The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

For a number of years the sport of sailing, led by legendary Sir Durward ‘Sea Wolf’ Knowles, represented the Bahamas as an open water sport at the Olympic Games. Now rowing is making its breakthrough, thanks to the outstanding performance of Emily Morley.

Bahamas Olympic Committee secretary general Rommel Knowles welcomed Morley on board the team that is expected to represent the Bahamas at the games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 5-21 as she will be a part of the contingent that already has qualifiers in swimming and athletics. There is also the possibility that boxing and judo will also book their spots.

Morley found out yesterday that she was awarded a wild card for Rio after she placed 10th at the FISA Olympic Rowing Qualification Regatta for the Americas in Valparaíso, Chile, March 22-24.

Morley, a second generation Olympian following in the footsteps of her father David Morley, who represented the Bahamas at the games in 1984, will become the first Bahamian rower to compete at the Olympics.

“Since I was the only Bahamian to compete in that competition and in the history of rowing, I guess they saw that I was really competitive and thought I would be a good candidate,” she said.

Morley competed in the women’s single event at the qualification. She said she was very nervous before the event, but was able to get through it and go out and compete.

“I had my coach and my teammate with me, so I was really lucky that I had a really good support system,” Morley said. “I was feeling really nervous, but I knew I just had to get on the water and I’d be okay.”

At the qualification event she competed in four races. The competition began with heats on March 22, and Morley was placed in the fastest heat, as four out of the five people that were racing in that heat later made it to the A final.

After the heat, she did not qualify straight to the semi-finals and had to compete in the repechage later that afternoon. In the repechage, she came in second and qualified for the AB semi-final.

On March 23, she placed fifth in the semi-final, and that qualified her for the B final.

In the B final the following day, she placed fourth, which put her in 10th place overall.

Morley said after the regatta, she did not think she was going to participate in the Olympics.

“Leaving Chile, I knew I was most likely not going to get a bid,” Morley said. “I had no hope of going. I didn’t think I was going to go.”

Then when Morley was told she earned a bid, she said she did not believe the news at first, and is very excited to be able to represent the Bahamas this summer.

“To be honest, I’m really shocked right now,” Morley said. “I didn’t think it was real at first. I’m really ecstatic and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my Dad, coach, team and the Olympic Association back in the Bahamas.”

Head coach Becky Robinson said this makes up for the disappointment they felt when the left the qualification.

“I’m still numb right now. It’s fantastic,” Robinson said. “The hardest part was watching her perform at best and achieve at her best and then not earning a spot right there.”

Graduate student Jennie Peterson said it was amazing to see the team come together, and she is so proud of Morley.

“It’s just incredible that we were all able to support her and give her the positive energy and words that she needed up to this point,” Peterson said. “But honestly, the hard work was all done by her.”

Knowles, who assisted in getting Morley prepared for the qualifications, said her inclusion on Team Bahamas speaks volume for the Bahamas that has made tremendous strides in so many other sports.

‘In these past four years, the president (Wellington Miller) has been very adamant about the growth of the Olympic platform in terms of the non-traditional sports,” Knowles said. “So you would have seen us push more of the non-traditional sports like judo, gymnastics, taekwondo, rowing and we even introduced handball and archery.

“So we introduced a number of new Olympic sports and as you know, gymnastics just came back from the Pan Am Games where they competed for the first time in the games. So this is very special for us. This is like winning the gold medal because nobody ever dreamed that the Bahamas would be going to the Olympics in rowing, so we are very proud of that.”

Knowles publicly thanked the executives of the BOC and Miller for allowing the sport to grow.

It’s just the second water sport that the Bahamas will get to compete in at the Olympics and Knowles said this sents a message that the Bahamas is indeed a powerhouse when it comes to sports.

“We’ve seen the recent success and media blitz over Buddy Hield in basketball and hopefully one day, I think the Bahamas Basketball Federation has indicated that they are preparing to get ready to qualify for the 2020 Olympics,” Knowles said. “So to her Emily make this break through in a sport like rowing, which isn’t popular at all, it shows that we have the talent to do anything that we want to do.

“We re looking forward to one day having more Olympians in other sports, so this is a historic moment for us in the Bahamas. It’s like the Buddy Hield event, it’s like the Golden Knights event, it’s like the Golden Girls event, it’s like the Tonique Williams event, it’s like the Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace event. So it’s good to have a rower now qualified for the Olympics.”

Knowles said the BOC intend to celebrate the feat by Morley, along with coach Robinson, as they join forces with the Bahamas Government because it’s a moment in history that they doesn’t intend to let go by un-noticed.