The Bahamas has participated in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games since 1954 in Vancouver, Canada, when Cyril "Peepsight" Johnson, Irrington "Rinky" Isaacs and Leonard "Skeeter" Dames became the first Bahamians ever to participate in international competition. None of them advanced out of their heats but four years later at the games in Cardiff, Wales, a 20-year-old Thomas Robinson, as a one-man band, captured the 220 yards and won the silver medal in the 100 yards.
At the 2002 Manchester Games, Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie was named the "Most Outstanding Athlete of the Games", not just for track and field, but the entire games. For the most part, The Bahamas has done well at the sometimes called 'friendly games'.
Top performances in Glasgow 2014
The great Usain Bolt did not run any of his signature events at the games but was itching to compete in the 4x100 meters (m) relay. He had not run in any meet due to a foot injury.
England was the team to beat in the 4x100m. In the final, England was in the lead when Bolt received the baton on the final leg. He made the difference and Jamaica ran 37.58 seconds for a new Commonwealth Games record, which was also the world's fastest time of 2014. England finished in second place in 38.02 seconds. This is the fifth best performance of 2014. Trinidad and Tobago finished in third place in 38.10 seconds, the ninth best performance of 2014.
Like Bolt, Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce did not run any individual event in Glasgow. She joined her teammates from the Moscow World Championships, Kerron Stewart and Schillonie Calvert, and they were joined by Veronica Campbell-Brown to run the world's best time of 2014, 41.83 seconds, for a new Commonwealth Games record.
Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare was in fine form in Glasgow. With Fraser-Pryce out, the Nigerian triple threat ran the second best time in the world this year, 10.85 seconds, for the 100m title. She also had the third best time this season in her victory at 22.25 seconds in the 200m. Their 4x100m relay team finished second in 42.92 seconds.
Jamaica's women ran 3:23.82, the fourth best time in the world for 2014, to capture the 4x400m relay. In this event, Nigeria finished second in 3:24.71 for the seventh best time in the world in 2014.
Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer ran the sixth best time of the year, 54.10 seconds, in her 400m hurdles victory, destroying her competition. The second place finisher was Scotland's Eilidh Child.
The men's 400m saw Grenada's Kirani James set a new games record at 44.24 seconds, the eighth best time in the world for 2014. Australia's Sally Pearson, the Daegu World Championships and London Olympics Champion, won her specialty, the 100m hurdles, in 12.67 seconds for the eighth best performance of 2014.
Rounding out the top 10 global performances in Glasgow were the following:
10th place
South Africa's 400m hurdles star Cornel Fredericks in 48.50 seconds; New Zealand's outstanding shot putter Valarie Adams with 19.88m (65' 2-3/4"); Jamaica's O'Dayne Richards in the shot put at 21.61m (70' 11"); Olympic Champion Keshorn Walcott finished second in the javelin to Kenya's Julius Yego, the first Kenyan to capture a Commonwealth Games gold medal in a field event. His leg was hurt but he found the courage to go on and win. Last year in Moscow, he just missed out on the bronze medal. Walcott threw a Trinidad & Tobago national record of 85.28m (279' 9") in the qualifying rounds of the javelin.
In the men's 4x400m, England had a nail-biter with The Bahamas, winning 3:00.46 to 3:00.51. On the anchor leg, Chris "The Fireman" Brown ran the fastest split of that event but fell short. The Bahamian team lacked Ramon Miller, the anchor man at the London Olympics, as well as Demetrius Pinder, who ran the second leg in London.
Notable Performances from the Region
Other than the performances mentioned above in the top 10 for 2014, there were a number of notable performances that need to be mentioned:
Jamaica's Sweeps
Women's 400m
Stephanie McPherson won the women's 400m in 50.67 seconds. Novlene Williams-Mills was second in 50.88 seconds and Christine Day finished with the bronze medal in 51.09 seconds. In fourth place was former World Champion Amantle Montsho who finished in 51.10 seconds. Unfortunately for the Botswanan, her urine sample turned up positive.
Men's 200m
Jamaica had another sweep in Glasgow as they did at the London Olympics, this time without Yohan Blake or Usain Bolt. Rasheed Dwyer captured the 200m title in 20.14 seconds with Warren Weir winning the silver in 20.28 seconds and Jason Livermore the bronze in 20.32 seconds.
Women's Triple Jump
Jamaican triple jumper Kimberly Williams was the best in Glasgow with a 14.21m (46' 7-1/2") performance. Trinidad and Tobago's Ana Alexander won the bronze with a jump of 14.01m (45' 11-1/4"). Jamaican Shenieka Thomas jumped 13.85m (45' 5-1/2") for fourth place.
Men's 100m
Kemar Bailey-Cole of Jamaica captured the 100m in the absence of Bolt, Blake and Asafa Powell. He clocked 10 seconds flat, ahead of England's Adam Gemili, the 2012 World Junior Champion, who clocked 10.10 seconds.
Women's Shot Put
Cleopatra Brown of Trinidad & Tobago captured the silver medal in the shot put behind New Zealand's Valarie Adams. Brown threw 18.57m (60' 11-1/4").
Men's 400m Hurdles
Jehue Gordon from Trinidad & Tobago, the 2013 World Champion, settled for silver in Glasgow in this event with a time of 48.75 seconds.
Men's 400m
Lalonde Gordon from Trinidad & Tobago, who surprised everyone in the 400m at the London Olympics, won another bronze medal in his event. Gordon clocked 44.78 seconds.
Women's High Jump
Lavern Spencer, of St. Lucia, captured the bronze medal in the women's high jump with a clearance of 1.92m (6' 3-3/4"). Her teammate Jeanelle Scheper finished in fourth place with a clearance of 1.89m (6' 2-1/2").
Bahamian Performances
As indicated previously, Chris Brown ran an unbelievable anchor leg to capture the silver medal for The Bahamas in the men's 4x400m. The team of LaToy Williams, Michael Mathieu, Alonzo Russell and Brown ran 3:00.51, just five hundredths of a second behind England. Brown ran the fastest leg of the race.
Speaking of Brown, he is reported to have suffered a stomach virus and did not suit up for the individual 400m final. LaToy Williams did, finishing fifth in 45.63 seconds.
Last year, Jeffrey Gibson broke one of the oldest records on the books for The Bahamas. He broke Greg Rolle's 400m hurdles national record of 49.46 seconds, done in May of 1983. With his 49.39 seconds clocking at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships, Gibson made the "A" standard for the Moscow World Championships, and advanced to the semi-finals.
In March, Gibson, who had moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and was working with Coach George Williams, broke the 49 seconds barrier for the first time with a 48.95 seconds clocking.
In the final in Glasgow on July 31, the 60th anniversary of The Bahamas' first participation in international competition, the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Gibson set another Bahamian record, running 48.78 seconds on the way to the nation's first medal in track and field at the games, a bronze.
Many Bahamians noted that Gibson came out of nowhere and they had never heard about him. He is from Grand Bahama, graduated from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and his family hails from Eleuthera. Hopefully Bahamians will pay more attention to Gibson now.
Long Jumper Bianca Stuart had the best performance in the qualifying rounds of the women's long jump, 6.67m (21' 10-3/4"). In the final she could only manage 6.31m (20' 8-1/2").
Sprinter Warren Fraser gained acclaim for being the first Bahamian athlete to make a Commonwealth Games 100m final since Tommy Robinson in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1966. Fraser finished in seventh place in 10.20 seconds.
Quarter-miler Shaunae Miller had leg problems and finished seventh in the 400m final in 53.08 seconds.
As they did in Moscow, the Bahamian men's 4x100m relay team clocked a new national record, this time running 38.52 seconds, eclipsing the Moscow record of 38.70 seconds, to advance to the final. In the final they ran 39.16 seconds for fifth place. The men's 4x100m relay is one in which it is felt that The Bahamas can improve tremendously.
The women advanced to the final in both 4x100m and 4x400m relays. They finished sixth in the 4x100m in 44.25 seconds and seventh in the 4x400m in 3:34.86.
A Personal Assessment
Praise should be heaped on those athletes who competed to the best of their ability. Much effort needs to be made to improve our medal performances. This comes a year after no medals were won at the Moscow's World Championships. In Moscow, there were athletes who dropped out due to fitness. The same happened in Glasgow. Sprinter Anthonique Strachan did not show up.
Where do we go from here? Who will be participating for The Bahamas at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Jalapa, Mexico, in November?
Much thought needs to be done and planning made for the 2015 season where we have the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Senior Championships, the Pan American Games, and the Beijing World Championships.
The time to start is right now, when it is fresh in our minds.
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