The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Snior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

GOLD Coast, Australia: Even though he was the recipient of the 24th and final spot by virtue if a disqualification, Michael Mathieu would have preferred to be preparing for the men's 4 x 400 metre rather than running in the semifinal of the men's 400m at the XXI Commonwealth Games.

Still trying to shake off jetlag and get adjusted to the time difference, Mathieu admitted that he wasn't fully ready for the 400m so early in the schedule and it showed in his performance at the Carrara Stadium. An eighth place finish in the second of three heats in 47.44 seconds was certainly not what he expected, but he accepted it.

"This one feels better, but I still feel tired," said Mathieu, about coming back from running the preliminaries the day before with a fifth place in his heat in 46.97. "My body just don't seem like it's right there yet. I'm competing against guys who would have been here from two weeks ago. So it's hard to catch up coming here so late."

Running out of lane three, Mathieu tried to make up the stagger on the back stretch, but by the time he came off the final bend, the field had already pulled away from him with Grenada's Bralon Taplin surging to the line in 45.44 for the third fastest qualifying time for the final. Mathieu ended up in 23th position.

Mathieu was originally 25th in the preliminaries, but awarded the 24th and final qualifying spot after Great Britain's Michael Hudson-Smith, the top qualifier, was disqualified.

Now with at least three days to fully recover before the start of the 4 x 400m heats on Friday, Mathieu said he's looking forward to joining the rest of the guys in the pool, including Stephen 'Dirty' Newbold, Alonzo Russell and Ramon Miller, where they hope to make a good showing.

"The guys are hungry," Mathieu said. "I know they wanted to get into the 400m, but at the technical meeting, they couldn't get in. So they have to wait for the relay. I know I was hoping that I would only run the relay, but I had to run because I was already included to compete."

As the games move into the third day of competition, the Bahamas will see Jeffrey Gibson contest lane five in the first of three heats of the men's 400m hurdles at 11:31 am and will be followed by Katrina Seymour in lane seven in the first of two heats of the women's 400m hurdles.

On their heels will be the preliminaries of the women's 200m where Anthonique Strachan will run out of lane seven in the second heat and Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who declined to compete in the 400m, will run out of lane five in the third heat. There are five heats and the first four and the next four fastest finishers will advance to the semifinal.

And on the men's side, Shavez Hart will be back to improve on his showing in the 100m when he runs out of lane one in the third heat and Teray Smith will trail him in the same position in the fourth heat. With nine heats on the schedule, the top two and the next six fastest losers will book their ticket to the semifinal.

While the Bahamas already has two competitors in the men's high jump final with Donald Thomas and Jamal Wilson going head-to-head on Wednesday, Tamara Myers will have the luxury of competing directly out of the final of the women's triple jump where she will be the first competitor on the runway at 7:35 pm.

Also on Tuesday, the swimming competition will come to a close at the Optus Aquatic Centre where Joanna Evans will swim out of lane three in the women's 400m freestyle at 10:43 am and Izaak Bastian will make his splash in the men's 200m individual medley in lane eight in the last of three heats.

Team Bahamas will have a busy day as Adrian Rollins, the Bahamas' oldest competitor at age 54, will make his debut in table tennis at the Oxenford Studios at 11:30 am against Rohan Sirisena from Sri Lanka and Anthony 'Biggie' Colebrooke will be featured in the men's cycling time trials at the 11:18 am at the Currumbin Beachfront.