The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

CONGRATULATIONS to Steven Gardiner, with his silver medal at the IAAF in London. He has the potential to be one of the world’s greatest runners in his time.

However, raw talent must go along with a sensible strategy. Did he believe that the semi-final was the final?

When I saw him flat on his back and doing his personal best in the semi-final, I thought what was he thinking?

It is one thing to lie flat on your back to get into a final, but he had plenty cushion and it was not necessary to do a personal best and Bahamian record.

He was obviously one of the favourites to win the gold, so going into the semi-final all he needed to do was ensure he was one of the top three finishers. He expended too much energy in the semi-final, his body obviously did not recover, and the photo of him on his back should have been after the final.

His desire to only want to run in the final in the 4x400, shows his lack of understanding; that to run in the finals you have to get into the finals as the coach pointed out.

Only very deep teams such as the USA can afford to rest their fastest runner in a heat. That he might have to lie flat on his back again, to get this team into the finals, was not appealing to him.The 400 is a punishing race, and the 4x400was for team and country.

Again, raw talent must combine with common sense race strategy in preliminaries, to produce a world beater.

He is still very young and I trust he can learn for 2020.

EDROY DEVEAUX

Nassau,

August 16, 2017.