The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

GOLD Coast, Australia — The men’s 4 x 400 metre relay team of Ojay Ferguson, Teray Smith, Stephen Newbold and Alonzo Russell added another silver to make the Bahamas’ total medal tally of four as the athletic competition closed out in the Carrara Stadium at the XXI Commonwealth Games on Saturday night.

Their season’s best time of three minutes and 01.92 seconds trailed Botswana, anchored by 400m champion Isaac Makwala in a split of 44.54, for the gold. Jamaica, anchored by Javon Francis in his split of 44.54, picked up the bronze.

Out of the entire field of runners, Russell produced the fastest split of 44.52 as he almost went toe-to-toe with Makwala on the home stretch after he moved up from third spot on the exchange from Newbold, who split 45.31. Smith and Ferguson both split 46.0.

In the end, the Bahamas finished with its best showing ever at the games with a gold from Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the women’s 200m and two more silver from Jamal Wilson and Jeffery Gibson respectively in the men’s high jump and 400m hurdles. That placed the Bahamas in 13th place on the athletic medal chart behind Trinidad & Tobago.

Overall, the Bahamas was 21st in all of the sports combined at the games, which for the first time featured the para-Olympic athletes, who competed in seven disciplines. The games, on the whole, was considered one of the best and most competitive ever held with Australia taking advantage of their home court with a dominating performance.

As anticipated, the Bahamas was expected to provide some of the fireworks on the final day in the relays and the men’s 4 x 400m team certainly lived up to its billing.

Ferguson, a late replacement for Steven Gardiner, who opted not to travel here to compete, opened up as he did in the heats the night before with the qualifying team of Russell, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller in 3:04.62, and put the Bahamas in 2nd place on the first exchange.

“I feel good. I came a long way. I finally got to prove myself and got a medal so I’m really thankful that I got to run with these guys again,” Ferguson said. “I’m just happy and thank God.”

Smith, coming off his individual appearance through the semi-final of the men’s 200m, said he felt good running with the team, considering that he has ran a number of 1,600m relays for the Tigers at Auburn University up until his final season last year.

“This is my first major championship medal so I feel very good about it,” said Smith, now a professional athlete training in the same camp with Gardiner and Jeffery Gibson where they added Blake Bartlett to win a 4 x 400m relay in Orlando last month. “I just went out there to hold my own and help these guys and try to keep it in a good position to give it to our anchor Alonzo. Newbold and Ferguson did a wonderful job so I’m excited that we came out with the silver medal. We have a lot to be thankful for.”

Newbold, mourning the death of his uncle, Gordon Newbold, said it was just an awesome race. “I’m just glad the father pulled us through the race,” he said. “I would like to thank him for the opportunity to come out here and support our country and support our families. We had an awesome team. New fresh legs and everything. It was great.”

After running a sensational anchor leg that had the crowd on its feet roaring as the final event in the stadium took place, Russell said he was too lost for words to describe the feeling that he felt.

It was an improvement on the team’s performance the day before in the semi-final.

The team of Ferguson (46.2), Russell (45.4), Mathieu (46.63) and Miller (46.34) was bumped up from fourth to third in the last of two heats after Australia was disqualified. It turned out to be the third fastest qualifying time, which meant that with some adjustments, the Bahamas was poised to get back on the podium, matching the silver won in 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland, by the team of Latoy Williams, Mathieu, Russell, Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown and Miller.

Head coach Rupert Gardiner commended Miller, who made the suggestion in the team member to “let the young guns” go for the medal. Gardiner called them the team of the future and noted that with Gardiner in the mix, they can be a formidable force heading into next year’s IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, and the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Their performance capped off a great games for the athletic team that saw Shaunae Miller-Uibo win the gold in the women’s 200m, breaking Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie’s previous games’ record, while Jamal Wilson secured a silver in the men’s high jump and Jeffery Gibson got another silver in the men’s 400m hurdles.

The Bahamas was hoping to add another medal in the women’s 4 x 100m relay, held prior to the 4 x 400s. But head coach Rupert Gardiner said a decision was made to pull the team after Miller-Uibo had a slight disc discomfort following her exceptional 200m victory.

“That’s our future and to put her out there and do more damage wouldn’t be fair on her,” he said. “We’re not at our best because we had some athletes in college, who could have given us a strong performance and not having Tynia Gaither, we decided not to run the team.”

Gardiner said the other members of the team, Anthonique Strachan, V’Alonee Robinson, Katrina Seymour and Tamara Myers all took it in stride when they held the meeting and explained their position.

After going through a series of tests conducted by Dr Rickey Davis, the head of the Bahamas medical team and members of the medical staff at Griffith University, Miller-Uibo was back in the stadium, cheering on the Bahamas men’s team as they clinched the silver. She celebrated her 24th birthday on Sunday.

With the Bahamas’ withdrawal, England raced to the gold in a national record time of 42.46 seconds with Jamaica getting the silver in 42.52 and Nigeria getting the bronze in 42.75.