Despite just a three-medal haul, it is widely felt that The Bahamas turned in some brilliant performances at the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace turned in one of the best swimming performances the country has ever seen at a major international event. She captured a silver medal in the women's 50 meters (m) fly, and added fourth and fifth place finishes in the 50 and 100m free events, respectively.Jeffery Gibson won a bronze medal in the men's 400m hurdles, setting a new national record in the process. The final medal for The Bahamas came from the men's 4x400m relay team, as the runners blazed their way to a silver medal. Also, the men's 4x100m relay team managed to set a new national record in the heats of the event, finishing fifth in the final. Aside from the performances, these games were successful for other reasons as well.This year's team was more diverse than ever before. For the first time, The Bahamas competed in judo and wrestling. There were also several cyclists on the roster for Team Bahamas.In track and field, this was the first time in a long time that the country was represented in all of the relays and the first time ever that all four relay squads made their respective finals.Also, the team was relatively young. Even though the inexperience may have been a slight hindrance to the team, the lessons learned from these games will no doubt be valuable to the athletes who took part."The younger athletes really appreciated this experience because now they know exactly what needs to happen. Some of them believed that they were doing so much, but now they came to find out that they were not doing anything. So, these games helped to put them in a different frame of mind moving forward and trying to reach higher goals in their respective disciplines," said Chef de Mission for the Commonwealth Games team Roy Colebrooke.At the 2012 London Olympics, The Bahamas competed in just two disciplines. In Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games, The Bahamas was represented in six disciplines.One of the mandates of the Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) this quadrennial period is to make sure that sporting federations have the necessary tools to send their athletes to high-level training camps. The main reason for that is to help the athletes prepare for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil."These games did a good job of showing each and every federation exactly where they are at and where they need to go. The athletes expressed it themselves, so for a lot of them, the experience was second to none," said Colebrooke. "It is important that we highlight the disciplines that did not win medals, but the experience is truly invaluable to them."There was also some controversy surrounding the cyclists, in Glasgow, concerning their taking a wrong route and being placed in immediate danger. Colebrooke expressed his sentiments on the issue surrounding those athletes."The media said that The Bahamas cycling team went on a highway and we had to clarify that point for them, stating that the GPS system itself that came with the cycling equipment provided, had that route on it. They went on the highway for maybe five minutes, but we immediately corrected it that day to ensure that our cyclists were safe. Aside from that, it is safe to say that Team Bahamas did a splendid job at the games."Moving forward, the athletes now know what it takes to compete at the highest level of competition. Although the 2016 Olympics is still two years away, it is important for each of them to push harder than they have done in the past in order to be represented at that level.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian