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Photos: Racardo Thomas/Tribune staff

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

World Athletics Indoor Championship medallists Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Devynne Charlton were treated to a hero’s welcome in their return home following their historic achievements last week in Belgrade, Serbia.

Miller-Uibo, the two-time Olympic champion, added a World Indoor title to her acclaimed 400m résumé in 50.31 seconds while Charlton won the 60m hurdles silver medal and set a new Bahamian national record in the event with her time of 7.81.

The duo arrived yesterday afternoon and after being greeted by dignitaries at Lynden Pindling International Airport, they paid courtesy calls on the Office of the Prime Minister and the House of Assembly. The evening concluded with a junkanoo rushout along Mychal Thompson Boulevard and a welcome reception at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

Miller-Uibo’s time was just 0.10 shy of the North American, Central American and Caribbean area record she set last year and was her second World Indoors medal after she won bronze in her debut at the 2014 championships in Sopot, Poland.

Her sights are now set on the World Outdoor Championships this July in Portland, Oregon - the lone major championship that has eluded her thus far in her career.

“The goal is to get the two [World Championships] this year and to be done with the entire cycle, she said.

David Charlton served as the head coach of the five-member team and while he celebrated the efforts of the entire contingent, he singled out the perseverance of the two medal winners and the personal story of his daughter Devynne.

“I was with Devynne when she took part in her first World Indoors in Birmingham. She was excited to make the finals, but she wanted to win so badly that I watched my child cry. To see her cry again at these World Indoors this year in Serbia, these were a different kind of tears,” he said. “She should have been on the Olympic team in Brazil, but what a lot of people did not know is that Devynne had a broken back. She had to wear a cast around her for almost a year and she fought her way back to the top of her game. Maybe I don’t say it enough, but we are so proud of you. A lot of our athletes, not just Devynne, have been through turmoil, but you cannot let those downs keep you down, you have to get up. The world has so much to offer but it is not going to give it to you, you have to go out there and take it.”

Charlton said younger athletes should look to the medal winners for inspiration based on their journey through the sport and their development.

“When they were younger they had times where they did not make the finals, they used to come up short, but look at them now, they are at the top of the world,” he said.

“That is a lesson to all of our young athletes, you do not have to be a winner at primary and junior high school levels, but if you continue to work hard it will all come together.”

The younger Charlton said her first individual success of this magnitude will set the tone moving forward to an eagerly anticipated outdoor season.

“I’m expecting to build on this experience. A lot of the improvements I made indoors can only help with my outdoor hurdles and so I think it will be that much better,” she said.

“One of the things my weight coach said when I started making my way back is that it could be a career-ending injury for some people so I wouldn’t say I had the best outlook but through the support of my family and coaches I was able to rehab and come back stronger. It was hard work coming back but they made it possible.”

With the pair of medals, the Bahamas finished in a six-way tie in the standings with Brazil, Spain, France, Portugal and Ukraine. Ethiopia topped the list with four gold in their total of nine medals. Grand Bahamian Donald Thomas went into a straight final in the men’s high jump on the final day of competition on Sunday.

The 37-year-old 2007 World Outdoor champion placed 11th out of a field of 12 competitors with a leap of (2.20m).

Anthonique Strachan, in her World Indoors debut, reached the semi-final of the women’s 60m where she placed fourth in her heat in a personal best of 7.17 for 13th overall. Strachan, 28, advanced out of the preliminaries with the 14th best time of 7.22 for third in her heat. Collegian Megan Moss, making her initial appearance on the global stage in an individual event, was 26th overall in the preliminaries of the women’s 400m in 54.03. The 19-year-old University of Kentucky sophomore was fifth in her heat.

“Being the head coach of this team was a very easy task because I was given five professional athletes,” coach Charlton said. “We went up against the world and finished sixth against the world.

“We beat countries that pump hundreds of millions of dollars into their athletic programme and we were able to take those countries on. Suffice to say, a little more funding and we could have come first, I’m just putting it out there. I think some even bigger things are going to happen in this country.”