The Tribune

Top Grand Bahamians honoured

TWELVE 12 local athletes from seven sports were honoured by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture for their contributions to sports at the Grand Bahama Youth Awards ceremony on Saturday at Christ the King Hall. They were:

Basketball - Buddy Held, University of Oklahoma and Jonquel Jones, University of George Washington.

Track and field - Demetrius Pinder, University of Texas Tech and Nivea Smith, University of Auburn.

Baseball - Desmond Russell, University of Jackson State.

Soccer - Simone Stubbs, Eckerd College, and Kacy Charlton.

Football - Demetri Knowles, University of Virginia Tech.

Swimming - Joanna Evans, Bishop Michael Eldon and Elvis Verance Burrows, University of Kentucky.

Golf - Asif Robinson and Asiyah Robinson.

The names were submitted after consultation with local sporting bodies and coaches. Carla Brown Roker serves as co-ordinator for the youth programmes in the Ministry in Grand Bahama and was reponsible for organising the awards presentation.

Sport For All fair

THE Bahamas Olympic Committee held its first Sports For All Fair on Saturday at Clifford Park.

The event was organised by Cora Hepburn and Derron Donaldson, two vice presidents of the BOC. Monique Wilcombe of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture as well as the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival and Taran Mackey, who co-ordinated the obstacle course, assisted the BOC in the event.

The Dunmore Group won the overall obstacle course.

Rugby union

URUGUAY became the last team to qualify for the 2015 Rugby World Cup by beating Russia 36-27 in the second leg of their play-off and claim a 57-49 aggregate victory.

Russia led the tie 22-21 after the first leg and were ahead at half-time in Montevideo, but three tries in the second half saw Uruguay home.

Los Teros qualify for the World Cup, which will take place in England and Wales, for only the third time and will face a tough group A comprising England, Australia, Wales and Fiji.

Fly-half Felipe Berchesi kicked 21 points for the hosts, with Joaquin Prada, Alejo Corral and Agustin Ormaechea crossing for tries. Aleksandr Ianushkin and Yuri Kushnarev scored tries for Russia.

VOLLEYBALL

NPVA ACTION

IN New Providence Volleyball Association action at the DW Davis Gymnasium last week, it took Jannelle Curtiss and the Central Gas Lady Panthers three straight sets to dispose of the Avengers 25-21, 25-15 and 25-14.

In men’s play, Dellan Brown led the SJ Trucking Expendables in a straight sets win over the National Fence Intruders 26-24, 29-27 and 26-24. Glen Rolle led the Intruders in the loss.

TENNIS

BLTA CLINIC

THE Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) realise the need for training and development of junior tennis players. In this light, ITF expert Dermot Sweeney is conducting an all-day 5-day Tennis Camp October 13-17 at the Nassau Tennis Centre. The camp is targeted for top junior tennis players in the country.

According to the BLTA, this is a time for players to avail themselves of this great opportunity to be exposed to training coached by an experienced, well-rounded facilitator. Also accompanying Sweeney on this visit is John Goede who is the ITF development officer for the Caribbean.

Sweeney is a former director of the ITF Training Centre in South Africa. Players that trained at the centre include Raven Klaasen, finalist at the Australian Open 2014 and Kevin Anderson, currently ranked in the top 20 on the ATP rankings. Sweeney is currently travelling with ITF touring teams, visiting ITF training centres, conducting training camps and involved with coaches education.

The BLTA looks forward to partnering again with the ITF in conducting more tennis training camps like these to better equip their junior players to compete among the best in the world.