The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH the deal signed and sealed for the return of his Bahamas Invitational Track Classic, veteran quarter-miler Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown can now concentrate on preparing for what could be his final Olympic Games appearance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August.

Brown, 37, is in town to start the promotions for his invitational, scheduled for April 16 after he got the approval of the Bahamas Government. The invitational is one of more than 10 major international events that Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson said they will engage in this year.

The invitational is also expected to become a permanent fixture on the sporting calendar and a part of the ambitious plans for 2017 that will include the third edition of the IAAF World Relays, the FIFA World Cup of Soccer, the proposed Commonwealth Youth Games and the return of the much anticipated Bahamas Games.

For Brown, who is eager to be one of the participants in Rio, said despite planning for the invitational, he is in full stream in his training session. “I started training and the time I’ve taken off to come here, it won’t really affect me because I’m about a month ahead of schedule,” said Brown of his training sessions in Atlanta, Georgia, where he resides with his family. “I have some free time, so I am able to come home and put the ball in play. My coach knows that we are ahead of schedule, but I have a strong team of persons working with me and I am confident that they will be able to do a lot of the work that I did in the past, so I know that they will be able to get the job done while I am away.”

Now that the meet is back after a two-year hiatus, Brown said he hopes that the Bahamian public will gear up to come out and witness a first-class meet with some top notch competitors from around the world coming to the Bahamas in a pre-Olympic showdown.

“I would also like to see the event go on as a regular scheduled event,” he said. “I would like to see that every elite athlete in the Bahamas has an opportunity to go up against the best in the world as the meet continues to grow every year.”

The biggest obstacle for Brown was to secure the financial backing from the government, although Dr Johnson opted not to disclose exactly how much they will be spending. He also got the endorsement from the newly elected team of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA), the North American and Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) and the IAAF.

“2014 and 2015 were two sad years for me, but in every disappointment, I feel as if there is a success,” said Brown, who admitted that he’s not going to dwell on what didn’t happen. “Just to be able to know that the government is supporting the event again and we have a few corporate sponsors on board is a relief.

“In anything you do, you need funding, so just to have the government on board and for them to believe and to see the vision that I have and giving me the opportunity, as a Bahamian, to put this meet on for the Bahamians, it is a great feeling and I feel very proud to be a Bahamian.”

The invitational is expected to attract some of the biggest names in the sport, including American sprinter Justin Gatlin, who is preparing for an encore after competing in the initial event and for the first time, a big showdown in the men’s triple jump between Leevan ‘Superman’ Sands and Americans Will Claye and Christian Taylor.

“It’s an Olympic year and I know that a lot of guys have been training since October,” Brown said. “So six months out, everybody is looking for a race to get into and I think that we have one of the perfect destinations to host a meet like this. So a lot of people are excited to be coming back to the Bahamas in our warm weather again and taste our food and mix and mingle with our people. So we have created an environment that they feel they want to be a part of and with such a fast track and being close friends with many of them and knowing a lot of their coaches and managers, they believe in what I’m trying to do and they are willing to come and support the event.”

While the focus is on getting the invitational off the ground, Brown said his ultimate goal is to be ready for Rio. He noted that 2015 was a difficult year as he experienced his problems with the BAAA and he eventually saw his national record smashed by 20-year-old Abaconian Steven Gardiner with his personal best of 44.27 seconds.

But Brown said he has overcome it all and he’s looking forward to a banner year in 2016. “Records are meant to be broken,” he said. “My goal, as usual, is to finish in the top three so that I can compete in the major competitions. If the record comes, it comes. If it don’t come, I’m not going to worry about it. I held it for a while. My dream and my vision is that every generation is better than the one before.

“It’s great to see that someone else can come and carry the baton. So when I go off the scene, I’m just hoping that these guys can continue to carry it. We have started something that we hope that these younger guys will be able to continue it. I’m proud of the work that I’ve done so far and I hope that we can continue the legacy.”