The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

LEEVAN ‘Superman’ Sands, missing in action for the past two years because of an injury, swung back into action over the weekend with a winning performance at the War Eagle Invitational 2015 in Auburn, Alabama.

Sands, joined by the Bahamian connection of winners in Teray Smith, Anthonique Strachan and Sheniqua ‘Q’ Ferguson, clinched the men’s triple jump with a leap of 15.96 metres or 52-feet, 4-inches on his second of three attempts.

The 2008 Olympic and 2003 World Championship bronze medallist passed on his first attempt at the competition at the Hutsell-Rosen Track in Auburn, and after producing his winning feat on his first attempt he did 15.88m on his third and final jump.

Sands, competing unattached, was well ahead of second place Dylan Young, a senior at Alabama State, who did 13.58m (44-6 ?) for second. His teammate O’Shane Shaw, a sophomore, took third with 12.86m (42-2 ?).

Sands, 33, was unavailable for comments, but Auburn’s assistant coach Henry Rolle, who heads the Bahamian connection, said it was a good season opener. But he felt that Sands could have performed even better.

“Track and field is the type of sport that whatever you put on paper, that is what you are on that particularl day. It’s not a sport that comes with results. It says you jumped 52 feet or 56 feet,” Rolle said.

“With a couple more competitions, he will obviously get better, but at the same time, he’s got to move passed the point where he’s thinking that he’s been injured. He should not be thinking about being a victim because the world doesn’t look at him as a victim. Either he moves on or he quits.”

Since suffering the injury at the 2012 London Olympics, requiring surgery to repair his left knee, Sands has been on the comeback trail. Last year, he made it back, competing in a few long jump competitions. This was his first try at the triple jump.

At the same time, Rolle was more critical of his sprinters, who all won their respective events.

On the track, Grand Bahamian Teray Smith, now in his sophomore year at Auburn, stopped the clock at 20.54 seconds to snatch the victory in the men’s 200m over Wayde Gordon, a senior at Kent State, in 20.81.

Smith also competed in the preliminaries of the 100m where he got the fifth fastest time in 10.39 and was followed by Jamial Rolle in 10.53. They both qualified for the final, but didn’t compete. Trinidad & Tobago’s Marc Burns, who had the fastest qualifying time of 10.21, won the final.

Anthonique Strachan, competing unattached, easily won the women’s half-lap race in 22.89. Tennessee’s junior Felicia Brown was second in 23.15.

And her training partner Sheniqua ‘Q’ Ferguson crossed the line in the women’s 100m in 11.27 for the victory as well. Joeinelle Smith, a freshman at Auburn, was second in 11.51. Ferguson posted the fastest qualifying time in the straight race.

Late Sunday night, Ferguson and Strachan were named to the Bahamas’ team for the IAAF/BTC World Relays. They teamed up on the second and anchor legs for the Auburn Elite team that won the women’s 4 x 100m relay in 44.43. The other two members were Kimberley Laing and CeCe Williams.

Also on the field, Nyles Stuart finished third with a leap of 6.98m (22-11) in the men’s long jump. The winning leap was 7.12m (23-41/2) by Luis Hanssler, a junior at Memphis.

“I think we are where I expected us to be. It’s just a matter of improving,” Rolle said. “The goal is to get through the (Bahamas) trials (at the Nationals in June) and get ready for August (for the IAAF World Championships).

“I made it very clear to every athlete that I coach, Bahamian and non-Bahamian, if you are in shape come June, I’m not giving you another workout. I tell them that if their goal is only to make the relay team, they need to find another coach.”

Rolle said he wants his athletes to strive for qualifying to compete in their individual events first and not just relying on three other people to pull them along for the trip.

“Those who are out of school must take on that professionalism and compete at that level,” Rolle said. “In Teray’s case, his focus and commitment first is to the school and the NCAA. Depending on where he’s at after that, then I will restructure his training to get him ready for August.”

Rolle said he’s tired of the mediocrity that the BAAA has been settling for over the last few years by just settling for ensuring that the Bahamas has a relay team at the international meets when the country has only been able to pick up one medal on the track at the Commonwealth Games last year.

“If I’m a reflection of that, then I want to do something about it because I can’t let something like that reflect me,” he said. “That’s not the type of results that I like to see. So everybody has to look at themselves in the mirror and as a unit, a federation, as athletes and as coaches and say, ‘look, we’re missing the boat.’ We are missing the point. The world is here and we are here and somewhere we have to fill that gap in between.”

Rolle promised that he will make a start by ensuring that all of the Bahamian athletes that he is responsible for are preparing to compete or they won’t compete for the Bahamas.

Rolle and those competitors are expected to be a part of the Bahamian delegation that will compete at the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia this weekend before they return home for the World Relays.