The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THEY fell short of their ultimate goal of a medal and a new national record, but the men’s 4 x 200 metre team was able to improve their standing by one spot in this year’s meet.

The team of Deneko Brown, Andretti Bain, Alfred Higgs and Blake Bartlett finished fifth in Sunday night’s final in 1:22.91s. The race was dominated by Jamaica, whose squad of Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir, Jason Livermore and Rasheed Dwyer took first place in 1:20.97s. France placed second in 1:21.49s and Germany was third in 1:22.65s.

The United States was disqualified for the second consecutive year in the event after they passed the baton outside the takeover zone.

Bain and Bartlett were both members of the 2014 team that finished in sixth place but set a new national record of 1:22.18s.

“First and foremost we have to thank God. I told them once we do our part and we believed things would work out. We really believed we were going to win a medal, unfortunately it didn’t happen, but the guys are young and this is the first step,” Bain said.

“I was just trying to provide with as much of my experience as I can. Just to let them know that it’s just another race. We train just as hard as these other guys, you just have to believe that once you execute, everything else will fall into place. We knew that once we focused on the handoffs things would fall into place. Every 4x200m relay, someone gets DQ’ed or a baton drops, we just knew that once it was not ours we would be good.”

The remainder of the trio competed in both the 4x100m and 4x200m at this year’s meet. “It’s always a thrill. I love running in front of the home crowd. Last year in this race we had this mentality and I could feel that same thing with this team,” Bartlett said. “We just wanted to go out there, do our best and finish.”

Brown, who ran opening legs in both relays, said it was all about running inspired in an effort to perform for the Bahamian crowd.

“I thought the performance was excellent. We wanted to come out and compete. When we were warming up we said we wanted to come out and put on a show for everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed it,” he said. “Andretti was telling us we have a shot at a national record and we really believed in our hearts that we did. We didn’t get it today but we know the next time we come out and make that effort we can get it done.”

Higgs, another newcomer to the world relays, reiterated that the team’s focus was on precision passing (of the baton) and giving themselves an opportunity to remain in contention.

“We were motivated, the main thing was to get the stick around and not to step on that line and get DQ’ed. My main thing was going out there and making sure I excepted my race properly,” he said. “The event was pretty exciting, I made a few national teams but this was different. I had a good time, coming home and running in front of my crowd, because I never really had a chance to do something like this, run here and hear the junkanoo music in the background.”

It was a spirited run for Team Bahamas in the third heat when they finished in second place to earn a spot in the finals.

Brown gave the Bahamas an early lead all the way out in lane seven and they finished in a time of 1:22.86s.

It was a season’s best for the team and they entered the finals as the seventh fastest seed.

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt had warmed up for the heats but withdrew from the team when he felt some tightness in his hamstring.