The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ eight-member team returned from the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Age Group Championships in San Salvador, El Salvador, over the weekend with a third-place finish overall and a total of 17 medals.

Medals included two gold, a silver and three bronze. Medals were also given out to the top eight finishers with the Bahamas getting a pair of fourth places, a fifth, two sixths, five seventh and an eighth.

Trinidad & Tobago emerged as the overall champions with 15,805 points. Barbados got second with 15,135 and the Bahamas finished third with 14,014. Jamaica got fourth with 14,014 and El Salvador rounded out the top five with 13,194. A total of 21 countries participated in the championships.

Head coach Sherry Francis said she was extremely pleased with the team’s performance, especially from Kenny Moxey, who was added to the team at the last minute to replace Grand Bahamian Tyrone Conliffe, who got injured in practice.

“The team performance was excellent,” said Francis on their return home on Sunday night. “We had to replace one of our competitors and we still came up third.

“The kids really did well. They stepped up. We had a lot of personal best performances, so overall I think they did an excellent job.”

Francis noted that Cuba had two very outstanding girls, while Trinidad & Tobago won three of the four divisions and got second in the other one.

“It was a really intense competition and the kids have a bright, promising future,” she added.

• Individual medal winners for Team Bahamas were as follows:

Gold - Tristan King (long jump) - pentathlon under-13 boys

Silver - Lynden Johnson (80m) - heptathlon under-15 boys

Bronze - Lynden Johnson (80m hurdles) - heptathlon under-15 boys and Tristan King (80m)

Fourth - Rajae Saunders (80m) - pentathlon under-13 girls and Kamran Rolle (1,200m) - heptathlon under-15 boys

Fifth - Phebe Thompson (80m) - pentathlon under-13 girls

Sixth - Kenny Moxey Jr (ball throw) - pentathlon under-13 boys and Kamran Rolle (ball throw) - heptathlon under-15 boys

Seventh - Rajae Saunders (high jump), Phebe Thompson (long jump) - pentathlon under-13 girls, Kamran Rolle (shot put), Lynden Johnson (ball throw) and Lynden Johnson (high jump) - heptathlon under-15 boys

Eighth - G’Shan Brown (high jump) - heptathlon under-15 girls

Team Bahamas clinched a gold medal in the under-13 mixed relay with the combination of Rajae Saunders, Tristan King, Kenny Moxey and Phebe Thompson.

And Team Bahamas’ under-15 team of Kendrea Munroe, Kamran Rolle, G’Shan Brown and Lynden Johnson also secured a bronze medal in their mixed relay.

Joining Francis on the management team were Luther Rolle, Mariska Stubbs and Grand Bahamian Jerrel Forbes as assistant coaches. Dr Alvery Hanna was the team’s doctor.