The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas will have a six-member team to represent the island nation at the World Athletics Indoor Championships to be hosted in Glasgow, Scotland, March 1-3.

The team members include the world indoor record holder in the women’s 60m hurdles Devynne Charlton, top sprinter Anthonique Strachan, heptathlon national record holder Ken Mullings, triple jump (indoor) national record holder Charisma Taylor, three-time national champion Laquan Nairn and Olympic bronze medallist Alonzo Russell.

The formidable team featuring a mixture of veteran athletes and rising performers has great potential, according to the team’s manager Demarius Cash.

“The team is very strong. On paper, I see us picking up a few medals. This is a team where persons can be added with the likes of Donald Thomas. It is a mixture of team members where we have jumps, hurdles and sprints and we have some upcoming rising stars on the team. I feel that once they put themselves in a position to compete at a high level, I think that the sky’s the limit,” Cash said.

The qualification period for the World Indoors opened in January of last year and is scheduled to end on February 18.

Additional members can be added to the team based on their world rank.

During the qualification periods, all six qualifiers have turned in top performances.

Most recently, Charlton has solidified herself as the world indoor record holder for the women’s 60m hurdles event. She took down a 16-year-old record of 7.68 seconds with her time of 7.67 seconds at the Millrose Games in New York. Before this latest feat she had already posted a new national record of 7.75 seconds in January.

Strachan had a phenomenal 2023, qualifying for her first global final at the 19th World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. The veteran sprinter opened up her season with a world-leading time of 7.21 seconds in the women’s 60m at the Track and Field Complex in Qazaqstan, Astana, Kazakhstan.

Mullings started 2024 on a high note, surpassing his previous national record in the men’s indoor heptathlon.

At the Illini Challenge in Champaign, he bested his former national record of 5,933 points and replaced it with 6,340 points in late January.

Cash said the expectations are high for the team ahead of the World Indoors in early March.

“The expectations are very high because we have the world record holder in the 60m hurdles and I think based on her achieving that, the team is very excited to know that someone who they can touch, feel and really be around has the world indoor record. I think that it will infuse a lot of positive energy into the team,” said the team manager.

As previously mentioned, the qualification period ends this Sunday but members can be added based on their rankings. Veteran Donald Thomas is in the mix of those athletes that can potentially join the other six members.

“If added to the team, he brings that veteran leadership.

For Ken Mullings this is his second World Indoors and he is number one in the world and is a rising star too so he [Donald] can provide good veteran leadership to guide those persons on how to channel their energy when it is a major competition,” Cash said.

He is hopeful that everyone will step up to a high level in Glasgow and offered a special thanks to the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) for having confidence in the team. The 19th World Indoor Championships will host over 700 competitors from more than 130 countries to compete in 26 events March 1-3.