By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT was a successful return to the track for The Bahamas men’s national 400 metre champion Steven Gardiner over the weekend in the Cobb Stadium at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.

Gardiner, competing along with Olympic hurdler Charisma Taylor and collegiate thrower Calea Jackson, opened his 2025 outdoor season with an easy victory in the men’s 300m.

Also, elsewhere over the weekend in Kingston, Jamaica, female sprinter Anthonique Strachan made her return to the track as well in the women’s 100m. 

Gardiner, the 29-year-old Abaco native representing Adidas, clocked 31.98 seconds to win the race over Jerome Blake of Canada, who did 32.50, while Andrew Hudson, representing Puma, was third in 32.76.

Gardiner still holds the world’s best of 31.52 that he posted in 2022 in the 300m. The Olympic (2020) and World Championships (2019) gold and (2017) silver medallist also holds the Bahamas’ national record of 19.75 in the 200m and 43.48 in the 400m.

Meanwhile Taylor, who also opened her 2025 campaign after competing in the women’s 100m hurdles and the triple jump at the Olympics in Paris, won the women’s 100m hurdles in 13.11.

Lui Lai Yiu of Hong Kong was the runner-up in 13.67 and Brittney Jennings of Miami was third in 13.88. Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, representing Nike, was also in the final, but she didn’t finish the race.

Camacho-Quinn, the Olympic 2020 Tokyo gold medallist and 2024 Paris bronze medallist and World Championships’ 2023 silver and 2022 bronze medallist, had the fastest qualifying time of 12.83, followed by Taylor in 13.21 and Lai Yiu in third in 13.63.

Getting in some speed workout, Camacho-Quinn was the winner of the women’s 100m in 11.34. American Sedrickia Wynn was the runner-up in 11.52 and Bay’Andria Hodges of Marshall was third in 11.7

Both Taylor and Camacho-Quinn opted not to compete indoors and didn’t participate in the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, over the weekend where Bahamian world indoor record holder Devynne Charlton repeated as the champion.

Fellow Olympian Denisha Cartwright competed in Nanjing as well, but she fell short of advancing to the final. Other members of Team Bahamas in Nanjing were Charlton’s sister Anthaya Charlton in the women’s long jump, quarter-miler Wendell Miller in the men’s 400m and sprinter Camille Rutherford in the women’s 60m.

Also at the Hurricane Invitational, Jackson, coming off an impressive indoor season for the University of Miami that fell short of an appearance in the NCA Indoor Championships, competed in a pair of field events. Her best performance came in the women’s discus where she had a third-place heave of 148-feet, 2-inches or 45.18 metres. Michelle Valentin of Florida International won with 188-9 (57.54m). Amani Heaven of Big Throw Athletics was second with 171-11 (52.42m).

And in the women’s hammer, Jackon placed eighth with her best heave of 176-0 (53.66m). Sara Killinen, competing unattached, won the event with 227-5 (69.33m). Valentin was second with 221-6 (67.51m) and Mariana Pestana of Virginia Tech was third with 206-8 (62.99m).

“I wasn’t very happy with my performances but the season is very early and we have another meet this weekend so I expect it to go better,” Jackson said. “ I just plan to focus on myself outdoors and regularly try to improve.”

Jackson, in her sophomore year at Miami, closed out the ACC Indoor Championships at the Norton Health Care Sport and Learning Center in Louisville, Kentucky, with an eighth place in the women’s weight throw, increasing her Bahamian national record to 20.02m.

Sprinter Anthonique Strachan placed third

Over in Jamaica at the Ashenheim Stadium at the Jamaica College in Kingston, after trying her hand at the 60m, Strachan decided to stick with the 100m as she made her comeback from last April with an injury.

“I tried some 60 (metres) earlier in the season but my legs just couldn’t handle it. And my mind was everywhere,” she said. “The last time I ran a 100 was in 2023, my season ended very abruptly and early last year, I basically had no races in 2024 outside of the indoor run.”

The MVP Track Club member competed in the women’s century at the Velocity Fest 16 in the A final of the women’s 100m where she placed third in 11.46.

She trailed her Jamaican team-mate Serena Cole, who got second in 11.45. Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, now training in Jamaica as well with the Racers Track Club, won the race in 11.28. Amusan 

Strachan, the 31-year-old with a lifetime best of 10.92 that she ran in 2023, won her heat in the preliminaries in 11.71 for the fifth fastest time going into the final. 

Amusan, the 27-year-old 100m hurdles world outdoor record holder, led the field with 11.41.

“My plans this year are to worry about myself, getting my mind back to trusting my body and learning my legs are not in the state it was in last year,” Strachan said. “I’m getting ready to give them trouble. But mainly to focus on Anthonique and Anthonique’s team.”