The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

GOLD Coast, Australia: With both the boxing and triathlon over at the XXI Commonwealth Games, Chef de Mission Roy Colebrooke said there's still a whole lot of excitement to look forward to from Team Bahamas over the next week and a half.

Both Carl Hield and Rashield Williams were eliminated on the first day of competition in the round of 32 in the Oxenford Studios, while Cameron Roach's only race in the triathlon was done on Thursday as well. Now it's left up to the four swimmers, one table tennis player, two cyclists, 19 track and field athletes and two wrestlers to vie for supremacy until the games are concluded on April 15.

"Right now we are in capacity with all of the track and field athletes and the table tennis player in the village," Colebrooke said. "The two remaining swimmers were scheduled to arrive today (yesterday), tomorrow (today), the cycling team will be in and on the 9th, the wrestling team will be in so the Bahamas will be in its full capacity by the end of the week.

"As it stands right now in competition, boxing is over and so is triathlon. Those individuals competed yesterday. Right now our offices and our rooms in the dormitories are buzzing with excitement and buzzing with anticipation of the competition that we expect from these athletes over the next few things. Everything is running as it supposed too."

Colebrooke, however, said they are still waiting on a few more coaches to arrive and once they are here, there will be a general meeting and a memorial held in honour of the late Debron Moxey, the Bahamas Olympic Committee's office manager, who he said worked tirelessly in trying to get Team Bahamas ready for the games before she was killed in a car accident over the weekend.

One day after her arrival here with Izaak Bastian and coach Andy Loviett from Kingston, Jamaica where they helped the Bahamas to repeat as the Carifta Swimming champions, Lilly Higgs will make her splash at the Optus Aquatic Centre where she will compete in the first of her three events in the women's 200 metre breaststroke.

The 17-year-old freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will be swimming out of lane two in the first of three heats in the women's 200m breast at 10:40 am (Australian time). She will be one of two Bahamians in action today with N'Nhyn Fernander returning for his second event. He will be in the last of four hearts in the men's 100m free at 11:45 am.

Bastian, the 17-year-old graduating student of St Andrew's School in Boca Raton, Florida, will be competing in his first event on Sunday in the 50m breast at 10:50 am when he will swim out of the third of four heats. Fernander will then be in the last of four heats of the men's 100m free in heat one at 11:42 and Higgs will be back at 11:55 am for the 100m breast where she will be in lane seven in the last of four heats.

On Monday, Evans will contest her final event in the women's 400m free at 10:43 am in lane three of the last of three heats, while Bastian will close out the show at 11:21 am in the last of three heats of the men's 200m individual medley in lane eight.

Just to recap, one day after carrying the flag during the official opening ceremonies on Wednesday night, 19-year-old Evans was back in the water on Thursday morning in her opener in the 200m free where she placed fourth in her heat and 12th overall in 2:01.75. Fernander, a 6-feet-6 Keiser University freshman, was eighth in his heat of the men's 50m fly for 28th place overall.

"As for our performances, it comes with the environment that we create for Team Bahamas," Colebrooke said. "The athletes say everything is wonderful and that has been our mission. We said that in the press before we left and that is what we tried to deliver here to ensure that their results showed up in their performances."

Team Bahamas, however, had to deal with an issue with the garments worn by the swimmers, but Colebrooke said they are trying to rectify that problem.

In the boxing competition, 31-year-old Carl Hield's bid for a second medal at the games was ruined by Australia's Terry Nickolas with a 5-0 decision in the round of 32 in the men's 69 kilogramme class, while Rashield Williams, 28, suffered the same fate against Jonas Jonas from Namibia in his debut at the games in the men's 64kg.

And in the triathlon competition, Cameron Roach had to settle for 33rd out of a field of 36 as he completed the grueling 750m swim, laps on a 20.0km bike run and two laps on a 5.0km run in one hour, 11 minutes and 31 seconds. While it was the first time that Roach and his brother and coach Dorian competed in the event, they followed in the footsteps of David Bell, coached then by his father, Bert Bell.

At those games in 2002 in Manchester, England, Bell finished a much longer course 22nd out of a field of 34 competitors in 2:04.33.