The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Just as she started on Friday at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, Great Britain, Devynne Charlton finished the IAAF World Indoor Championships on Saturday running the final of the women’s 60 metres hurdles in lane eight.

After opening the four-day championships with a season’s best of 7.95 to win her heat out of lane eight and turned in the third fastest time in the preliminaries, Charlton came back in the semi-final in lane four where she lowered her national record to 7.89 for second in her heat for the seventh spot going into the final. She closed out the championships for the Bahamas’ five-member team in lane eight where she faded to eighth place in 8.18.

“I was very pleased with myself to come to this meet and get a season’s best first round and then get national record and a personal best in the next round,” said Charlton after she broke her previous mark of 7.93 at the NCAA Division 1 Championships in College Station on March 11, 2017. “That was really special for me.”

As for the final, Charlton said she felt she had a pretty good start, but she took a little too long in her drive phase and that cost her big time.

“I clipped the first hurdle and ended up hitting the second and third hurdles with my knee and that kind of took me out of it,” she explained.

“I thought if it wasn’t for the initial mistakes, it would have been a pretty good race and the final results would have been interesting. But it just didn’t work out that way.”

Now that the championships are over and done with, Charlton has headed back to Purdue University where she will prepare for her final outdoor season for the Boilermakers track team, which means that she will skip the trip to the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia, April 4-15.

“I’m going to go back to the drawing board and get ready for outdoors,” said Charlton, who had her parents Dave and Laura Charlton cheering for her. “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the Commonwealth Games because I would end up missing too much school and it’s in the middle of the outdoor season. My coaches wouldn’t release me for that, but I’m very much looking forward to the summer meets and representing Team Bahamas.”

Team Bahamas had one other competitor in action on Saturday. National record holder Warren Fraser got out of the preliminaries of the men’s 60m, running 8.17 for second in his heat and 13th overall. He went to the semi-final where he was sixth in his heat in 6.66 for 15th overall, failing to get into the final where American world record holder Christian Coleman established a new championship record in 6.37 for the gold.

The three other athletes who represented the Bahamas were Alonzo Russell, who got disqualified with the entire field in his heat of the men’s 400m on Friday - day two of the competition - while high jumpers Donald Thomas and Jamal Wilson were tied for sixth and ninth place respectively with three other competitors each, all at 2.20m or 7-feet, 2 1/2-inches when they competed on the first day of competition on Thursday.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo didn’t participate in the championships after her request to compete in the pentathlon was denied by the IAAF, but her husband Maicel Uibo picked up the bronze for Estonia in the men’s heptathlon with a lifetime best of 6,265 points. Kevin Mayer of France was the gold medallist with a world-leading 6,348 and Daniel Warner of Canada won the silver with a national record of 6,343 points.

Team Bahamas was managed by Sandra Laing with Ronald Cartwright as the head coach.

“While Team Bahamas did not secure any medals, the performances of Devynne Charlton and Warren Fraser is to be commended,” Laing said. “Devynne got a national record of 7.89 in the 60m hurdles and advancing to the final and Warren advancing to the semi-final in season’s best of 6.66.

“It is unfortunate with the disqualification of Alonzo Russell and his whole heat in the 400m. We were looking for both Donald Thomas and Jamal Wilson to be on the medal podium, but it was not to be at these games. The team members all have bright futures ahead of them and I am looking for great things from them in the future.”