The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE 2014-15 athletics season has been one of consistent progression for Bahamian national 400 metre record holder and newly minted IAAF World Championship bronze medallist Jeffery Gibson.

Gibson, who celebrated his 25th birthday just over a week ago, began winning medals for the Bahamas at the international level over a decade ago at the CARIFTA level as a relay team member, but has now reached the pinnacle of the sport in his individual specialty.

The son of Bridgette and Rhett Gibson was born on August 15, 1990, in Freeport, Grand Bahama, and attended Bishop Michael Eldon School, where he started competing in the 400m.

He began his international career for the Bahamas winning a medal on the 4 x 400m relay team at both the 2006 and 2007 CARIFTA Games.

After struggling at the World Junior Championships in 2008 and 2010 NACAC Under-23 Championships, Gibson rose to prominence at the 2012 Under-23 NACAC meet.

In Irapuato, Mexico, he showed his versatility by taking the gold in the 400m hurdles, bronze in the 400m and silver as a member of the 4 x 400m relay team.

At the collegiate level, he attended Oral Roberts University where he led the Golden Eagles in his signature event.

In June 2013 and his senior season at ORU, he finished in fifth place in the 400m hurdles in the finals of the NCAA Championships in 49.39 seconds.

Gibson, who earned first team All-American honours, shattered his then personal best in the event, and broke a 30-year-old Bahamian national record - for the first time - in the process.

One of the oldest standing records in the Bahamas, Greg Rolle ran 49.46 in the event back in 1983.

On the international scene, Gibson medalled at the 2013 Central American and Caribbean Championships with a silver and in the process qualified for the subsequent World Championships in Moscow, Russia.

In his first World Championship appearance, Gibson finished 21st overall in 50.51.

He then lowered the mark to 48.95 at the Florida Relays in April 2014 and again in a bronze medal winning performance in 48.78 at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, when he became the second Bahamian 400 metres hurdler to win a Commonwealth Games medal.

He continued to lower the mark with a time of 48.77 at the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern track and field meet in Lucerne, Switzerland, in July.

He lowered that time again in late July when he ran 48.51 to take gold at the 17th Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.

Gibson continues to peak at the right time and lowered the national record twice at the IAAF World Championships, en route to his bronze medal performance of 48.17.

“The way my times have been dropping consistently and the adjustments made by my coach George Williams, I am hoping that I will drop in the 47-second range and be a part of Club 47,” Gibson told The Tribune earlier this season.

“The whole concept of running semis and finals at this meet gave me a slight idea of how it will be to run rounds at worlds.”

With the continued progression of his athletics career thus far, and four record-setting races in 2015, Gibson could be set to break that lofty barrier and race to new historic performances in 2016 as he prepares for the Olympic Games.