The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

GOLD Coast, Australia: Day one of the athletic competition at the XXI Commonwealth Games saw sprinters Warren Fraser and V'Alonee Robinson make it to the semifinal of the men and women 100 metres, while Michael Mathieu just barely go into the semifinal of the men's 400 metres.

Sunday's competition at the Carrara Stadium, however, didn't go without its misfortune as sprinter

Shavez Hart missed joining Fraser in the century's semifinal. He ran 10.53 seconds for third in the second of nine heats and was 32nd overall.

"I had a good warm-up and everything looked good, so I really thought that I would have gone through," he said.

There was a false start with one competitor eliminated and after they settled down to run again, the race was recalled about 20 metres in. However, the officials then ruled that there was no infraction by any of the competitors.

"When we got back the third time, I just tried to sit back because I didn't want to got eliminated," Hart said. "I felt pretty good, but I was just sitting back in the blocks waiting and I may have waited too late to make my move."

Fraser, now juggling completion of his masters degree in Public Health and Management at the University of Georgia, could only muster an eighth place finish in the last of three semis in the men's straight away race in a sub-par 10,.44 that placed him 20th overall.

"I don't know," said Fraser, when asked what happened in his semis. "I tried, but I think I tried too hard. My body didn't give me what In asked for."

And although he got to the semis, Fraser said it's not something for him to celebrate because the goal was to get to the final and be in contention for a medal.

"You always expect to perform better than the last time, so I know I could have done better," Fraser pointed out. "I just have to head back to training and try to get my mind cleared up to race. I guess it's too difficult for me trying to jiggle grad-school with training."

Earlier in the day, Fraser advanced out of the preliminaries with the 17th best time overall after he got the second automatic spot in the first of nine heats in 10.37, running out of lane eight in both rounds.

Robinson kicked off the programme for Team Bahamas in the heats of the women's 100m.

In the third of six heats, her season's best time of 11.73 pushed her into the semis with the fourth fastest losing times.

In the return for her second race for the day, Robinson didn't have the turnover as she did the first time around and had to settle for eighth place in 12.09 and 24th place overall. The fastest qualifying time was by Asha Philip from Great Britain in 11.21. Michelle-Lee Ahye from Trinidad & Tobago won Robinson's heat in 11.25 for the third fastest time.

"I felt my first 40 to 60 metres wasn't where I wanted it to be, so I tried to hold on as much as I could," Robinson said. "It was still a pretty good feeling and I am just thankful that I was able to move it on to the next round."

Mathieu, having had his men's national 200m record broken by Steven Gardiner on Saturday in Miami, Florida, barely got through his heat in the 400m, running 46.97 for fifth place. But after the disqualification of Matthew Hudson-Smith, Great Britain's leading performer in the heats, Mathieu was moved up to the 24th and final spot for Monday's semifinal.

"It wasn't what I expected," said Mathieu, before learning of Hudson-Smith's DQ. "I got to the meet pretty late because I didn't know that I was going to run the 400 until today. Although my name was there, they was supposed to take me out of it because I had an injury.

"But once I got here, they told me that they told me that they couldn't take me out so I still had to run."

Mathieu said he felt flat and he wasn't able to turn it on during the back stretch and it affected him coming on the home stretch as the top runners were already too far ahead of him.

While here preparing to run, Mathieu also heard of Gardiner's impressive 19.75 run at the 2018 Miami Hurricanes Alumni at the University of Miami on Saturday. That erased Mathieu's previous national record of 20.16 seconds that he set on May 6, 2012 at the Grand Prix Caixa Governo do Pera, Belem, Brazil.

"I knew that he would have after I saw him run 43 last year and his first 200 metres was pretty quick and he still holds it from there," Mathieu said. "I knew then that he would do it, so it was just a matter of time."

On day two, Mathieu will be back for the semifinal when he will run out of lane two in the second of three heats in between Chidi Okezie from Nigeria in lane one and Kimorie Shearman of St Vincent and The Grenadines in three.

The first two in each heat and the next two fastest losing times will advance to the final on day three on Tuesday.

In addition to the 400m, Mathieu will also have some relay duties when he runs on the men's 4 x 400 team of Alonzo Russell, Stephen 'Dirty' Newbold, Ramon Miller, Ojay Ferguson and Teray Smith at the end of the week.