The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

With athletes pouring in their sentiments of gratitude, businessman Tommy Stubbs of Buttons Formal Wear said the celebrations for Team Bahamas for the 2016 Olympic Games is shaping up to be a grand event on Sunday.

“You cheered. You screamed. You cried, but most of all you share in the joy of watching them compete on the big stage,” Stubbs said. “On Sunday, September 18, you get to show our Olympic Games athletes just how much you appreciate them when they competed for the glory in Rio, Brazil.”

Stubbs, through Buttons Formal Wear, is organising the Olympic celebrations set for 3pm in the ballroom of the Melia Nassau Beach Hotel for the gold medal performance from Shaunae Miller in the women’s 400 metres, the bronze medal by the men’s 4 x 400m relay team of Alonzo Russell, Michael Mathieu, Steven Gardiner, Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown and Stephen Newbold, Pedrya Seymour’s record breaking performance to make the final of the women’s 100m hurdles as well as Donald Thomas and Trevor Barry in the men’s high jump and the record-breaking feat by Lanece Clarke, Carmiesha Cox, Anthonique Strachan and Christine Amertil in the women’s 4 x 400m relay.

Additionally, Stubbs said the Bahamian public will also get to rub shoulders with Emily Morley, who made history as the first Bahamian to compete in rowing, along with the three-member swim team led by Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace.

Some of the athletes have expressed their gratitude to Stubbs and Buttons Formal Wear for putting on the event that comes more than a month since the games was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August.

“It is said that good things come to those that wait and it’s never too late to celebrate,” Clarke said. “Upon finding out that we were going to be honoured and recognised for what we have accomplished at the Olympics, we were all elated and filled with gratitude.

“Words can’t express how grateful I am to be home to celebrate my accomplishment with my teammates, family, friends and most importantly with Buttons Formal Wear. Thank you once again for all that you guys are doing, I am honoured and ready to add this celebration to my memoirs of 2016.”

Amertil, her teammate and the ladies’ captain of the team in Rio, joined in the chorus. “I would like to thank Buttons Formal Wear for such a generous gesture in celebrating the 2016 Rio Olympic Team,” she said. “It is very much appreciated by myself.”

But one of the greatest compliments came from sprinter Jamial Rolle, who unfortunately didn’t have a good showing at the games as he finished last in his heat and was unsuccessful in getting out of the first round of the men’s 100m.

“I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you for this unprecedented show of appreciation towards myself and my fellow Olympians,” he said. “As someone who has personally sacrificed and given blood, sweat and tears to reach the precipice of sport which is the Olympics this act of regard is held in very high esteem to me.

“I am sure my fellow teammates echo my sentiments and are encouraged that their efforts of athletic patriotism are being celebrated by a well-known member of the business community.Once again I applaud you (Tommy Stubbs) for this and I am sure your philanthropic act will pay intangible dividends to each athlete involved and those to come.”

Strachan, who also competed in the women’s 200m as she made her return to international competition after coming of surgery in November, added her personal gratitude for the gesture.

“I also want to show gratitude for the celebration that you have put together for all of the athletes that qualified and also represented team Bahamas,” Strachan said. “So thank you so much for expressing your love toward us all.”

For the formal celebrations that will be held inside the ballroom, interested persons are urged to contact Buttons Formal Wear for their event passes.

Following the joint event being staged by Buttons Formal Wear, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and the Bahamas Olympic Committee in the ballroom, a motorcade will take the athletes through the streets of New Providence, ending up at Arawak Cay and the Fish Fry where the Bahamian public at large can interact with the athletes.