The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE next event on the World Athletics Series will be the World Athletics U20 Championships to be hosted in Lima, Peru, August 27-31 at the National Stadium of Peru. 

The Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) rolled out a 16-member contingent yesterday,  set to represent The Bahamas at the five-day event in roughly one month. 

The 16-member group features an array of gifted track and field athletes which includes Shania Adderley (400m), Quincy Penn (400m) Shayann Demeritte (100m), Kei-Mahri Hanna (400mH), Calea Jackson (discus), Nia Richards (200m), Alexis Roberts (200m), Taysha Stubbs (javelin), Jeremiah Adderley (100m), Carlos Brown (100m and 200m), Andrew Styles (200m), Tahj Brown (100mH), Justin Hanna (high jump), Zion Miller (400m), Tayshaun Robinson (110mH) and Brenden Vanderpool (pole vault).

Team Bahamas will be under the tutelage of head coach Daron Lightbourne. Other members of the coaching staff include Corrington Maycock and Ravanno Ferguson. Laketah Charlton will serve as the team manager.

Coach Lightbourne shared his expectations for this talented group of athletes.

“My expectations are just really for these athletes to have the idea that they can go out there and compete against the world, show them that The Bahamas has great talent like anyone in the world and just believe in the training they have been doing all year. It is the end of the year and a lot of them mentally may not be there but I just want them to believe in themselves and believe in their coaching. They will have my support, the support of the coaching staff and management,” he said.

The Bahamas turned in some memorable performances at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Cali, Colombia. 

The nation came away with a gold and bronze medal to  finish in a five-way tie for 18th place.

Earning the country’s two medals were javelin maestro Keyshawn Strachan and 110m hurdles national record holder Antoine Andrews. 

The latter cemented his name in Bahamian history books as the reigning junior national record holder of the 110m hurdles event. He outwilled his competitors with a World U20 leading time of 13.23 seconds for The Bahamas’ lone gold medal. Strachan snagged the third podium spot in the men’s javelin event with a toss of 72.95m.

Coach Lightbourne is anticipating some great performances from this group  in Lima, Peru and wants the athletes to give it their all.

“We have a person like Taysha who is doing well in javelin. We know Zion is among the top in the 400m. We have Carlos Brown who is doing extremely well this year running personal bests in the 100m and 200m events. I think once they go out there and treat each round like it is the finals they will do extremely well. By leaving everything out on the line they can make The Bahamas proud,” he said.

The head coach acknowledged that because it is late in the season there might be a mental block for athletes but he plans to keep them motivated by encouraging camaraderie and not putting too much pressure on them ahead of the U20 Championships.

The qualification window for athletes will close on August 4. 

A total of 897 athletes are expected to compete across 45 events at the end of August.

Lima is the first country in Peru to host a World Athletics Series event.