Peters just happens to be from the same island as Kirani James, who won Grenada’s first-ever World title in the 400m at Daegu in 2011 and then its first Olympic gold medal in 2012, inspiring an entire generation of Caribbean children in the process.
Not to be outdone, Anderson is also a proven winner. He won five javelin titles at the Carifta Games and was a CAC Junior champion. He is also the two-time NCAA Division 1 champion and the NACAC champion. However, he believes that winning his first world title could let kids know that there is more to track and field than the sprints.
“Being able to become a world champion, means a lot to my country, especially to young athletes. I believe it will open their eyes to see that you don’t have to be a sprinter. Sprints or jumps are not the only events in track and field,” said Peters.
“You can become a World Champion or an Olympic in a different event rather than the sprints or the jumps. So it just opens up eyes to see all the possibilities.”
The Special Golden Jubilee of Independence Award recognizes citizens for their outstanding contributions to The Bahamas in various spheres of human endeavor encompassing both the pre-Independence and post-Independence periods of Bahamian history.
Gardiner's triumph in the 400m event at the Tokyo Olympics not only secured his status as the 2021 Olympic champion but also etched his name in Bahamian sports history as the first Bahamian man to clinch Olympic gold in any sport. The 28-year-old sprinter, also the 2019 World Champion, has had a stellar career, boasting Olympic bronze and World Championship silver medals.
Known for his blazing speed, Gardiner holds the Bahamas national records for the 400m and 200m, clocking impressive times of 43.48 and 19.75, respectively. Indoors, he has demonstrated his prowess with a national best performance of 31.56 over 300m, setting an area best and world-best performance.
Despite setbacks caused by injuries that sidelined him during the 2022 and 2023 World Championships in Oregon and Budapest, Gardiner remains hopeful for a triumphant return at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Expressing his gratitude for the prestigious award, Gardiner acknowledged the consistent support from God, family, friends, and supporters. In an Instagram post, he shared his anticipation for the upcoming track season and the opportunities to showcase his talent, stating, "I look forward to this upcoming track season and the opportunities to showcase my talent and make my country proud."
Gardiner's achievements add to The Bahamas' proud legacy in track and field, a legacy that includes notable figures like contemporary athletes Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Tonique Williams.
In 2019, Whyte who was then training at MVP International in Florida ran a blistering lead-off leg before handing off to 100m gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce as Jamaica sped to a gold medal in the 4x100m relay at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
Notwithstanding the intervening ‘pandemic year’, 2020, when Covid-19 shut the world down; her confidence boosted by the gold-medal performance in Doha, Whyte began 2021 in fine form running a lifetime best of 11.04 at the Pure Athletics Sprint Elite Meet in Miramar, Florida on May 2. However, for reasons that she is yet to comprehend, Whyte failed to make Jamaica's team to the Tokyo Olympic Games after finishing seventh in the 100m semi-finals at the National Championships last June in a disappointing 11.52.
“I don’t know what happened to be honest. I started the season well but didn’t progress,” she said while revealing that the disappointment of not making the team to Tokyo was hard to take.
“I took not making the team really hard but sometimes we rise, sometimes we fall but you have to know how to turn negatives into positives.”
During the season break, Whyte took the decision to leave the MVP International training group for the Rana Reider-led Tumbleweed group in Jacksonville, hoping that a change of environment might bring about the change she needed.
“I eventually started to take the positives from last season and knew that eventually, I had to leave the past in the past because it already happened and there was nothing I could do but work on the future. So this is a new chapter and I am just trying to work even harder, stay healthy and apply what I’m learning,” she said.
So far, it seems to be working well.
On April 30, in her first 100m of the season at the UNF Invitational in Jacksonville, she ran a lifetime best of 10.97 to follow up on the 22.57 she ran over 200m two weeks before at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational in Gainesville.
“I’m really happy with the results as much as you would imagine,” she told Sportsmax.TV afterwards. “I just want to stay patient, continue to work on the many things I can improve on and see what else God has in store for me.”
She does admit, however, that despite the early success, making the move to Tumbleweed to work with Reider was not an easy decision but she believes it was the correct one.
“I have to say making changes is hard but sometimes changes can be good,” she said.
“I have been working on a lot of things and also learning a lot of new things so hopefully putting the new knowledge together will help me reach the goals I have made for myself for this season.”
Packing winds of more than 185 mph, Dorian slammed into the Bahamas on August 24, 2019, and remained over the islands until September 10, just about two weeks before the start of the World Championships in Doha.
It eventually left behind damage estimated at more than USD$3 billion and hundreds dead on the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama in what was the worst natural disaster to hit those islands.
Speaking on the World Athletics podcast, the lanky Bahamian, who lives and trains in Florida, said it was a difficult period.
“When the storm came it was a very hard time for me. I didn’t get to train for four days because my family, I couldn’t hear word from them and I just didn’t know what to do, but my coach, he was the main person encouraging me,” said Gardiner, who also revealed that his coach helped him determine whether his family was safe or not.
“There were like some safe lists on the internet. Everybody who is safe from the storm, at a shelter or something they would put their name on the list so he was helping me look through the lists, trying to call their cell phones, reach out to them…as soon as I heard from them I went right back to work.”
With his worries eased, Gardiner said he received messages from friends and family back home that served to motivate him as he set about the task of becoming world champion. “I wanted to give them more than my best. I wanted to give them everything I had and that’s what I did in bringing home the gold medal for them,” he said.
On the night of October 4, 2019, mere weeks after Dorian had destroyed sections of his home country, Gardiner won the 400m in impressive fashion.
Running a measured race up the 200m mark, the soft-spoken Bahamian unleashed his full power to pull away from the field and win in a new national record of 43.48s, the sixth-fastest time in history.
Anthony Zambrano of Colombia was second in a new personal best and Area Record of 44.15 while Fred Kerley of the United States, the pre-race favourite, finished third in 44.17.
The victory, he said, has whet his appetite for more success.
“I just wanted to go out there and give of my best and bring home a medal, to bring home the gold medal was the icing on the cake and it’s something that I want to do again,” he said.
The race featured four other Caribbean athletes that included 2011 World Champion Kirani James from Grenada, Machel Cedenio of Trinidad and Tobago as well as Akeem Bloomfield and Demish Gaye from Jamaica.
The diminutive sprint hurdler, who won national titles in 2016 and again in 2021, had improved significantly during the season when she ran what was then a new lifetime best of 12.63. However, after getting to the final in Doha, she hit the first hurdle and fell.
Speaking on the latest episode of On Point on the SportsMax TV YouTube channel, Tapper elaborated on the emotions she experienced during that moment on the track.
“Just complete and utter devastation. It was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe that the opportunity that I trained so long and hard for ended in such devastation. There’s no other word that can basically describe that moment,” Tapper said.
Tapper says those emotions also stemmed from the fact that she was in great shape and ready for the race.
“I’ve never been ready, up to that moment, for a race, the way I was ready for that final and unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish the race,” she said.
In that moment, according to Tapper, she was unable to contain her emotions.
“The feeling was overwhelming. I wasn’t able to be the composed Megan that most of us know because the emotions were so raw and overwhelming,” said Tapper.
Afterwards, she said, she sought support from those close to her for support.
“I reached out to the various people who were in my circle at the time and they would say to me 'don’t worry about it, this is just another roadblock. You are still Megan, you are still capable, anything is still possible for you, shake it off and let’s go again. Talking to my support team was how the motivation came back for me,” said Tapper.
The full interview can be seen on the SportsMax TV YouTube channel.
