The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT wasn’t the type of fortune the Bahamas’ five-member team expected to achieve on day five of the 2025 World Masters Associations’ World Indoor Championships at the Alachua County Sports Center in Alachua, Florida.

Grand Bahamian Miriam Byfield just missed making the cut for the women’s 35-39 metres 200m preliminaries and, for the second day in a row, a Bahamian got disqualified as Dr Brian Humblestone stepped on the line in his heat of the men’s 85-89 200m final.

Speaking on behalf of Team Bahamas, team leader Michael Armbrister said considering this is an indoor meet and not often they get to run at this level of competition, the team so far did an excellent job.

“When you come to a meet at this magnitude and make finals in both events at age 88 and rank 4th and 5th in the world, just outstanding,” he said.

While Byfield, Humblestone and fitness guru “Downtown” Natasha Brown are all done, Armbrister said there’s great expectations for world outdoor 55-59 400m record holder Timothy Munnings and himself.

“The first round is over with and we had a chance to discuss the track situation, high turns and short straight away,” Armbrister said. 

“So looking forward to making the adjustments and better outcome on Saturday and Sunday finals for the rest of the team.” Byfield, the youngest member of Team Bahamas, was second in the second of three heats in 26.72 as she trailed Great Britain’s Stacey Downie, who won the heat in 25.92.

Although she gave it a gallant effort, it came up just a little short in seventh place overall, one stop below the top six that advanced to the final today. 

The sixth and final spot went to American Brittan Berry in 26.51. The top qualifier was Milcent Ndoro of Kenya in 24.89.

Humberstone had qualified with the fifth fastest time of 46.39 on Wednesday and was confident of a medal yesterday. But aft4r finishing fourth in his heat, he was given a disqualification for the lane violation.

The race was won by Jean-Louis Esnult of France in 36.20, followed by Karlheinz Seyerlein of Germany in 36.57 and American Robert Williamson in 41.37 for the top three medal positions.

On Wednesday, Munnings suffered the same feat as Humblestone, but in the preliminaries of the men’s 200m where he won his heat, but was disqualified for stepping on the line in his lane.

As the championships start to wind down, Munnings will be back for redemption on Saturday at 1:05 pm when he contest his signature event in the men’s 400m.

Munning will go into the indoor two-lap race on the 200m track with the third fastest time of 53.05. American Chris Horton and Allen Woodard comes in faster at 50.00 and 52.85 respectively.

If Munnings advances, he will compete in the final on Sunday at 11:32 am. 

Also on Saturday, team leader Michael Armbrister will get his first taste of competition when he contest the men’s 65-69 preliminaries of the 400m at 12:40 pm. 

Armbrister goes into the event without a seeded time. Australia’s Rob Mayston has the fastest time posted at 58.40 with Great Britain’s Richard White is next at 58.93 and American William Johns is in third with 59.02.

If he advances to the final on Sunday at 11:24 am, Armbrister will have double duties on the final day as he’s also scheduled to compete in the men’s long jump.

The long jump will open the day at 9 am. Again, Armbrister has no mark posted. The top mark listed is 18-feet, 1-inches or 5.51m by American Brian Hankerson, Danilo Melgar of Guatemala is next with 18-01/2 (5.50m) and Poland’s Wieslaw Musial is pegged in the third spot with 17-7 (5.36m).

Along with Armbrister, Munnings, Humblestone and Byfield, Team Bahamas was also represented by fitness guru ‘Downtown’ Natasha Brown, who was 20th in the women’s 55-59 long jump with her leap of 9-81/2 (2.96m).

The gold medal went to Sweden’s Annica Sandstrom with 15-11 (4.85m). Australia’s Lenore Lambert took the silver with 15-0 (4.57m) and Uruguay’s Monica Falcioni claimed the bronze with 14-11 (4.56m).