The Tribune

BAHAMIAN judoka Xavion Johnson and the Government High School (GHS) Magic senior girls’ volleyball team emerged as November’s Tribune Athletes of the Month.

The Tribune Sports section will recognise the efforts of athletes across all sporting disciplines and award a top male and female candidate at the end of each respective month, culminating with the athlete of the year distinction.

Male Winner - Xavion Johnson

Bahamian judoka Xavion Johnson is on a mission to qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and he got one step closer over a week ago at the Montreal Panamerican Open 2024 in Montreal, Canada.

He doubled up on the bronze medals in the junior and senior divisions (66 kilogram) at the competition.

In the junior division, he advanced to the semis after defeating Chile’s Fabricio Meyer in the quarterfinal.

He came up short in his following matchup against the USA’s Jacob Yang in the semifinals. 

Johnson then took the bronze-medal victory against the USA’s Lenny Sheynfeld via ippon in the third place matchup.

In the senior division, the decorated judoka got the best of Canadian Daniel McCristall to advance to the semis. While competing in the semis, he came up short against Canadian judoka Daniil Kremerman. 

Johnson went on to wrap up the competition with a bronze medal placement with his victory against Canada’s Adrian Shimabukuro.

Female Winner - GHS Magic

The GHS senior girls’ volleyball team set out a goal to win the GSSSA volleyball crown and they pulled it off in emphatic fashion to end the season.

The team began the GSSSA do-or-die playoffs by eliminating the defending champion CV Bethel Stingrays in straight sets 19-13, 19-10. They met a great challenge in the CI Gibson Lady Rattlers in the best-of-three championship round, but dug deep to wrap up the series 2-1.

The newly-crowned champions were met with adversity in game one and fell to the Rattlers 25-20, 25-21 in two highly competitive matchups.

However, they made the necessary adjustments and bounced back to tie the series after winning game two 25-20, 25-21.

With the title hanging in the balance, the Magic put the Lady Rattlers away once and for all in game three. The Rattlers pushed them to the brink to win set one 25-21 but the Magic clinched the final two sets 25-15, 16-14.

• Stay tuned for the official selection of junior and senior athletes of the year next month.