The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BEIJING, China — While he expressed his displeasure in the disqualification of the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay team, Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) president Mike Sands said the performance of the entire Team Bahamas will be under review.

Sands was speaking candidly about the 25-member team that represented the Bahamas at the 15th IAAF World Championships in the Bird’s Nest Stadium August 22-31.

While the team collected a total of two medals to finish in a three-way tie for 22nd with Trinidad & Tobago and Ukraine, Sands was of the opinion that the men’s 4 x 400m team of Steven Gardiner, Michael Mathieu, Alonzo Russell and Ramon Miller should have advanced to the final during their qualifying round on Saturday.

However, the Bahamas got disqualified after it was revealed on the cameras that Mathieu had stepped out of the line at least four times in between the first zone exchange from Gardiner to running to the stagger line on the second leg.

“It’s very heart-wrenching for all of us because we were expecting some great performances from all of the guys in that particular event,” Sands said. “We know that the athletes and the Bahamian people at home are disappointed. We know that no one goes out intentionally to disqualify themselves. But obviously in the excitement of trying to get to the corner to break into position, he stepped on the line inadvertently, but unfortunately we got disqualified.”

Sands said at the end of the championship, the BAAA will regroup, not just for the men’s 4 x 400m relay team, but the entire team as they look back at the performances in retrospect as they start planning for 2016 and the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“It can’t be business as usual,” Sands said. “Some of our performances were lacklustre, others were of course, spectacular like Shaunae Miller and Jeffery Gibson, who came up with the silver in the women’s 400m and bronze in the men’s 400m hurdles respectively. They all have to be commended for the accomplishments they made,” Sands said. “But when you look at the world stage, we have to look at how we do business going forward. We can not settle for mediocrity.

“I think some of the performances were sub-standard and if you look at it, everyone did not perform as expected. So at the end of the day, when it comes to the standards, even though the IAAF sets their standards, we have to really determine do we just want to make the team if we are barely making the standard, or do we want to use our area championships like NACAC.

“A lot of our executives are here, so we have been discussing informally how do we go forward and improve our performances on the world stage in all areas. We’re not singling out any one particular person or performance. We’re talking about the entire programme holistically, so the athletes will have to look at themselves and the coaches as well at the way forward and how do we improve our performances at this level.”

When asked to rate the team’s performance, Sands said it was difficult because there were some very good performances.

“But to put it into perspective, I wasn’t totally satisfied with our performances because I believe that we could have done much better,” he said. “We just have to go back to the drawing board with our programme.”