SPORTS SECTION E
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2016
EURO 2016
Roundup, 5E
Griffith aims to break the 10-second barrier in 100m By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net NOT since Derrick Atkins’ sterling silver-medal performance at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan, in 2007 has the Bahamas had a legitimate male sprinter on the international scene. This year, Adrian Griffith is hoping that he can be the next competitor to emerge on that level. “This is the best season that I’ve had ever,” Griffith said. “It’s just tapering up for the Olympics. That’s my main objective right now. So I’m trying to stay injury free so that I can compete in Rio.” So far this year, Griffith has produced the fastest time by any Bahamian of 10.11 seconds in the 100 metres and trails quarter-miler Demetrius Pinder, who has ran 20.45, compared to his 20.52. While Griffith, 31, has surpassed the qualifying standard of 10.16 for the Olympic Games
August 5-21 in Rio should have already de Janeiro, Brazil, joined him under he’s slightly off the the 10-second bartime of 20.50 for rier. But he’s conthe 200m. But the fident that he will former CC Sweeteventually get there. ing and Dickinson “I just have to foState standout said cus on a particular he knows that he can meet and I know run faster. that I can do it,” he “In the 100m, I projected. “I really know that 10.1 ain’t want to come home going to make it (out and run fast at NaADRIAN GRIFFITH of the rounds in the tionals. It’s in the Olympics),” he said. “I have to get new stadium, so I hope to really a little faster. As soon as my body go fast and run sub-10 in the 100m is well rested and I get ready for at home where it counts. a particular meet, I know that my “I’ve been training a lot and it’s times will drop. been a hectic three weeks. I’ve “So my main objective first is to had some knick-knacks, but my break this 10.1 barrier and then I body is healed up, so anything can work on my 200m. My 200m goes. I’m a competitor. I’m comhas really not been what I wanted ing home to compete, regardless it to be, but now I’m getting back of who is there.” there. Things are on the ball right In his last meet over the weeknow.” end at the Star Athletics Pro Meet Having been around when At- in Monte, Florida, Griffith ran kins was on the scene, Griffith 10.11 for seventh in the 100m and said he relished in the fact that he 20.52 for fifth place in the 200m,
despite getting a slight pull coming off the curve. “I’m going to see how it goes in the Nationals,” said Griffith, who indicated that he hopes that he can stay injuryfree. “I will see how it goes in the first two rounds in the Nationals in the 100m and then I will see how it goes for the 200m.” The good thing for Griffith is the fact that he has qualified for Rio this year. “That was the first thing for me to do,” said Griffith, who is coming off competing in seven meets in Europe. “Now I just want to drop my times and be prepared to run in the high-powered races so that I can compete with these guys in Rio. I don’t want to wait until I get to Rio and run in front of the 30-50,000 fans. “I am glad that I got the chance to do all of that when I went to Europe. Now I feel I’m better prepared to go through the call rooms and everything. Even though it wasn’t my best performances, I got the feel of it and so I
think I’m now ready for it.” In Rio, his ultimate goal is to advance through the rounds and eventually be in the final. It’s a tall order, he said. “It’s a 100 metres and just 100 metres,” he said. “Who ever crosses the finish line first wins, but there are seven other lanes. I want to get one of them. Any given day, it could be anyone’s day. I just hope that my day will come soon.” In addition to the sprints, Griffith is also hoping that the Bahamas will field a solid team to compete in the men’s 4 x 100m relay. “Earlier this year we’ve been trying to get things together, but it hasn’t turned out the way we expected it to,” Griffith said. “Some guys were dealing with some injuries and some were not yet ready to compete. “I know they’re waiting for the Nationals so that they can come home and compete and hopefully
SEE PAGE 3E
Ty’Nia Gaither gets set for Nationals By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunermedia.net
H
er collegiate career is over. Now Ty’Nia Gaither is hoping that she can make the transition to the next level, competing as a professional athlete. Gaither completed her senior year at the University of Southern California, placing fourth in the women’s 100 metres in 11.08 seconds and fifth in the 200m in 22.54 at the NCAA Division One Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, over the weekend. The focus now is for Gaither to get ready for the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ National Open Track and Field Championships, June 24-25 at the new Thomas A Robinson National Stadium and solidify her spot on the team that will represent the Bahamas at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 5-21. “I feel I’m in a very good position to come home for Nationals and compete at a very high level,” Gaither told The Tribune. “I want to be able to PR again when I come home. That is my goal. “I’m healthy and more focused than ever, so I am looking forward to competing at Nationals and then going on to compete at the Olympics.” Gaither, a 23-year-old 5-2 sprinter, has already qualified for both sprint events, surpassing the standards of 11.32 and 23.20 respec-
tively and she’s hoping that the women’s 4 x 100m relay team will also qualify and she can compete on that team as well. “As I continue to fine tune, I hope to see how my improvement can help me to compete at the Olympics,” Gaither said. “It’s exciting for me to be able to compete in the games in both events. “For the past few years, I’ve been dealing with a lot of injuries, but after tearing my hamstring last year and to be able to come back this year and excel at the level that I’ve done so, I’m very excited about my future.” Still sharp from just competing over the weekend, Gaither said there’s nothing much that she can do now to bring up her intensity because she faced some stiff competition during the NCAA Nationals. “I just feel as though it will come down to me taking care of my body, eating right, the small stuff like that,” she said. “I just want to make sure that my body is in tip-top shape so I can come home and do what I’ve been doing lately.” She will come having ran the second fastest time by a Bahamian so far this year in both the 100 and 200m behind Shaunae Miller, who has done 11.19 and 22.05. But the good thing is she should be the competitor to watch as Miller will only concentrate on the 400m. “I’m very grateful that the level of competition (at the NCAA Nationals) was what it was at this year,” Gaither said. “It will defi-
GOING PRO: Ty’Nia Gaither in action in the NCAA Division One Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, over the weekend. nitely prepare me for what is to come. Having to go up against some of the top women in the nation was a blessing for me. It just makes me want to work harder when I come home.”
She won’t have any shortage of competition as Gaither is expected to be challenged by competitors such as Anthonique Strachan, who is making her comeback after undergoing
surgery last year, veteran Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, who will be competing in her final Nationals and others like Carmiesha Cox, Lanece Clarke, Sheniqua ‘Q’ Ferguson and Nivea Smith. Looking back at her collegiate experience, Gaither could only say that she was blessed. “I had many, many blessings,” she pointed out. “I’m just fortunate that I was in the position that I was in. I was pleased to have been coached by one of the best coaches in the nation. I’ve learned a lot on and off the track. I just consider myself to be blessed.” Gaither, who was born in Grand Bahama to parents Sabrina Johnson and Tony Gaither, attended Osceola High in Kissimmee, Florida, went on to compete for the University of Georgia before she transferred to USC. “Transferring from Georgia to USC was one of the greatest decisions that I made,” she said. “I was able to travel to a different part of the United States and took on a whole different lifestyle. But it helped me to grow and strengthened my aspirations to be great. “Having to leave everything I know on the East Coast to come to the West Coast, it really revealed my love for the sport. Just being a part of the USC programme was a blessing. Everything that we do came with hard work and it really revealed my love for the sport.” With the Olympics right around the corner, Gaither
‘THE WILL TO WIN’ BOXING SHOW ALL SET THE Champion Amateur Boxing Club is scheduled to host “The Will to Win” amateur boxing show at the Wulff Road Boxing Square on Saturday, June 25. The show will feature the Lion-Heart Amateur Boxing Club’s Cameron Sweeting against the Champion Amateur Boxing Club’s Daedae Eugene in the main event. The Meacher Major Pain Amateur Boxing Club will also be participating. All amateur boxers and boxing clubs are welcome to take part. Food and soft drinks will be on sale. said she is hoping that she can get to run in another meet after the Nationals before she goes to Rio. Once that’s done, she will concentrate on her future as a pro athlete. “I love this sport more than anything else,” she said. “I want to go pro and to continue to do what I love.”
Free college info session for aspiring student athletes By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net EVERY year around this time, thousands of Bahamian students leave high school and they start looking at the possibility of where they will continue their education at the collegiate level in the US and Canada. On Thursday night, starting at 6:30pm in the Golden Gates Native Baptist Church, Dr Simeon Hinsey will conduct a free col-
WARRIORS VS. CAVALIERS GAME 6 @ 9PM THURSDAY, JUNE 16
lege information session where he will outline to parents, coaches and students the requirements needed to get prepared for college through athletics. Hinsey, who left the Bahamas at the age of 15 to pursue his education, will attempt to answer the following questions and more: How do I acquire an athletic scholarship? What do I need to be doing in order to get college coaches to recognise me? What is the NCAA eligibility centre? What is the NAIA eligibility centre? How do I sign up for those things? What is the links between academics and athletics? Is it important that I do well in school? “If you do get an athletic scholarship, what does the life of a student-athlete look like,” he said. “So I will be talking to them about all of those stuff and just try to provide this information so that I don’t get a call from somebody when their child is a freshman or sophomore at COB asking ‘how can you help my son or daughter.’ “I might have to say ‘I’m sorry, but it’s a little bit too late.’ That’s the purpose of it, but it’s also for me to start to get back into the community so that they can know who I am and to know that they have a Bahamian out there who made it and wants to give back to this country.”
Hinsey will be participating in the clinic with host Bahamian entrepreneur Monique Hinsey, who is his sister-in-law. Hinsey made the transition from playing basketball at Fayetteville Christian School in Fayetteville, Arkansas to coaching the women’s basketball team at John Brown University. He said he wants to encourage everybody that if he can do it, they can do it too. “I feel like in order to be successful in life, you have to be able to serve people and help them become successful,” he said. “If you can do that, you will be successful yourself.” The college info will also be the introduction to Hinsey’s newly formed International Youth Education & Sports Foundation, Inc. (iYES Foundation). “My wife actually came up with the name,” said Hinsey of Stephanie, whom he met in college and produced two boys - Sammy, 8 and Seth, 4 - from their union. “We want to play off the whole idea of the iphone. “This generation is the I generation. Everything is I this and I that. So we thought it would be a cool way to play off that, but it incorporates the entire world. I just decided that we have to do this.”
Hinsey, son of Rev Alonzo and Jessie Hinsey, said he intends to fully launch the foundation in August. Its goal, according to him, is to help as many Bahamians as possible to get into colleges and universities in the US. Monique Hinsey, founder of Global College Access and Mission: College Bound, which was instrumental in securing more than $16 million in scholarships for Bahamian students, said she’s excited about what’s going to take place. “We have a team from Texas Southern who called and said they see what we’re doing and we will be in town, so we will come,” she said. “They are going to be in the house as well and they will be doing some recruiting.” Texas Southern, according to Hinsey, already has an agreement with the Ministry of Education where they provide a number of scholarships to deserving Bahamians. Additionally, Central State freshman Iesha Lockhart, who is maintaining a 4.0 grade point average, will be delivering an address on the “Life of a Student Athlete.” Having watched Simeon Hinsey’s development over the years, Monique Hinsey said she reached out to him to come home and assist in the camp so that they can get more student athletes off to school.