The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Instead of coming home to try to plan a welcome home celebration for Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo for their medal-winning performances at the 16th IAAF World Championships, the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations has decided to hold a tribunal to find out why Gardiner defied head coach Dianne Woodside-Johnson’s request to run in the heats of the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay.

While there have been many compelling arguments for and against the situation, BAAA president Rosamunde Carey revealed during her second annual ‘Meet The Press’ luncheon on Wednesday at Luciano’s that they intend to quiz Gardiner for his refusal to run on Johnson-Woodside’s request at the championships in London, England, earlier this month.

As a result of not running, the team of Alonzo Russell, Michael Mathieu, Ojay Ferguson and Ramon Miller failed to advance out of the heats. The general consensus from the team in London is that if Gardiner was in the heat, they would have advanced.

Gardiner, however, said he was prepared to run in the final if the team advanced as he was still recuperating from his rounds in the 400m that led to a national record of 43.89 seconds in the semi-final and a silver medal in the final.

It was pointed out that there was no reason why Gardiner didn’t have sufficient time to prepare himself to run in the heats. That was why Woodside-Johnson said she requested of Gardiner to run in the heats because if he didn’t, there would be no final for the team.

It was stated that during a specially called meeting by the BAAA executives on their return home from London, it was decided to hold the tribunal. So what was said in the meeting that the executives could not have made a decision on what transpired at the World Championships?

Did they have the report from Woodside-Johnson?

Was Gardiner asked for his side of the matter so they could peruse all of the facts?

Why is the tribunal necessary?

Is it to make a decision on whether to ask for an apology from Gardiner or to decide if he is to be suspended and for how long?

What were the policies in place that were defied?

Why is the tribunal taking precedent over the BAAA holding some type of homecoming celebrations for Gardiner and Miller-Uibo?

Carey indicated that the BAAA will recognise the athletes during their year-ending awards banquet on December 28. What happens if at the end of the tribunal that a decision is made to suspend Gardiner for not running in the relay? Will he still be recognised for his silver medal performance?

Obviously, this is an issue between Gardiner and Woodside-Johnson over what “she said, he said” in the media. The logical thing would be to bring the two parties together and sort the matter out.

I don’t know if it’s that serious to warrant a tribunal when the facts can easily be ascertained from both parties in a private setting. There has already been too much public scrutiny of the event.

We should be celebrating Gardiner for his impressive run in the semi-final, becoming the first Bahamian to break the 44-second barrier in the semis before he went on to medal in the final.

I’m not saying that I am condoning Gardiner’s decision to defy the coach’s request, but the BAAA has to bear some of the blame for what happened because they acknowledged that they were not sure if their criteria set in place were used to govern the performances of the athletes at the championships.

Was the men’s relay team, with or without Gardiner, prepared to compete at the championships this year? Remember there were five young men who had a whole week to prepare to compete, as opposed to Gardiner, who only had three days rest for three gruelling rounds of competition.

Did the coaching staff run the best combination without Gardiner in the heats, based on their performances at the BAAA National Championships that was held in Grand Bahama?

All of these are some questions I hope will come up whenever the tribunal takes place since it doesn’t seem as if there will be any celebrating of his achievement by the BAAA until the end of the year.

JONQUEL JONES

ON A ROLL

Coming out of college, Jonquel Jones was projected to be a superstar in the Women’s National Basketball Association.

In just her second season, the 6-foot, 6-inch Grand Bahamian forward has lived up to those expectations.

On Tuesday night, Jones had one of her best games, grabbing 22 rebounds to go along with 14 points and passed for six assists to help the playoff-bound Connecticut Sun improve their win-loss record to 21-11.

Jones, 23, now leads the league with an average of 12.0 rebounds per game. She also leads the Sun with a 15.8 ppg and a total of 50 blocked shots.

Those numbers have placed the 2016 George Washington graduate in the conversation around the league and in the media as one of, if not the best, the most improved players this year. To help cement her claim to fame, Jones was one of the highest vote getters in the Verizon WNBA All-Star game in Seattle when she started for the East and came up with a break-away dunk with about 22 seconds left in their 130-121 loss to the West.

When she played for the GW Colonials after transferring from the Clemson Tigers at the 2012/13 season, Jones won just about every individual event, except the big one, the Naismith College Player of the Year, an annual basketball award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to the top men’s and women’s collegiate basketball players in honour of the inventor of basketball, Dr James Naismith.

Jones has certainly arrived on the professional ranks and she is holding court in Connecticut as the second Bahamian to play in the WNBA. The pioneer, Waltiea Rolle, is working on getting back in the league through the European League where she’s looking to play at the end of the WNBA season.

Could you imagine watching the two players playing together on the same team, or against each other? A Mother of two, Rolle certainly feels it could become a reality once she gets back on her feet overseas. It could happen in a year, two or three, but for now, the focus of attention is on Jones and she’s taking full advantage of the glaring spotlight.

The way she’s performing, Jones can definitely help to make the Sun shining stars in the WNBA postseason.

TUREANO JOHNSON

FELL SHORT

For 11 rounds, Tureano ‘Reno’ Johnson stayed with Sergiy ‘The Technician’ Derevyanchenko in their International Boxing Federation’s middleweight elimination bout. That was until the 12th and final round when Johnson ran out of steam and got knocked out by Dervyanchenko Friday night at the Buffalo Rum Casino in Miami, Oklahoma.

In the process, Johnson was denied a second opportunity to line up a big payday in a world title shot. He admitted that having had just one fight coming off surgery a year ago was not sufficient time to take on such a worthy opponent in the undefeated Russian born Dervyanchenko, who fights under the Ukraine national flag.

Johnson, 33, admitted that he learned a valuable lesson against the 31-year-old Dervyanchenko, but he won’t let the loss deter him from his ultimate goal of one day becoming a world champion. He said he will go back to the drawing board and will be back bigger, better and stronger.

At least he admitted that he wasn’t his best and it showed when the fight mattered the most. Don’t count him out just yet. He’s confident that once he gets in proper shape, he will return to the level that enabled him to post a 20-1 record with 14 knockouts before the loss.

Only time will tell as his handlers work on getting right back in the ring by November.