The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AT the end of day one of the BTC World Relays Bahamas 2024 at the newly renovated Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, none of the teams from The Bahamas earned their tickets to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.

However, they had a chance to redeem themselves yesterday and get another chance to book their trips to Paris as they were afforded the opportunity to come back in the second round.

A total of 14 teams in each of the five relays - mixed 4 x 400 and men and women 4 x 100 and 4 x 400m relays - will qualify for the Olympics and the final two spots will be determined based on the performances of the teams from December, 2022 to the end of June, 2024.

Mixed 4 x 400m relay

World and Olympic champions Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Steven Gardiner returned with the Grand Bahamian duo of Alonzo Russell and Shania Adderley to defend their home title in the mixed 4 x 400 relay.

But the quartet couldn’t duplicate the victory by Miller-Uibo, Gardiner, Anthonique Strachan and retired Michael Mathieu in the last or the third edition of the World Relays held here in 2017.

In their preliminary heats on Saturday night, Team Bahamas clocked three minutes and 14.86 seconds for fourth place.

Russell opened with a split of 47.37, passed the baton off in second place to Miller-Uibo, who took the top spot in 49.70. She maintained her position to get the baton to Gardiner, staying ahead with his split of 45.10. Adderley led through the final 100m where she was passed and dropped to fourth with her split of 53.69.

“We kicked it off first today. I want to thank God for bringing us here. We are all going through some stuff,” Gardiner said.

“The last time we were here was in 2017 and here we are again in front of the home crowd, putting on a show.

“We had a 16-year-old, our junior. She stepped up to the plate. She had some butterflies, but we told her not to worry about it. We will put you out there and you just do what you could do. We were all juniors, so we know how she felt.”

Miller-Uibo, slowly working her way back from motherhood, said the important thing was to remain injury-free.

“We had a junior who stepped up and gave a great performance. She’s only 16 years old and I’m really proud of her and the team’s effort,” she said.

“We just really wanted to come out here and just try to qualify.”

Russell said the team simply did their best.

“Running here in Nassau is always great. I love the track,” he pointed out.

“I’m just looking forward to the Olympic trials and Paris.”

But for what they did Saturday night, he said he was happy to give the team a lead and to watch Miller-Uibo and Gardiner do their thing.

As for Adderley, he said “she did her best. I’m impressed. As a junior athlete, I never got a chance to run with the seniors, so she’s way ahead of herself. I’m just grateful for her.”

Adderley was somewhat lost for words.

“I felt like it was a good race. I didn’t get the best result, but I thank God that I got the opportunity to go out there and compete,” said the 12th grader at Tabernacle Baptist Academy.

“I didn’t want to let the team down.”

The Netherlands took the top spot in 3:12.16 for a short-lived championship record and the Dominican Republic got second in 3:14.39 as they both clinched their qualifying spots for the Olympics.

The United States of America, in winning the second heat, surged to the top of the chart in 3:11.52 to erase the Netherlands’ previous championship record in the rst heat.

The top qualifiers from day one were the United States, Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Poland, Nigeria, Dominican Republic and France.

Women’s 4 x 100m

The team of Devynne Charlton, Printassia Johnson, Charisma Taylor and Camille Rutherford ran a season’s best of 43.17 for fourth in the fourth heat for 15th place overall in Saturday’s preliminaries.

Charlton said it was important to get the team started.

“It was pretty solid. It’s important to come out here and do a good job,” she said.

Rutherford said she was excited to compete.

“I just wanted to go out there and get the baton around,” she said.

In getting the baton, Taylor said she just wanted to go for it.

“My leg was good. I think Camille gave it to me in a good position and I gave it to Printassia in a great posi- tion as well.”

For Johnson, she was thrilled to bring it home.

“It felt good. I just went out there and did my thing,” said Johnson about the anchor.

Qualifying in order for Paris on Saturday were the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, Australia, Netherlands, Canada and France.

Men’s 4 x 100m relay

Samson Colebrooke, Samalie Farrington, Carlos Brown Jr and Ian Kerr clocked a season’s best of 39.27 for sixth place in the first of four heats for 24th place overall out of a field of 32 teams in the preliminaries on Saturday.

“The first leg is an intense leg. You have to get out and push from the blocks,” Colebrooke said. “So I think I did a pretty good job pushing out of the blocks. It could have been better, but there wasn’t much I could do running out of lane one.”

As the newcomer, Farrington said he just wanted to do his part.

“From day one, they just showed me a lot of love,” Farrington said. “I just went out there to run well.”

In getting the baton from Farrington, Brown Jr said he was just concentrating on getting it to Kerr.

“I felt pretty good. I just wanted to keep my team in the race and execute the change over,” he said. “This is a high quality team. We have four of the best in the Bahamas, so I was happy to be a part of it.”

On anchor, Kerr said he gave it his all.

“I knew my team-mate Carlos Brown was going to bring it to me with some heat, so I just wanted to execute,” Kerr said.

“I thought I was very close to Korea. I thought I could finish a little faster.”

The United States, Japan, Canada, Italy, China, France, Great Britain and Jamaica were the qualifiers on Saturday.