Relays teams get final shot at Blue Marlin meet today

The jury is out on The Bahamas’ men’s 4×400 meters (m) relay team as it relates to qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

According to times posted on the World Athletics (WA) website, the final cutoff time is around 3:02.50, and that is exactly the time posted by the quartet of Wanya McCoy, Steven Gardiner, Wendell Miller, Alonzo Russell, in the men’s 4x400m – the final event on the track at the 2021 BAAA National Junior and Senior Track and Field Championships at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium this past weekend.

The quartet won the duel with Mexico but will now have to wait and see if the time will be good enough to qualify for the Olympics.

Mexico finished second in 3:04.46 and The Bahamas’ ‘B’ team of Corey Sherrod, Kinard Rolle, Shakeem Smith and Gregory Seymour, finished third in 3:10.74.

World Champion Steven Gardiner, who won the open men’s 400m at the nationals in 44.52 seconds, remains optimistic.

“It feels good to run with these young guys. It was a good run and hopefully we get in,” he said. “Right now, we’re just hoping for the best and may God bring us through. It felt good running with them. These are the young guns coming up and we just have to keep them on the right path and The Bahamas will continue to see success in this event.”

Miller, just 18, set a junior national record in the men’s 400m at the nationals, running 45.81 seconds.

“It felt good running with those guys – it was a great experience,” he said. “I’m just glad that I was one of the guys they picked to represent the country. We have more to work on but I think it is going to be enough to get us in. We feel good about our chances.”

The men will have another shot at the Blue Marlin Last Chance Meet, set for today, at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium. It’s the final opportunity for Bahamian athletes, and relay teams to qualify for the Olympics, as the deadline for qualification worldwide is June 29.

Also in action today will be the men’s and women’s 4×100 relay teams, the women’s 4x400m relay team and the mixed relay team. No Bahamian relay team has qualified as yet for the Olympics.

Bahamian Olympic champion in the women’s 400m Shaunae Miller-Uibo said she feels good about The Bahamas’ chances of qualifying in the women’s 4x400m relay. Led by world leader Miller-Uibo, there are five Bahamian women who have run under 53 seconds in the women’s 400m this year. The others are Brianne Bethel (51.77), Megan Moss (52.13), Doneisha Anderson (52.77) and Anthonique Strachan (52.96).

“There are some great girls out there who are really running some great times and I believe we have a really good shot to qualify, so we’re just going to go out there and give it a shot and hopefully, we could run real well and qualify,” said Miller-Uibo at the nationals on Sunday.

Anderson is optimistic as well.

“I feel good and I like our chances. I think we have a good crop of girls and we are going to go out there and make The Bahamas proud,” she said.

The Bahamas’ men’s 4x100m relay team has not run better than 39.49 seconds during the qualifying period. They will have to go about 38-mid to give themselves a shot of qualifying today.

“I feel like we’re going to get a great team together and we’re going to qualify for the Olympics,” said Samson Colebrooke who won the men’s 100m title at the nationals this past weekend, running 10.31 seconds. Colebrooke is The Bahamas’ only Olympic qualifier in the men’s short sprints. He qualified with a 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.

“I know Bahamians are wondering but we’re ready to qualify and make Bahamians proud of us,” he said.

Teray Smith is the national champion in the men’s 200m, running a season’s best of 20.67 seconds at the nationals. He was third in the men’s 100m at the nationals in 10.43 seconds.

“We’re going to go out there and do what we have to do. We’ll give it our best shot and hopefully, we could qualify,” said Smith.

With a couple of 

Olympic qualifiers in the short hurdles, Pedrya Seymour and Devynne Charlton, in the mix, The Bahamas’ women’s 4x100m relay team is also looking to put down a fast enough time today to qualify.

“The plan is to run the 4×100, so we’ll see how it goes. We’re optimistic,” said Seymour.

The top eight teams in the men’s and women’s 4×100m, 4x400m and mixed relays from the 2019 World Athletics (WA) World Championships in Doha, Qatar, automatically qualified for this summer’s OIympics. The same is the case for the 2019 world relays, but some teams qualified twice, meaning there are spots still available in each relay.

After the conclusion of the world relays this year, there are four spots available in the men’s 4×100m relay, four in the men’s and women’s 4x400m, three in the mixed 4x400m relay and two in the women’s 4x100m relay. Those remaining slots will be determined by world rankings as of June 29.

Team Bahamas is trying to avoid not having a relay team at the Olympics for the first time since the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

The rapidly approaching Olympics is set for July 23 to August 8, in Tokyo, Japan.

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