Bahamas Finishes With Silver and Bronze in 400m In Istanbul

 

 

Grand Bahamian Demetrius Pinder ran 45.34sec for the Silver medal in the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, just ahead of the 2010 champion Chris Brown who placed third in 45.90sec.
Costa Rica’s Nery Brenes won the event in a new championships record of 45.11sec. World Outdoor Champion Kirani James of Grenada finished in eighth place in 46.21sec.
This was the first time at the senior level that The Bahamas won two medals in the same world event.
Last year at the World Youth Championships the Collie-Minns twins finished with Gold and Bronze in the Triple Jump.
After a layoff of a year, Chandra Sturrup, the 2001 60m champion finished in fifth place in 7.19sec. Veronica Campbell-Brown won the event in 7.01sec.
Sturrup first won a medal in this event in 1997 when she finished second to Gail Devers. She turned 40 years of age last September and now seems ready to qualify once more for the Olympic Games.
High Jumper Trevor Barry finished eighth with a personal best of 2.31m (7’7”). The event was won by Greece’s Dimitios Chondrokoski with a 2.33m (7’7-3/4” personal best.
World Outdoor Champion Jessie Williams finished just ahead of Barry in sixth place with the same height.
Donald Thomas, 2007 World Outdoor champion was only able to jump 2.22m (7’3-1/4”) which did not move him out of the qualifying round.
Long Jumper Bianca Stuart jumped 6.70m (22’0”) to make it to the finals. In the finals she experienced a hamstring problem, jumping 4.71m (15’5-1/2”) for her first and only legal jump.
It was anticipated that the men’s 4x400m relay team would participate. There were a total of five athletes in Istanbul for this event. After Pinder and Brown had made the final of the 400m it was decided by team management that they should concentrate on their individual races and not participate in the relay qualifying round.
The BAAA made a decision earlier in the year that athletes who wished to participate in the World Indoors should have made the individual standard for their event, and in the case of the 4x400m relay, should have demonstrated that they were fit with proof of competing in indoor competitions prior to the World Indoor Championships. Only five athletes applied and met the criteria for consideration.
With their one Silver and one Bronze The Bahamas finished in sixteenth place.
The USA won the championships with eighteen medals, ten Gold, seven Silver, and five Bronze.
Great Britain finished in second place with two Gold, seven Silver and five Bronze for a total of nine medals.
Jamaica finished with one Gold and one Silver, finishing in eighth place.
Costa Rica placed eleventh with their one Gold.
In the placing table Jamaica and Cuba tied for eleventh place while The Bahamas finished in fourteenth place.
The outdoor season starts in the northern hemisphere in the next several weeks and all Bahamian athletes will be attempting to make the Olympic Qualifying standards for their particular event.
The outlook for The Bahamas is good.

10th March 2012
Nassau, Bahamas
Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations