Bahamas

The Bahamian track star also called on World Athletics President Lord Sebastien Coe to provide a detailed explanation of all the different failures that unfolded in the Naser case.

Naser, 22, who won gold at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, was on Tuesday cleared by an independent tribunal after she was charged with missing three missed drug tests in just over a month in 2019, due to a technicality and because one of the missed drug tests for which she was charged, was successfully challenged by her lawyers Dr. Emir Crowne and Matthew Gayle.

The Bahranian missed the tests on March 12 and 16 and April 12, 2019, six months before the start of the Doha World Championships. She was eventually provisionally suspended on June 5, 2020 following the investigation of a fourth missed test on January 24, 2020.

 Miller-Uibo wants to know why her rival was not suspended once those initial three tests were missed in mid-2019.

"Why was no action taken?" asked Miller-Uibo in a lengthy post in Instagram Wednesday. "Why was the athlete not provisionally suspended until one year and two months later?"

"I cry foul play and believe there is a deeper explanation of how World Athletics... allowed this to carry on.

“We need to ensure that in athletics, we the athletes are not competing against any administrators whose only goal is for athletes to run faster, jump further and throw further at any cost."

Miller-Uibo said she was concerned about whether World Athletics and the Athletics Integrity Unit are truly out to protect clean athletes.

“As senior administrators, their purpose is to protect and advance their athletes to the best of their abilities,” she said while indicating that the “recent turn of events” opens the door to many questions.

“How is it possible that this case lingered on until the World Championships?” she asked.

She said the Naser case and others like it “strengthens the need for an independent body to serve alongside the World Athletics-appointed representatives.”

“With the independent athletes’ body, more accountability will be given as we try our best to rebuild trust and integrity in our beloved sport,” she said.

Jamaica picked up another gold medal in the U17 Girls event while Guyana secured their gold medal in the U17 Boys race.

Smith, who won the U17 800m in Jamaica in 2022, took the lead after 400m and never looked back. She widened her lead over the last 100m to win her second gold medal of the Games in 2:09.71. The battle for the other two medals was intense as Jamaica’s Kishay Rowe, Haiti’s Victoria Guerrier and Barbados’ Layla Haynes fought tooth and nail for a spot on the podium.

In the end, Haynes managed to grab silver in 2:11.91, just ahead of Guerrier who clocked 2:11.99 for take the bronze. Rowe was credited with the same time but was awarded fourth place.

Cumberbatch led from the front from start to finish and never looked threatened winning in 1:51.34. Favian Gollop of Barbados stormed home from fourth place with just over 100m to go to win the silver medal in 1:52.33. Stefan Camejo won Trinidad and Tobago’s second medal in the race, taking bronze in 1:52.92.

Alikay Reynolds of Jamaica timed her run perfectly in the final 80 metres to take gold in 2:14.67. Ashlyn Simmons of Barbados relinquished her lead late and was forced to settle for the silver medal with a time of 2:16.28 while her teammate Chamecia Bryan took the bronze in 2:16.81.

Guyana’s Javon Roberts won the U17 Boys two-lap race in 1:56.64 with a late surge to get by Delano Todd of Jamaica (1:57.44) and Trinidad and Tobago’s Brandon Leacock, who stopped the clock at 1:58.17.

The 17-year-old smashed the girls’ Under-20 long jump record during the morning session of Monday’s final day, and later returned to anchor the twin island republic to a silver medal in the girls’ Under-20 4x400m relay.

Named in honour of Sir Austin Sealy, who started the Carifta Games in 1972, the award is given to the most outstanding athlete of the three-day spectacle.

While there were a number of breathtaking performances, De Gannes topped the pile when she measured 6.50 metres to win gold and establish a new record in the girls’ Under-20 long jump. The effort erased the old mark of 6.48 metres – ironically set in Grenada eight years ago – and positioned her third in the world in the Under-20 category.

She returned later in the evening to partner with Kaori Robley, Saana Frederick and Kaziah Peters to finish second in the girls’ Under-20 4X400m in 3:47.51. The event was won by Jamaica in 3:34.69, with Barbados (3:48.21) in third.

By virtue of winning the Austin Sealy Award, De Gannes joins a long list of outstanding athletes to have won the award, including Usain Bolt, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Yohan Blake, and Kirani James.

Jehue Gordon and Darrel Brown are among the Trinidad and Tobago athletes to have won the award previously.

Meanwhile, Jamaica topped the medal standings with 83 medals comprising 44 gold, 23 silver and 16 bronze, while the Bahamas ended with 34 – nine gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze. Trinidad and Tobago picked up four gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze to finish the championship with 28 medals overall.

Hosts Grenada were the only other team in double digits with 14 medals, logging one gold, six silver and seven bronze.

The 2019/2020 track season was characterized by meet cancellations and the introduction of virtual formats because the pandemic that has been sweeping the globe since March. However, meets gradually returned largely before empty stadia but many athletes still managed to deliver world-class performances.

Among them was the 2016 double Olympic champion who was fastest in the world over 100m for 2020.

Thompson Herah’s 10.85 set in Rome on September 17 beat out her compatriot and rival Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who ended her year ranked second by virtue of the 10.86s run at the Velocity Fest meeting in Kingston’s National Stadium on August 22.

Rising star Sha’ Carri Richardson, in her first full season as a professional, was third fastest with 10.95.

The Bahamian sprint queen was equally impressive in the year in which she set a personal best of 10.98s in the 100m and the world’s best time of 21.98 in the 200m at the Back to the Track Meeting in Clermont, Florida on July 25.

Richardson capped her great year with a personal best 22.00 that was the second fastest for 2020 while Thompson Herah’s 22.19 ranked her third in the world for the year.

Miller-Uibo, who last year set 48.37 the sixth fastest time in history over the 400m was only second best for 2020 with 50.52 set in Monteverde, Florida on July 4. That time was only bettered by Lynna Irby’s 50.50, the fastest time in the world this year.

Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands clocked 50.98, which made her third best in the world for the year.

Miller, who has season-best times of 10.98 and 21.98 over the 100 and 200m, respectively, was a heavy favourite to win the half-lap sprint. However, she pulled up during the second of two heats won by the USA’s Lynna Irby in 22.52.

Coach Brauman, however, said the athlete felt some tightness, “nothing major,” he said.

Miller-Uibo, the 2016 Olympic 400m champion, had been unbeaten over the 200m for the past two seasons during which she ran a personal best 21.74 run in Zurich on August 29, 2019. Her only loss over the 400m came in October last year at the 2019 World Championships in Doha where she ran a personal best 48.37 only to lose to Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Nasser who ran 48.14, the third-fastest time in history.

  Women’s 4x400 Metres

 Cuba and Jamaica both advanced to the final.

The Cuban team of Zurian Hechevarria, Rose Mary Almanza, Sahily Diago and Lisneidy Veitia ran 3:24.04 to finish second in heat 1.

Junelle Bromfield, Roniesha McGregor, Janieve Russell and Stacey Ann Williams formed the Jamaican quartet that finished second in heat 2 to advance with 3:21.95.

The Bahamas quartet of Doneisha Anderson

Megan Moss, Brianne Bethel and Anthonique Strachan also competed in heat 1 but did not finish the race.

 Men’s 400 Metres

The Caribbean secured two more medals in the men’s 400 metres.

Bahamian Steven Gardiner won gold in a time of 43.85 and Grenada’s Kirani James secured bronze in 44.19.

 This is Gardiner’s second straight global gold medal after winning at the 2019 Doha World Championships.

James has now won 400 metres medals at the last three Olympics after winning gold in London in 2012 and silver in Rio 2016.

Jamaica’s Christopher Taylor was also in the final and finished sixth in a new personal best 44.79.

Two Caribbean men advanced to the final. Jamaica’s Ronald Levy advanced after winning semi-final 1 in 13.23.

Levy’s teammate, 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Hansle Parchment, also advanced to the final after finishing second in semi-final 3 in 13.23.

Jamaica’s third participant in the semis, Damion Thomas, narrowly missed out on a place in the final after finishing third in semi-final 2 in 13.39.

Shane Brathwaite of Barbados and Eddie Lovett were the other Caribbean competitors in the discipline but both men failed to progress from the heats. 

Men’s 200 Metres

Jamaica’s Rasheed Dwyer and Trinidad & Tobago’s Jereem Richards will both contest the final.

Dwyer advanced by finishing second in semi-final 1 in a time of 20.13, while Richards finished third in semi-final 2 with 20.10 to advance as one of the two fastest losers.

Women’s 800 Metres

Jamaica’s Natoya Goule was the Caribbean’s lone competitor in the final.

Goule attempted to go with the early pace set by outstanding American teenager Athing Mu and unfortunately faded towards the end of the race, eventually finishing eighth in 1:58.26.

The race was won by Mu in an American record of 1:55.21 and she was followed by Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, also only 19 years old, who ran a British record 1:55.88 for silver and American Raevyn Rodgers who ran a personal best 1:56.81 for bronze.

Women’s 200 Metres

Elaine Thompson-Herah created history by becoming the second person to win the 100-200 double at back-to-back Olympics, the first being the great Usain Bolt who did it at three straight games from 2008-2016.

She crossed the line first in a new personal best of 21.53 to become the second-fastest woman of all time over the distance.

Namibian Christine Mboma won silver in a world junior record of 21.81 and American Gabby Thomas won bronze in 21.87.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ran 21.94 to finish fourth and Shaunae Miller-Uibo, evidently saving her legs for the 400 metres, jogged home to finish 8^th in 24.00.

Men’s Javelin

No Caribbean men advanced to the final.

Grenada’s Anderson Peters, a 2019 World Championship gold medalist, finished 15^th in qualifying with a best distance of 80.42.

Trinidadian 2012 Olympic Champion, Keshorn Walcott, finished 16^th in qualifying with 79.33.

Walcott was aiming to win javelin medals at three straight Olympics after winning gold in London in 2012 and bronze in Rio in 2016.

Women’s 400 Metres Hurdles

The running theme of spectacular 400-metre hurdling at the Tokyo Olympics continued as the women’s equivalent also saw a new world record being established.

American Sydney McLaughlin won gold in a new world record of 51.46, breaking her own previous world record of 51.90 which she set at the US trials.

Her teammate Dalilah Muhammad, the defending champion in the event, finished second in 51.58, a new personal best.

Dutch rising star Femke Bol won bronze by setting a new European record 52.03.

Jamaica’s Janieve Russell finished a distant fourth but came away with an outstanding new personal best of 53.03 in the process.

 Five Caribbean women advanced to the final.

Marileidy Paulino of The Dominican Republic won semi-final 1 in a national record of 49.38 to advance.

Jamaica’s Candice McLeod and Cuba’s Roxana Gomez also progressed from semi-final 1.

McLeod ran a personal best of 49.51 to finish second and advance automatically while Gomez finished third in a personal best 49.71 and advanced in a fastest loser spot.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo advanced by running 49.60 to win the second semi-final.

Jamaica’s Roniesha McGregor and Guyana’s Aliyah Abrams were also in semi-final 2 but failed to advance, finishing third in 50.34 and seventh in 51.46 respectively.

Stephenie Ann McPherson won semi-final 3 in a personal best 49.34 to qualify.

Sada Williams finished third in that race in a national record of 50.11 but that wasn’t enough to get her into the final.

Men’s 200 Metres

 Canadian Andre DeGrasse ran a Canadian record 19.62 to take gold.

DeGrasse, silver medalist behind Usain Bolt at the 2016 Rio games, will be joined on the podium by Americans Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles.

Bednarek ran a personal best 19.68 for silver and Lyles ran a season’s best 19.74 for bronze.

Jamaica’s Rasheed Dwyer finished 7^th in 20.21 and Jereem Richards of Trinidad & Tobago finished 8^th in 20.39.

Women’s High Jump

 St. Lucian Levern Spencer finished 22^nd in qualifying.

Women’s 4x100 Metres Relay

 The Jamaican team consisting of Briana Williams, Natasha Morrison, Remona Burchell and Shericka Jackson ran 42.15 to finish third in heat 1 and advance to the final.

Men’s 4x100 Metres Relay

 Jamaica qualified for the final after running the fastest time in the heats.

The team of Jevaughn Minzie, Julian Forte, Yohan Blake and Oblique Seville ran a time of 37.82 to win heat 1.

Trinidad & Tobago were also in heat 1 and finished 6^th with a time of 38.63.

Their team consisted of Kion Benjamin, Eric Harrison, Akanni Hislop and Richard Thompson, silver medalist from the 2008 Beijing games.

Men’s 110 Metres Hurdles

 Jamaica secured two medals in the final of the men’s 110 metres hurdles.

Hansle Parchment, a bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, ran a season’s best of 13.04 to win gold ahead of the prohibitive favourite, Grant Holloway of the USA, who took silver in 13.09.

 Ronald Levy ran 13.10 for bronze, his first Olympic medal.

The 29-year-old Jamaica, who became the first woman to successfully win 100 and 200m titles at consecutive Olympic Games, stunned the world this past summer in Tokyo when she ran an Olympic record of 10.61 to win gold in the 100m and then followed up with a 21.53-second run to take a second gold medal in the 200m. The 21.53 was also a Jamaican national record and, is the second-fastest time ever by a woman in the 200m.

She added a third gold medal when she ran the second leg of Jamaica’s victorious 4x100m relay team that ran a national record of 41.02, the third-fastest in history

Following the Olympics, Thompson-Herah ran times of 10.54, 10.64 and 10.65 to win the 100m Diamond League title and which made her the first woman in history to run faster than 10.70 on four separate occasions.

 However, notwithstanding her record-breaking performances, Thompson-Herah will not have things her own way because the nine other candidates also had incredible seasons.

Valarie Allman, USA of the USA is the Olympic discus champion and Diamond League champion and set a North American discus record of 71.16m.

Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn ran unbeaten during the season winning the Olympic title with a new Olympic and National record of 12.26, equaling fourth on the world all-time list.

Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won Olympic titles in the 5000m and 10,000m champion and was the silver medalist in the 1500m. She also broke the 10,000m world record during the season.

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon is the Olympic and Diamond League 1500m champion and set the Kenyan 1500m record of 3:51.07 in Monaco.

Mariya Lasitskene won the Olympic high jump and the Diamond League and set a world-leading 2.05m.

Sydney McLaughlin of the USA set two world records in the 400m hurdles on her to win her first Olympic title in Tokyo where she also won gold as a member of the USA’s 4x400m relay team.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas won her second Olympic title in an area and national record 48.36. She joined Marie Jose Perec as the only woman to win 400m gold medals at consecutive Olympic Games.

She also set a North American Indoor 400m record of 50.21 in April.

Athing Mu of the USA won gold medals in the 800m and 4x400m relay in Tokyo. She also set a World U20 indoor 800m record and North American U20 records at 400m and 800m.

Yulimar Rojas set a new World and Olympic record of 15.67m while winning the gold medal in the triple jump in Tokyo. She was also the Diamond League champion.

A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.

The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week; a 'like' on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.

 The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50 per cent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25 per cent of the final result.

 Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Saturday 6 November. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.

 The female and male World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 in December.

Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago both advanced to the final.

The Trinidadian team consisting of Deon Lendore, Jereem Richards, Machel Cedenio and Dwight St. Hillaire ran a season’s best of 2:58.60 to finish 3^rd in heat 1 and progress.

Jamaica fielded a team of Demish Gaye, Jaheel Hyde, Karayme Bartley and Nathon Allen to finish 2^nd in heat 2 with a season’s best time of 2:59.29 to advance.

Women’s 400 Metres

The Caribbean secured two medals in the women’s 400 metres.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas successfully defended her title from the 2016 Games by winning gold in a personal best 48.36, the 6^th fastest time ever in the event.

She was followed by Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic who took silver in a national record 49.20.

Allyson Felix of the USA became the most decorated female track athlete in Olympic history by finishing 3^rd and securing her 10^th Olympic medal, one more than Jamaican legend Merlene Ottey.

Jamaicans Stephenie-Ann McPherson and Candice McLeod finished 4^th and 5^th in 49.61 and 49.87 respectively.

Cuba’s Roxana Gomez started the final but unfortunately failed to finish, pulling up injured about 100 metres into the race.

Women’s 4x100 Metres

The Jamaican quartet of Briana Williams, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson celebrated Jamaica’s Independence Day by running a national record of 41.02 to secure the gold medal.

This marks Jamaica’s first time winning Olympic gold in women’s 4x100 metres relay since Athens 2004.

Javianne Oliver, Teahna Daniels, Jenna Prandini and Gabby Thomas combined to run 41.45 to secure the silver medal for the USA, while Great Britain with Asha Phillip, Imani Lansiquot, Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita ran 41.88 for bronze.

Men’s 4x100 Metres

Jamaica finished 5^th in the final of the men’s 4x100 metres relay.

Jevaughn Minzie, Julian Forte, Yohan Blake and Oblique Seville combined to run 37.84 to finish behind Italy, Great Britain, Canada and China.

The Italian team of Lorenzo Patta, Lamont Marcell Jacobs, Fostine Desalu and Filippo Tortu ran a national record 37.50 to secure gold and continue the country’s impressive track & field showing in Tokyo.

The British team comprising of CJ Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake ran 37.51 to finish just behind the Italians in 2^nd.

Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse combined to run 37.70 and secure the bronze for Canada.

The other regional athletes in competition, Jamaicans Chanice Porter and Tissanna Hickling finished 24th and 25th respectively in qualifying with distances of 6.22 and 6.19.

Elsewhere, Trinidad & Tobago’s Portious Warren could not manage to get among the medals after finishing 10th in the final of the women’s shot put.

Men's 400m 

Nine Caribbean men advanced to the next round of the men’s 400 metres.  Heat 1 of the event saw Grenada’s 2012 Olympic Champion, Kirani James, finish second in 45.09 to advance.

Demish Gaye of Jamaica and Alonzo Russell of the Bahamas also advanced to the semi-finals from heat 1 as two of the six fastest losers, after finishing 4th and 5th in 45.49 and 45.51 respectively.

The third heat also saw three Caribbean men advance to the semi-finals as Jonathan Jones of Barbados, Christopher Taylor of Jamaica and Dwight St. Hillaire of Trinidad & Tobago all made it through.

Jones and Taylor finished second and third with times of 45.04 and 45.20 to advance automatically and St. Hillaire finished fourth in 45.41 to advance as a fastest loser.

Steven Gardiner, the reigning world champion, easily won heat 5 in 45.05 to advance to the semi-finals.

Trinidadian Deon Lendore also advanced from heat 5 after finishing second behind Gardiner in 45.14.

Jamaica’s Nathon Allen was also in heat 5 but failed to advance after finishing fourth in 46.12.

Machel Cedenio, the Trinidadian who narrowly missed out on a medal five years ago in Rio, also advanced to the semi-finals after finishing third in the 6th and final heat in 45.56.

Men's Lomg Jump

Earlier, Tajay Gayle qualified for the final of the men’s long jump, despite picking up an apparent left knee injury.

The Jamaican fouled his first attempt and picked up the injury while jumping 6.72 in his second attempt.  He jumped out to 8.14 in his third, with heavy strapping around his left knee.

Juan Miguel Echevarria of Cuba had the longest jump in qualifying after leaping out to 8.50 in his first attempt.

The men’s long jump final will get underway at 8:20pm today.

Natoya Goule won her semi-final to advance to the final of the women’s 800 metres.

Goule took the lead early and never looked back, running 1:59.57 to get to her first Olympic final.

Jamaica’s Chad Wright, in the meantime, finished ninth in the men’s discus final with a throw of 62.56.

Elsewhere, the Dominican Republic mixed 4x400m team of Andres Feliz, Marileidy Paulino, Anabel Medina, and Alexander Ogando ran 3:10.21 to finish second in the final and secure the silver medal.

Sean Bailey, Stacy Ann-Williams, Tovea Jenkins, and Karayme Bartley ran for Jamaica and finished 7th in 3:14.95.

The reigning two-time Olympic 400 metres champion has a personal best of 48.36 which makes her the sixth fastest woman of all time. She achieved the time in a dominant display in the 400 final on her way to defending her title in Tokyo.

Speaking with Sportsmax.TV's Leighton Levy in an On Point to air on Sportsmax.TV’s YouTube Channel and app this Friday, (November 19) Miller-Uibo expressed that even the thought of challenging the world record is new territory for women’s 400 metres sprinters. Marita Koch's world record of 47.60 has been standing since 1985.

“Yeah definitely, I think there was a time where it was almost like people weren’t looking at the record but just seeing how far you can go in the 400,” the statuesque Bahamian said

The multiple world championship medallist credits her years of experience competing at the highest level as being among the reasons she now has her sights set on Koch’s 36-year-old mark while also noting there’s still more work to be done.

“I’ve put in a lot of work over these past seasons and I’ve learned a lot about the event and as my times continue to drop, I think we still have a long way to go,” she said.

Miller-Uibo also takes confidence from the fact that she was able to produce 48.36 during a season that was interrupted by injuries.

“Just being able to run 48.36 off of the season that I had. I think there’s so much more in store,” she said.

Even if she does not achieve the world record, the Bahamian says her main goal is to dip below the 48 second barrier for the first time.

“The main goal is definitely going to be to try and drop below the 48-second barrier. The world record is in sight and we’re definitely going to go out and try to go after it very hard and see where we fall with it,” she said.

If she does manage to break 48 seconds, Miller-Uibo would become only the third woman in history to do so after the 47.99 done in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvilova and Marita Koch’s world record of 47.60.

The full interview with Shaunae Miller-Uibo can be seen on the Sportsmax YouTube channel and app this Friday.

But while he dreams of one day breaking Wayde van Niekerk’s four-year-old world record of 43.03, he would prefer for it to come as a surprise.

“I would say that is everybody’s dream! If I do set the world record, I want it to be a surprise,” Gardiner said in a recent interview with World Athletics.

“I just want to go out, compete and then when I look at the clock, find that I’ve set a world record.”

The soft-spoken Bahamian harbours hope to have a good year competing in 2021 culminating with another gold medal in Tokyo.

“I just want to compete the best I can and leave with a medal, specifically the gold medal. I know what I have to do. For the season, I’d like to run a few PBs and then win an Olympic medal,” he said.

With most of the major meets cancelled or postponed during 2020, Gardiner said he spent much of the time focused on improving his speed, a potentially critical element in any attempt at a world record.

“Many things were the same, although my coach, Gary Evans, introduced a lot more speed work. It was fun and it really paid off,” he said.

“I had a lot of fun. During the pandemic, we decided to focus on the shorter sprints and leave competing again in the 400m to 2021.”

The 28-year-old two-time Olympic champion has announced that she is pregnant with her first child with husband Estonian decathlete Maicel Uibo, whom she married in 2017.

She made the announcement on Instagram on Saturday.

“New Year, New Blessing. We can’t wait to meet our little bundle of joy. Happy sixth anniversary,” she posted underneath pictures of her and her husband.

Miller-Uibo won Olympic 400 titles at the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro and defended her title at the 2020 Toyko Games held in 2021. She won her first world title in the 400m in Eugene, Oregon in 2022 after being the runner-up in Beijing in 2015 and Doha in 2019 when she was sensationally beaten by Salwa Eid Naser, who ran a blistering 48.14, the third-fastest time in history.

Last season, Miller-Uibo stated that 2022 was the last time she was going to be running the 400m and stepping down to the 200m.

The 26-year-old Gardiner continued to build momentum from a series of impressive indoor performances earlier this season, where he competed in the 200m.  On Saturday, the Bahamian beat back a challenge from the USA’s Vernon Norwood, who ran 44.59 for second place.  The time was the fourth-fastest of Norwood's career.

Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith finished third in 44.61 seconds and the USA’s Tyler Terry was fourth in 45.00.  The time was Gardiner’s fastest ever 400m season opener and seems to set him in good stead to defend his world title at the Eugene 2022 World Championships later this summer.  Gardiner’s time bettered the earlier mark of 44.28 seconds, set by the USA’s Michael Cherry last weekend.

Elsewhere, Jamaica’s LSU hurdles star Damion Thomas finished third in the men’s 110 metres hurdles.  Thomas’ time of 13.79 saw him finish just behind Canada’s Joey Daniels who clocked 13.78 for second, while the event was won by LSU’s Eric Edwards Jr who took top spot in a time of 13.34.

Bahamas track star Devynne Charlton, the reigning World Indoor 60m hurdles champion and world record holder, has announced the launch of the Devynne Charlton Barrier Breakers Foundation. Charlton shared the news on Instagram on Thursday, December 19, 2024, marking a significant step in her efforts to give back to her community and inspire the next generation of athletes.

The next edition of the championships is due to be in 2024, and once again the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium has been earmarked as the venue for the team championship.

The Bahamas hosted the first three editions of the tournament, which took place between 2014-2017.  The event them moved to Yokohoma, Japan in 2019 and then Chorzow, Poland last year.

With the team’s track record of successfully hosting previous events, President of the International Association of Athletics Federations Sebastian Coe is confident the country will be able to deliver another exciting event.

“We have had three wonderful editions of the World Athletics Relays in Nassau, which established this event on the global calendar, so we know we are in safe hands for what will be an important Olympic qualifier for all our relay events,” Coe said.

“We are confident that The Bahamas will offer the best conditions for the athletes and a brilliant atmosphere for both athletes and fans as we mark a key milestone on the road to the Paris Olympic Games.”

The 2024 World Athletics Relays will serve as the main qualifier for teams participating in the men’s and women’s 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 and mixed 4 x 400m metre relays for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.