The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

HE will skip this year’s National Track and Field Championships this weekend in Grand Bahama, but national record holder Leevan ‘Superman’ Sands said he intends to hop, skip and jump his way into his retirement next year.

Nursing an injury that will keep him out of action at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on Friday and Saturday, the 37-year-old Sands said he is preparing for his farewell party next year when he will get a chance to compete in the Nationals as the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations brings it back to New Providence next year.

“Next year will be my last Olympic run. I will be retiring next year,” Sands said. “I haven’t been talking about it until now, but next June, I will hold my retirement party at the Nationals. If I qualify for the Olympics or not, I will still celebrate my career at the Nationals.”

Having done it his way, Sands said the good thing is that he’s leaving on his own terms with nobody trying to push him to the sidelines. “I’ve been through a lot of hardships and turmoils and a lot of people were saying that I should have retired a while back,” Sands said. “But I never gave up. I just wanted to keep pushing until I was ready.

“My father, Leevan Sands Sr, always told me to go out on my own terms. I didn’t want to go out when people thought it was time for me to go. I think that’s the right way to do it with a celebration next year.”

Sands will leave as the most accomplished Bahamian triple jumper who has won a medal at every international competition. He is the current national record holder in the men’s triple jump with a leap of 17.59 metres or 57-feet, 8 1/2-inches and the national indoor record of 17.10m (56-1 1/4).

Looking back over a span of more than two decades competing, Sands said the highlight of his career would have been winning the silver medal at the Pan American Games in 2015 and then returning to the Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after he went down with what was considered a career-ending injury at the games in 2012 in London, England.

“Wearing the Bahamian flag and winning that silver medal in the Pan Am Games was what stood out the most for me,” said Sands, who earned a bronze medal at the Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, China, bronze at the World Championships in Paris, France in 2003 and bronze in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England in 2002.

If there was any low point for Sands, he recalled it would have been at the Olympics in England where he went down with the injury. “I was in the greatest shape of my life and I knew that I was going to win the gold,” he stated. “It was my greatest disappointment. But even after that injury, I never gave up. I fought back and I am still here.”

In what could have easily been scripted like a movie, Sands had a career from Temple Christian to Florida Prep to Auburn University and everywhere else he’s been in between.

Before he ventured into athletics, Sands had a promising career as a basketball player at Temple Christian. But looking back at those days, he said he doesn’t have any regrets about the path that he chose to follow.

“When I look back, I did have a few regrets, but getting the individual medal at the Olympics supersedes all of that,” he said. “With basketball, you have to depend on the whole team. I could be good on the team, but my team could lose.

“So I would hate to go to a championship or the Olympics as one of the best and then we lose as a team. Track and field, it’s just me one. When I lose, it’s on me. Every now and again when I look back, I felt I could have made it to the NBA. That was one of my other dreams.”

But Sands said he can now live that dream through his three sons, Leevan Trey III, who is 11 years old, Lion, 7 and Legend, 5, as they continue to keep the Sands legacy alive in both sports.

He thanks his wife, parents and family, especially his grandfather Edmund, who all played a role in helping him to become the star athlete. He credited his father, Leevan Sands Sr, for his support as he emerged as ‘Superman.’

Sands Sr said whenever the novel is written entitled ‘The Making of an Olympic Champion - Leevan ‘Superman’ Sands,’ he intends to make his contribution to his son, whom he delivered from his mother’s womb.

“I did all of the sports, but I liked martial arts,” the elder Sands said. “My children wanted to do what I was doing, but I decided to push them into a track career. I told them they can get scholarships competing and sure enough they did.”

Having started under coach Stephen Murray with the Striders Track Club, Sands Sr said he watched as ‘Superman’ continued to soar as they developed the “killer instinct” and he became a superstar.

Sands Sr and his wife Elaine rarely missed a major performance that their son performed in, from the CARIFTA Games as a junior athlete to the Olympics as a professional. They were there through the highs and the lows.

So when he retires next year, Sands Sr said he hopes to be there supporting his son, who has assisted a number of Bahamians to excel in the sport as well.

One of those athletes, Latario Collie-Minns who, along with his twin brother Lathone Collie-Minns, hopes to follow in the footsteps of Sands, said he was impressed with his longevity in the sport.

“Leevan had a great career. He is the type of person who never lets anything get him down,” he said. “I wish him every success next year. Hopefully, we can get to compete with him again before he retires.”

Latario also hopes to become the heir to Sands’ national records.