The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

HE went out in a blaze of glory as the last athlete to win the IAAF World Indoor 200 metres. After he won the title in 2004 in Budapest, running out of lane six, the event was stopped, leaving his name inked in the history books.

These days, Dominic Demeritte, who also won the bronze in the same event the year before in Birmingham, England, serves as a manager of a group of 18 athletes worldwide as well as doing a high school coaching in Atlanta, Georgia.

Included in his stable are long jumper Bianca Stuart, sprinters Warren Fraser and Shavez Hart as well as twin brothers Lathone and Latario Collie-Minns, two talented triple jumpers.

While he was in London, England to watch some of his athletes perform, he was disappointed by the absence of a few.

Most noticeably missing were the twin brothers, who graduated last year from the University of Texas A & M.

“Latario succumbed to injuries at the NCAA Championships last year. He’s back up and training with his brother Lathone,” Demeritte revealed.

“But he decided to take the year off to fully recuperate and not rush right back into competition.”

Based on the projections for both of them before they got injured, Demeritte said he’s confident that they will be back at top form and ready to take their rightful places in the men’s triple and long jumps with the national record holder Leevan ‘Superman’ Sands.

“This was one of those World Championships where anything could happen and for some countries, like the Bahamas in the relays, everything did go wrong,” Demeritte stressed.

“But that’s a part of sports. That’s why we play, jump, throw and run. Championships ain’t won on paper and for a lot of countries, including ourselves, we found that out the hard way.”

It’s now going to be incumbent on the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations, according to Demeritte, to go back and prepare for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2019 World Championships, with the heavy focus on Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games.

While he’s not involved directly with the BAAA, Demeritte said he’s still called upon to give his advice wherever possible and as a manager, coach and even meet director, he can appreciate what is needed to get the job done.

“I think I have some ideas and whether I’m asked to or not, I would love to share them,” he insisted.

“I think that we as a country and an association, we’ve been doing things a certain way for so long and we’ve been getting away with it because we have so many talented athletes.

“But now is the time to change those philosophies because so many countries, even some of the smaller ones, are figuring it out and so the playing field is really levelled. So we have to go back to the drawing board and reassess what we are doing.”

As a Bahamian who has experience on the circuit, Demeritte said he would love to assist the BAAA in the way forward.

He said he’s just one of the many former athletes, coaches and administrators who would love to lend their support to steer the country in the right direction.

“I miss the atmosphere of going out there and warming up and seeing your rivals and everybody looking at each other and sizing them up before the competition,” he said.

“But I would really like to be able to give my assistance to the country in getting our teams better prepared to compete in the future.”

Demeritte, winner of a gold (2003 in St George’s) and silver (2005 at home) in the Central American and Caribbean Championships as well as 200m silver and 100m bronze (1996 in San Salvador) at the Jr CAC Championships, has shared the medal podium with his team-mates in the 4 x 100m at the 2002 Commonwealth Games (Manchester, England), 2006 CAC Games (Cartagena), 2005 CAC Championships (Nassau) and the Jr CAC Championships (San Salvador).

Now 39, Demeritte is a graduate of St John’s College and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a two time NCAA All American.