The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Silver Lightning Athletics Club continues to honour one of the most iconic names in Bahamian track and field history as they prepare to host their annual meet this weekend.

The club will host the 8th Annual Thomas A Robinson Classic in the original stadium - named in his honour - on May 20. The meet, prompted for a 9am start, will host athletes ranging from the under-8 to open divisions.

Kim Hanna, the club’s general secretary and the meet director, said she looks for the meet to continue to grow in stature each year as they continue to pay homage.

“It was indeed a pleasure that Mr Robinson allowed us to honour him by hosting the meet in his name and on his behalf. He was always very elated to be a part of it in some way. When he was able to, he even made his way out to the meet and was very supportive, so this was just another way to thank him for his contribution to the sport and to the country,” she said.

“Every year it has grown tremendously, with the athletes, club support, and fans. We have a lot of fans that come up because we are usually one of the last meets of the year and they get to use this as one of those qualifying meets.”

At this point on the athletics calendar, athletes are still looking to qualify for several roster spots on upcoming national teams, including the NACAC Age Group Championships (June 17-18 in Port of Spain, Trinidad), World Youth Championships (July 12-16 in Nairobi, Kenya), Commonwealth Youth Games (July 19-23 in New Providence), Pan-Am/NACAC U-20 (July 21-23 in Trujillo, Peru) and the IAAF World Championships (August 5-13 in London, England).

“The highlight of the day should be the men’s 400m because these persons are vying for spots on the World Championship team and it should be one of the more keenly contested senior races. It should include Wesley Neymour and 4x400m Olympic medal winners Andretti Bain, Ramon Miller and Michael Mathieu,” Hanna said.

Silver Lightning was founded by current University of the Bahamas head coach, Rupert Gardiner.

“Because we are a club that really goes out and caters to kids in the government school system, we don’t have the assets to do as much as we would like to. If we can have a title sponsor for meets to come on board. As small as we have been we try to contribute to the athletes’ future and give at least one or two athletes who have gone off to college a little donation toward their expenses,” Hanna said, “We just want this meet to become bigger, better and to hopefully host it in the new Thomas A Robinson stadium. One year we actually had teams from around the Caribbean and the US that came in to compete. As a club we try to bring them in and if you don’t have the sponsors it’s difficult. Lack of funding has been a hindrance but we will continue to support the athletes with this event.”