of winning. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the A final, but we will take the second place in the B final anytime.”

For Clarke, the goal was just to get the Bahamas out front. “What happened yesterday, was yesterday. We all put it behind us and we came out here and we did what we had to do,” Clarke said. “The crowd helped us along, so I feel very good about our performance.”

No doubt, there was a lot of pressure placed on the shoulders of Henfield, but she managed to drain her sorrows in a hot shower around 1 am after they got the news that they will get a chance to run again.

It was redemption time for Henfield. “It was the most stressful day in track and field for me because the worse place it could happen is at home,” she said. “I got home last night and I had about 20 emails with persons who were encouraging me to keep my head up.

“I was really proud of myself and we were able to bounce back. When I look at the time we did, it was close to what we did in Russia and that was in August. This is May, so we can only get better.”

With the monkey of her back, Henfield said she can look forward to a restful and peaceful night.