The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE youth movement in the women’s 4x100m programme produced a sixth place finish in the final and a berth in the 2017 IAAF World Championships.

Devine Parker, Brianne Bethel, Tayla Carter and Tynia Gaither ran a season’s best time of 44.01 seconds. Gaither, the recent Olympian and USC grad, said the team considered it a privilege to perform in front of an eager home crowd of supporters.

“It gets no better, that’s what drives us, that’s what motivates us to get around the track,” she said. “It’s great to be home and there’s no better way to compete than in front of Bahamian fans.”

Parker, a student at St Anne’s School, fresh off both triumph and heartbreak at the CARIFTA Track and Field Championships, stepped up to compete at a senior meet just weeks later against some of the top sprinters in the world.

“It was a really good experience, considering I’m the youngest on the team,” she said. “I just came out here to do my best and perform well in front of the home crowd. I think we did amazing.”

Parker handed off to Houston Cougars freshman Brianne Bethel on the first exchange.

“We got the stick around without dropping it and our exchanges were pretty smooth with just little time practicing. I feel like if we had more time practicing we would have been even faster but this will do for now,” she said.

Tayla Carter, recent Western Carolina grad, said as the team grows and progresses together, she expects performances to improve as well.

“Being a team that just came together in the last few weeks or so, we’ve been doing the best that we can to get prepared for this, get our exchanges down pat, get the stick around as fast as we could,” she said, “We have a very young team and we can only get better moving forward.”

Germany upset the field to take the gold medal in 42.84 secs, followed by Jamaica in 42.95 secs and China in third at 43.11 secs.

The Netherlands finished fourth in 43.17 secs, followed by France in 43.90 secs and the Bahamas.

Both Brazil and the USA were unable to finish.