Buda pest

Terrence Jones

Anthonique Strachan

Steven Gardiner

TyNia Gaither

Alonzo Russell

Shaunae Miller-Uibo

Devynne Charlton

Charisma Taylor

BY SHELDON LONGLEY

Once again, The Bahamas is setting itself up for a strong representation at a global meet in athletics.

The 19th edition of the World Athletics Outdoor Championships is set for August 19-27 at the newly built National Athletics Centre, in Budapest, Hungary, and from all indication, The Bahamas will be well represented.

Texas Tech junior Terrence Jones has certainly revitalized the men’s sprints in The Bahamas, running personal best times of 9.91 seconds and 19.87 seconds in the 100 and 200 meters (m) events this year, qualifying for the Budapest World Championships in both events. Also, the 100m time ties a 16-year-old national record that was set by Derrick Atkins at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan.

In becoming the joint fastest Bahamian of all-time, Jones has certainly established himself as one to look out for at the world championships and has thrown down the gauntlet for aspiring young Bahamian male sprinters. So far, Jones is one of eight Bahamian athletes to qualify for the world championships, with the others being Steven Gardiner (men’s 200m and 400m), Alonzo Russell (men’s 400m), Anthonique Strachan (women’s 100m and 200m), TyNia Gaither (women’s 200m), Shaunae Miller-Uibo (women’s 200m and 400m), Devynne Charlton (women’s 100m hurdles) and Charisma Taylor (women’s triple jump).

The ‘Road to Budapest’ for Bahamian athletes is expected to be a whole lot smoother after the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) Junior and Senior National Championships, as more athletes are expected to secure their spots. A number of them are close to the qualifying times and distances, and others will qualify through the World Athletics Rankings process and athlete quota for the event.

Jones is a special talent, certainly entering the realm of great Bahamian sprinters, not just for this period, but in the history of Bahamian athletics. Already this year, he has run two sub-10 races in the men’s 100m and a sub-20 race in the men’s 200m. Indoors, he came with a hundredth of a second of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I record in the men’s 60m twice - a record he shares with two others, and he went on to win the NCAA title in that event.

Gardiner is on the comeback trail, missing out on defending his 400m title at last year’s world championships in Eugene, Oregon, due to UTE (Ultrashort Echo Time) tendon inflammation. This season, he has run season’s best times of 10.38 seconds in the 100m, 20.14 seconds in the 200m and 44.42 seconds in the 400m.

Gardiner is looking to reclaim the world title that he won in Doha, Qatar, in 2019, possibly challenging the national record of 43.48 seconds that he set at those world championships.

Russell is quietly having his best season, running the three fastest times of his career in the men’s 400m, highlighted by two fantastic sub-45 runs. It’s the first time in his career he’s gone under 45 seconds in the men’s 400m. In fact, Russell has gone more than half of a second faster than he ever has in that event this year, clocking a personal best 44.73 seconds at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic in Gainesville, Florida, in April. Russell is now the joint fifth-fastest Bahamian of all-time, with two others, in that event, and could challenge Gardiner for the national title at the BAAA junior and senior nationals.

Strachan is another one of those athletes having the best season of her life. She has run personal best times in both the 100 and 200m this year, clocking 10.92 and 20.15 seconds respectively. For the second year in a row, she has run under 11 seconds in the women’s 100m twice - something never accomplished before prior to 2022. Strachan is also now the fourth-fastest Bahamian woman of alltime behind national record holder Chandra Sturrup (10.84), Savatheda Fynes-Coke (10.91) and Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (10-91). She is eyeing Sturrup’s 18-year-old national record and could be a force to reckon with at the Budapest World Championships.

Battling back from an illness, Gaither anticipates being ready to compete at the BAAA junior and senior nationals. She hasn’t competed for 2023, but reached the world championships required standard for the women’s 200m early in the qualifying period, running 22.41 seconds for second at last year’s North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Championships in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Gaither has represented The Bahamas at the last three world championships - the last two in both the 100 and 200m. She finished eighth in the women’s 200m in London, England, in 2017, and again in Doha, Qatar, in 2019, joining Ferguson-McKenzie, who did it twice, as the only Bahamians to ever advance to the final of the women’s 200m at two successive world championships.

Miller-Uibo also qualified early in the qualifying period, and is now on her way back to the track after giving birth to a bouncing baby boy in April. She qualified in both the women’s 200 and 400m in August of 2022, running 22.35 seconds in the shorter race at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Diamond League Meet in Chorzów, Poland, and a trio of races in the the longer race about a week and a half apart. She clocked 49.28 seconds at the Herculis EBS Diamond League Meet in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and then went on to run 50.84 seconds and 49.40 seconds at the NACAC Championships in Freeport. Miller-Uibo is the only Bahamian to qualify for the world championships in three ways - by time, as the current area champion from NACAC, and as the defending world champion. It will be interesting to see if she chooses to defend her world title in the women’s 400m, step down to the women’s 200m or even go after a qualifying spot in the women’s heptathlon which is rumored to be next on her agenda.

Charlton remains the gold standard for Bahamians in the short hurdles. She is the only Bahamian to run in the final of the short hurdles at both the world outdoor championships and the Olympics, and she did it in successive years of

2021 and 2022. Charlton has the top five times by a Bahamian, and 16 of the top 17, in the women’s 100m hurdles. Her personal best national record time of 12.46 seconds was ran in the semifinals of that event at last year’s world championships and she went on to finish seventh in the final. She was sixth in the Olympic final the previous year in Tokyo, Japan. Charlton is considered to be among the world’s best female hurdlers and is a force to reckon with whenever she lines up to compete. Last but by no means least, the versatile Taylor has come into her own as an elite athlete for The Bahamas. She can compete in as many as three events at the BAAA junior and senior nationals and would be a favorite for the top spot in each one. Taylor could give Charlton a push in the women’s 100m hurdles and will battle for the long and triple jump titles. In. the latter, she qualified for the Budapest World Championships with a massive personal best national record leap of 14.88m (48’ 10”) at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, in March. Her personal best outdoors is 13.99m (45’ 10-3/4”), done for second at the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championships in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in May. In the women’s 100m hurdles and long jump events, Taylor has personal best performances of 12.84 seconds and 6.51m (21’ 4-1/4”) respectively, both done this year and both just outside of the qualifying standards for the world championships.

As far as the relays are concerned, The Bahamas currently has one squad, the women’s 4x100m relay team, listed among the required positions for qualification purposes for the world championships. The cut-off date for posting a time fast enough to qualify is July 30. It will be interesting to see if The Bahamas could hold on to its position in the women’s 4x100m or get any of the other teams (men’s 4x100m, men and women’s 4x400m and mixed relay 4x400m) to post a time fast enough to attain a qualifying spot for the world championships. They have until the end of the month to do so.

The top eight teams from the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and the next top eight teams from the performance lists will qualify for the Budapest World Championships.

As we approach the nationals, it is anticipated that more Bahamians will reach the qualifying standards and others will qualify through the World Athletics Rankings process.

5TH-7TH 2023