The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT IS not how you start, nor how you get there. Most importantly, it’s how you finish.

• The Finish Line, a weekly column, seeks to comment on the state of affairs in local sports, highlighting the highs and the lows, the thrills and the spills and the successes and failures.

THE WEEK THAT WAS

It’s another same old sad commentary, this time coming from the Bahamas Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation President Joel Stubbs.

In announcing a 38-member team that the federation intends to carry to the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic at the end of the month, Stubbs said if they don’t have sufficient funding, they may have to trim the team down to 21.

Is it fair to those bodybuilders who put in the necessary work to get themselves ready to compete in the biggest meet in the region for amateur bodybuilders with a chance to earning their professional cards to be told that they have to stay home because of a lack of funding?

Why is it in 2016 that our national associations and federations are still struggling to find funds to accommodate our national teams when it’s time to travel to represent the Bahamas?

The championship is scheduled for September 29 to October 2 and the Bahamas is the defending champions, having won the title when it was hosted here last year.

Stubbs and his executive board came into office just before hosting the event and they did a commendable job, considering the fact that they had to change the date and the venue about a month before the original date. This is their second year in office and I guess they are going through the growing pains that so many other associations and federations have been dealing with for years.

Many would argue that there’s no excuse for proper planning when it comes to these sporting bodies taking the national teams off to compete.

I agree.

But, at the same token, a lot of times the best efforts don’t always pan out the way they should. In defence of the BBPF, they tried their best but the major event on their calendar, the National Championships, didn’t attract the large crowd that they had anticipated.

To add to their dilemma, Stubbs admitted that they had a few more competitors that they wanted to take in their bid to defend their title. But if it doesn’t all work out, they will definitely have to trim the team.

Let’s hope that over the next two weeks, the federation will secure the necessary funding and none of the competitors selected will be left at home.

AN INCREASE

IN NATIONAL

CHAMPIONSHIPS

As the new school year gets ready to unfold, the National Sports Secretariat has revealed that they will be increasing the number of national championships being offered in the local high school system.

Bowling, equestrian, judo, fencing and even flag football are being considered by the joint body from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.

They are expected to join the list that includes softball, volleyball, basketball, track and field and soccer, which were all on the agenda last year.

I commend the National Sports Secretariat for putting on the events, but let’s hope that there is more clarity on who is allowed to compete and who is taking care of the expenses for the high school teams.

The track and field championship was staged in Grand Bahama, but it turned out to be a disaster from day one because not all of the teams that should have been there got to go because of a dispute with regard to the two issues pointed above.

It seems as if there was no one who dealt specifically with all of the logistics and it turned out to be a chaotic scene at the Lynden Pindling International Airport. There are still some schools still trying to get answers as to why they didn’t get to travel to Grand Bahama.

THE WEEK

AHEAD

It’s a pity that Rio Olympic 400 metre champion Shaunae Miller will not be in Brussels, Belgium today to compete in the final event of the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s 2016 season.

Her manager Claude Bryan confirmed to The Tribune that they were “unable to come to terms with the Brussels Diamond League so unfortunately Shaunae Miller will not be competing in the Belgian capital.”

He noted that Miller’s “season has effectively ended and she hopes for a healthy and successful 2017.”

Wow.

When one considers that all Miller had to do was beat out Jamaican Stephanie Ann McPherson and American Natasha Hastings and she could have been at least $50,000 richer, it’s mind boggling as to why they turned it down.

If Miller had won the Diamond Race Trophy, she would have earned $40,000 and if she had won the race, she would have pocketed another $10,000.

If she did, she would have become just the second Bahamian to achieve the feat of winning both the Olympic gold and the Diamond League Race in the same event and year behind national record holder Tonique Williams, who set the pace in 2004.

When pressed by The Tribune to elaborate on their decision, Bryan would only say “it was fiscal in nature.”

There are some people who naturally believe that Miller could have accomplished the feat just as they anticipated she could have won the 200/400m double at the Olympics.

Those are just two issues that will remain hot issues in the conversations, especially on social media, over the next few days.