The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

NOW that his collegiate career is over, sprinter Teray Smith has decided to begin his professional training in Kingston, Jamaica.

As of September, before he celebrates his birthday on the 28th of that month, Smith will be the first Bahamian male sprinter to move to Jamaica where he will join the Maximising Velocity and Power (MVP) Track Club, headed by Stevie Francis, the coach of Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell and new mom Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

In June, Smith graduated from Auburn University where he was coached by Bahamian assistant coach Henry Rolle. But he admitted at the 16th IAAF World Championships in London, England that he wants to get to the next level as a potential contender in the men’s sprints and Jamaica is the ideal place to hone his skills.

“I know it was a long college season for me, so I just wanted to come here and give it my all, which I do every time I step on the track,” Smith said. “But I hate coming out here and getting embarrassed. Every time we come out here we get embarrassed.

“I don’t just want to make the team anymore. I want to do something. I want to be in a final. I don’t want to go to the nationals, do well there and then come here to these games and don’t go anywhere. I want to make it to the next round. I’m just tired of us not doing anything.”

Smith, 22, qualified to compete in the men’s 200 metres at the World Championships where he failed to advance out of the qualifying round, finishing fifth in his heat in 20.77 seconds for 34th overall, which excluded him from the top 24 that advanced to the semifinal.

A couple days later, he ran the anchor leg of the men’s 4 x 100m relay team that included Warren Fraser, Shavez Hart and newcomer Sean Stuart. However, the quartet’s seventh place was wiped off the books as they were disqualified on the exchange between Hart and Stuart.

With the wealth of experience that he gained running for Auburn, Smith was hoping that the men’s team would garner some success – as the men’s 4 x 400m team did in the past by getting into the final.

“I just hope everybody sees the same vision that I see and just gives it their all,” Smith proclaimed. “This is serious. It’s really frustrating for me. I can’t take this anymore. It’s just too embarrassing for me.”

For his part, both individually and as a member of the relay team, Smith said he’s going to make the necessary sacrifice to get some professional training in Jamaica.

“It’s a sacrifice. It’s a sacrifice,” he stressed. “I want to be great, so I have to do it. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Grand Bahamian, sponsored by Puma, said he’s hoping that the change in environment, among some of the best sprinters in the world, will pay big dividends in the future.

Smith, who previously attended American Heritage High School in Plantation, Florida, spent the past four years at Auburn where he made his presence felt. He completed his tenure as a 2017 Outdoor first team All-American (200m, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay) and Indoor second team All-American (200m).

While the highlight of 2016 was running on the Bahamas’ team at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Smith was a 2015 Outdoor Second Team All-American (200m, 4x100m relay); 2014 Outdoor Second Team All-American (200m) and 2014 All-SEC Freshman Team member (100m, 200m).

The 6-foot, 2-inch sprinter’s trip to London followed his Olympic debut last year were he also failed to advance out of the heats of the 200m, his specialty. But he’s confident that with the training he will get in Jamaica, he will be ready to be faster next year at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia from April 4-15.

He currently holds a personal best of 10.33 that he ran at the War Eagle Invitational in 2016 in Auburn, Alabama and 20.35 in the 200m, a time he posted at the NCAA Championships in 2015 in Eugene, Oregon.