THE JOURNEY TO TOKYO

THERE ARE NOW EIGHT BAHAMIAN QUALIFIERS FOR THE OLYMPICS

As it gets nearer and nearer to the Tokyo Olympic Games, uncertainty remains because of COVID-19, but the list of Bahamian qualifiers is growing!

Brianne Bethel, the 22-year-old Grand Bahamian, became the latest Bahamian athlete to book her ticket for the games, clocking a personal best time of 22.54 seconds for the women’s 200 meters (m) title at the 2021 American Athletic Conference (AAC) Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Tampa, Florida, this past Sunday. That time has her tied for eighth on the world’s top performance list for 2021.

Bethel has matured as a sprinter in recent times, running faster than she ever has in her life. She has switched her focus from the short sprints to the long sprints, and it is paying dividends for her. Bethel also ran a personal best time in the 400m over the weekend, winning the AAC title in that event as well, clocking 51.77 seconds. She is just four tenths of a second off the Olympic qualifying mark in that event.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo, 27, continues to be the gold standard for Bahamian female sprinting, clocking Olympic qualifying times in the women’s 100, 200 and 400m events over the past three seasons.

Last season, Miller-Uibo showed tremendous versatility, moving down to the 100 and qualifying for the Olympics in that event with a run of 10.98 seconds at the Back to the Track Classic in Clermont, Florida. In posting the stunning time, she became the sixth Bahamian to ever run under 11 seconds in the women’s 100m, and the fourth athlete worldwide to ever go sub-49 in the women’s 400, sub22 in the women’s 200 and sub-11 in the women’s 100 in the history of athletics.

Miller-Uibo is the world leader in the women’s 200 and 400m this season, running times of 22.03 seconds in the 200m at the Pure Athletics Spring Invitational in

Clermont, and 49.08 seconds in the 400m at the USATF (USA Track & Field) Grand Prix

Meet at Hayward Field, in Eugene, Oregon, both in April.

The Bahamas’ Olympic Champion in the women’s 400m already said she’ll opt out of defending her Olympic title in that event in Tokyo in favor of going after the 200m title. The rapidly approaching OIympics is set for July 23 to August 8, in Tokyo, Japan.

Tynia Gaither is the only other Bahamian woman who has qualified for the Olympics in two events - making the mark in the 100 and 200m.

Gaither qualified in both events early in the qualifying period, in 2019, but this season has really come into her own in the shorter race. Gaither, 28, ran a huge personal best time of 11.02 seconds in the women’s 100m at the TRUFit Athletics Sprint Classic in Miami, Florida, last month. That time has her listed in a threeway tie for eighth on the world’s top performance list for 2021 and puts her on the verge of going sub-11.

Over the years, Gaither has experienced more success in the 200m, making the world championships final in 2017 in London, England, and again in 2019 in Doha, Qatar. She has a personal best time of 22.54 seconds in the 200m, but initially qualified for the Olympics with a time of 22.69 seconds at the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern in Lucerne, Switzerland, in July of 2019. Her fastest time since then is 22.57 seconds, done twice at the Doha World Championships in 2019.

For the first time ever, The Bahamas has two athletes qualified in a hurdles event at the Olympics. They are Pedrya Seymour and Devynne Charlton and both have met the mark in the women’s 100m hurdles.

Seymour, 25, qualified early in the qualifying period, running a trio of times 12.84 seconds or faster in 2019. She initially qualified for the Olympics at the 2019 Nanjing World Challenge in Nanjing, China, in May of 2019, running 12.83 seconds. Later that season, Seymour clocked 12.78 and 12.84 seconds to validate the Nanjing performance. Seymour has a season’s best of 12.88 seconds this year.

Back to 100 percent after battling injuries, Charlton, 25, is running faster than she ever has in her career. She is having a fantastic season, producing a series of sub13 second runs in the women’s 100m hurdles. In fact, Charlton has gone under 13 seconds in each of her last eight runs in the women’s 100m hurdles, and has matched or dipped below the Olympic qualifying standard of 12.84 seconds in five of those runs. That sequence was highlighted by a stunning national record setting run of 12.61 seconds at the USATF Golden Games in Walnut, California, earlier this month.

That blazing time in Walnut represented the first time Charlton ran in the 12.6 range, and she broke Seymour’s national record of 12.64 seconds, that was done for sixth at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, in the process.

Charlton and Seymour are seventh and tied for 24th respectively on the world’s top performance list for 2021.

Steven Gardiner, The Bahamas’ only World Champion in the list of qualifiers, has met the mark in both the men’s 200 and 400m.

Like Miller-Uibo on the women’s side, Gardiner is the gold standard for the sprints on the men’s side. He has developed into one of the world’s best runners over the half lap and full lap events.

As a result of a conflicting schedule, Miller-Uibo likely won’t contest both the 200 and 400m at the Tokyo Olympics, but Gardiner doesn’t have that issue. He could run on separate days over the two events for five straight days and contest both finals on back-to-back days if he wants to.

At his best, Gardiner, 25, is comfortably under 20 seconds in the men’s 200m and under 44 seconds in the men’s 400m. He qualified in the 200m with a time of 19.96 seconds at the Back to the Track Meet in Clermont, last summer, and has matched or gone under the qualifying time of 20.24 seconds twice more since. In the 400m, Gardiner showed what he could do with that blazing time of 43.48 seconds for the gold at the Doha World Championships in 2019, becoming the sixth-fastest in the history of that event. Almost every time he

steps on the track in a 400m competition, he goes under the Olympic qualifying time of 44.90 seconds.

Gardiner has season’s best times of 20.24 seconds in the 200m and 44.71 seconds in the 400m, but has run just one race in each event this season. Over the past three years, he has dipped below 20 seconds in the men’s 200m twice, and under 44 seconds in the men’s 400m four times.

Samson Colebrooke is The Bahamas’ lone qualifier for the Olympics in the men’s century. He qualified with a blazing run of 10.01 seconds at the NACAC (North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association) U18 (Under-18) and U23 (Under-23) Championships in Queretaro, Mexico, in the summer of 2019, picking up the silver medal in that event. With that run, Colebrooke became the second-fastest Bahamian ever, trailing just national record holder and former World silver medalist Derrick Atkins (9.91).

Colebrooke, 24, is looking to return to that form and get even faster for the Tokyo Olympics. He didn’t run competitively in 2020, and has a modest season’s best of 10.30 seconds this year. Colebrooke is still looking to qualify for the Olympics in the 200m, running a personal best time of 20.46 seconds during the qualifying period. As mentioned, the Olympic qualifying time for the men’s 200m is 20.24 seconds.

Finally, the only Bahamian to qualify in any field event for the Olympics so far is Jamal Wilson in the men’s high jump.

Wilson cleared a height of 2.33m (7’ 7-3/4”) to match the Olympic qualifying height at the Banskobystrická latka Indoor Meet in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, in February of last year. He is yet to match that height outdoors, but has cleared 2.30m (7’ 6-1/2”) outdoors during the qualifying period.

Wilson has cleared 2.30m or higher four times in his career indoors and three more times outdoors. This year, he has a modest season’s best of just 2.15m (7’ 0-1/2”) indoors and the same height outdoors.

At 32, Wilson is the oldest Bahamian athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics thus far. He is now a two-time Olympian, finishing in a three-way tie for 25th overall in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has represented The Bahamas twice at the world indoor championships, in 2016 and again in 2018.

The qualifying deadline for the Tokyo Olympic Games is June 29, 2021.