The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AS the Silver Lightning’s eighth annual Thomas A Robinson Track Classic closed out the local club meets on Saturday, quarter-miler Michael Mathieu and high jumper Jamal Wilson led the performances.

Competing in the original Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium, Mathieu - running unattached - clocked 46.39 seconds to pull away for the win over Ramon Miller, also unattached, who clocked 46.84 for second. Anthony Adderley of Alliance Athletics was third in 47.49.

“I am just trying to get more competition in me so that I can get back to where I was before,” Mathieu said. “It’s been a while since I competed here, so I felt I needed to come home and let the little kids see me compete, something like what the Jamaicans do.”

Mattieu said he’s going to continue to compete so that he can improve on his times and get ready for the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ National Championships in Grand Bahama in June as he attempt to qualify for the IAAF World Relays in London England in August.

“I just need more competition,” said Mathieu, who is coming on a successful anchor leg in winning the gold medal in the mixed gender 4 x 400m relay to conclude the recent IAAF World Relays at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium.

“Ramon was in there with me. He was in lane three and I was in four. I just tried to hold him off, so it was good,” Mathieu recalled. “Next weekend I will compete in Tampa and then I will try to do a meet in Freeport to support my home.”

Mathieu, a native of Grand Bahama, said he’s looking forward to going home for trials.

In the men’s high jump, Wilson won the men’s high jump with a leap of 2.20 metres of 7-feet, 2 1/2-inches. Stoney Duncanson and Leonardo Romer of the University of the Bahamas got second and third respectively with 1.95m or (6-4 ¾).

“It was good. It’s a meet that I needed to use to brush up on some things,” he said. “I suffered knee injury while I was overseas, but now I’m back to at least 70 percent and so I’m trying to work a little harder so I can jump even higher coming into nationals.

“The series of jumps were awkward because we sat down for hours. It was very inconsistent. The officials were making some errors with the heights and stuff. As an elite athlete, it takes me a while to get into the competition after sitting down for so long after warming up.”

Wilson, who made the Olympic team that competed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last year, will be back in action on June 17 in Slovakia just before the nationals.

“The nationals will be fun because this time I have something to prove,” he said. “I haven’t hit the qualifying standard for World Champs because I had a rugged season after world indoors.

“But right now I’m working on getting sharp so by nationals I think I will be in the form that I need to jump 2.30-plus (7-61/2). 2.30 (7-6 ½) is the qualifying mark.”

The meet saw the Heats Athletics compete. Coach John Ingraham brought in a total of 34 athletes from Andros and he was quite pleased with the results he got.

“This meet I was very impressed because we got a lot of personal best,” he said. “Kids dropped times that we expected, so I’m very impressed with them.

“My under-14 girls, I had two girls who performed very well, so that made me feel very good as a coach and my 800m runner Sara Augustin also performed very well.”

Ingraham said his younger boy, Adrian Gibson, who just started last year, worked so hard to get his times down like the senior members of the team.

“One of them ran 22 seconds after coming from 25 seconds. He ran a 56 in the 400 and dropped to 52 today,” Ingraham said. “We had a lot of personal best performances.

“My bigger boys, who were a part of the gold medal team, did their normal performances. Overall it was a good meet for us.”

In other events, Azaria Edgecombe of Kids Athletics won the under-8 girls’ 80m in 12.70 and Brianna Bootle of 3pa Stallion took the 150m in 22.89. Kamron Henfield of Kids Athletics was the winner of the boys’ 80m in 12.69 and Rolando Thompson of Beginners Track won the 150m in 23.85.

The under-10 girls’ 100m was won by Darvinique Dean of Kids Athletics in 14.53. She also took the 200m in 31.43. Kion Burrows of the Ambassadors won the 100m in 13.44 and the 200m in 28.32. Jasmine Thompson of the Beginners Track won in 3:02.43 and Evin Ferguson won the boys’ 800m in 2:54.01.

Hailey Robinson of Kids Athletics was the winner of the girls’ under-12 100m in 13.52 and the 200m in 28.10. Philip Gray of DTSP won the boys under-12 100m in 13.31 and Milton Burrows of the T-Bird Flyers was the winner of the 200m in 27.40.

Jasmine Mackey of 3pa Stallions won the under-12 girls’ 800m in 2:42.67 and Christopher Minors won the boys’ two-lap race in 2:39.42.

D’Arjha Davis of Club Monica doubled up in the under-14 girls’ sprints, winning the 100m in 12.62 and the 200m in 25.82. Otto Laing of Club Monica took the boys’ century in 11.67 and the 800m in 2:23.07.

Tyler Miller of Speed Kids won the 200m in 25.07. Paige Archer of X-Treme Athletics was the winner of the under-14 girls’ 400m in 1:02.61 and Matthew Chandler of Kids Athletics won the boys’ one-lap race in 59.83.

Megan Moss of Club Monica was the cream of the crop in the under-16 girls’ 100m, winning in 11.84 and the 200m in 24.17. Jamal Flowers of Fast Forward won the boys’ 100m in 11.41 and Kunal Bain of Jumpers Inc. took the 200m in 23.10.

Laila Smith-Cleare of Fast Forward won the 400m in 1:02.65 and Raymond Oriakhi of Club Monica was the winner of the boys’ race. Jasmine Knowles of Alliance Athletics in 2:27.82 and Camron Mullings of Hurray Murray won the boys’ race in 2:21.29.

Donisha Anderson of TWD Athletics sped to victory in the girls’ under-18 100m in 12.17. Adrian Curry of Club Monica captured the 100m in 10.44. Joel Johnson of Bsd Juniors was the winner of the 200m in 21.26.

Jasmine Knowles of Alliance Athletics was the winner of the girls’ one-lap race in 56.94 and Edward Munroe of Phoenix Track took the boys’ race in 51.16.

Meet director Rupert Gardiner said everything went very well.

“It was well attended and the competition was awesome. We had Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller, who helped the younger guys to PR,” he said.

“A lot of athletes did their PR. I guess because this was the last club meet, a lot of them really came out and performed. I was really pleased with the performances I saw especially at this time of the year. It’s been a long season.”

Now that all of the local club meets have been held for the year, the focus now switches to the BAAA’s Nationals in Grand Bahama next month. Gardiner said based on what he saw, the match-ups should be keenly contested.

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Defending champions Johnson’s Lady Truckers and the C&S Hitmen opened the New Providence Softball Association’s 2017 season in different directions.

The Lady Truckers knocked off the Sunshine Auto Wildcats 11-3 in the ladies’ opener on Saturday night. In the men’s feature contest, the Hitmen suffered a 13-2 decision to the BTC Warriors.

Both games were stopped via the mercy rule in the fourth inning in between the official opening ceremonies that featured remarks from ECAST president Burkett Dorsett, Bahamas Softball Federation’s president Ted Miller, NPSA president Henry Dean and Sunshine Auto sponsor Deanza ‘Sonny’ Cox.

Veteran pitcher Linda Ford and Glenroy ‘Flo’ Saunders threw out the ceremonial first pitches to get the ball rolling.

Lady Truckers 11, Lady Wildcats 3: Taking off from where they left last year, the Lady Truckers made this one look so easy as they bolted a 8-run second inning on six hits as they ran away from the Wildcats.

“We have a pretty good team,” said Johnson’s manager Sidney ‘Bobby Baylor’ Fernander. “Our biggest problem has been practice. We haven’t been able to get everybody out all at one time. Other than that, we have a very good team.”

Ruthann Simms, back in the line-up at third base after a year off, led the charge as she went 2-for-3 with two runs batted in and scored as many runs.

Melinda Bastian, playing shortstop, was 1-for-3 with three RBI on an in-the-park home run, while Tyrice Curry was 1-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored; Marvel Miller was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and Shevette Taylor was 2-for-3 with a run scored.

Miller went the distance for the win, tossing a four-hitter with two strike outs. Mechelle Moss suffered the loss, giving up 18 hits and striking out six.

Mechisha Davis was 2-for-3 with a run scored and Chandra Mackey was 1-for-2 with s run scored.

On the projected outcome of the season with just five teams registered in the women’s division, Fernander said his Lady Truckers are expecting to roll right along.

“I expect a very good fight, but we intent to win,” he stated.

Warriors 13, Hitmen 2: BTC made the early statement in the league, producing four runs on three hits in the second inning and eight more runs on five hits in the third to stop the defending champions C&S.

“It was good to get the edge because a lot of people have expanded their energy before the game so we just had to release it,” said Warriors’ manager Richard ‘the Lion-Heart’ Johnson, the international Hall of Fame pitcher.

Johnson was able to acquire the services of pitcher Thomas Davis, who made a difference on the mound firing a two-hitter with seven strike outs to out-dual Davis Nathan, who surrendered nine hits with a strike out before he was relieved by Maitland Demeritte in the fourth.

By then, the damage had already been done as second baseman Richard Bain powered the attack by going 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and a total of three RBI.

Designated hitter Carlos Smith was 2-for-4 with two RBI and as many runs scored; right fielder Jeffery Woodside was1-for-3 with two runs scored as his brother center fielder Sherman Ferguson got a double before he was intentionally walked twice and ended up with a fly out to end their offensive rally

“I think we have a really, really good team. This team can go very far,” Johnson projected. “ It’s up to us how far we want to go. It’s not up to the league. It’s really up to us because this year we have the horses.”

Second baseman D’Kyle Roll and designated player Tim Clarke had back-to-back singles in the second and scored the Hitmen’s only two runs on consecutive wild pitches.

Despite history repeating itself, manager Darren Stevens said there’s really no concern. It’s just the season opener. They were in this same situation last year before they bounced back to win the title.

“The championship isn’t won in the first game of the season,” he insisted. “We played to win, but unfortunately we came out on the short end of the stick.

“It’s a long season. If we can stay healthy because we had a few fellows out for various reasons, so once we get everyone in place, we will be much tougher than the stretch.”

The league will resume play on Tuesday night when the Lady Wildcats will be back to face the Platinum Lady Sharks in the 7 pm opener. The Commando Security Truckers will open their campaign against the Chances Mighty Mitts.

Note: The Bahamas Softball Federation is asking all male and female players who wish to make the national teams that will travel this year to various international tournaments to attend a meeting and practice today at 6 pm at the Banker’s field.