LONDON, England - Bahamian Trevorvano Mackey was the last Bahamian to qualify for these 30th Olympic Games here in London, England, but he's as comfortable as if he was on the team all along, and as if he's competed at this level before.
These past two nights at separate receptions to honor Team Bahamas, he spoke of how calm he is headed into his first Olympic Games, and how ready he is to compete. Mackey qualified at the 'A' standard for these 2012 Summer Olympics, by running 20.52 seconds in the 200 at the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Under-23 Championships in Guanajuato, Mexico, just 30 minutes before the London deadline. Even more spectacular, Mackey ran that time into a headwind.
"Well, I always knew I could do it," said Mackey. "Now that I've qualified, I'm just ready to compete. I feel great heading into competition. We were working on some last minute stuff and hopefully, everything will fall into place.
"I know that I have some big shoes to fill when you look at guys like Derrick Atkins and Dominic Demeritte but I'm prepared to just go out there and give it my best shot. I feel like the sky is the limit for me."
Well said. Mackey has been running well all season long, but really started turning heads at the BTC/Scotiabank Olympic Trials, held at the end of June, at the Thomas A. Robinson Track and Field Stadium. There, he ran an impressive personal best of 20.68 seconds to win the national title. Then the questions began to surface... well at least one question in particular. Would he be able to qualify 'A' standard for the Olympic Games?
The Olympic 'B' qualifying time was 20.65 seconds, and the 'A' qualifying time was 20.55 seconds. Mackey needed to run the 'A' standard, seeing that three Bahamians had already made that standard this year. Olympic rules state, that once an athlete from a country runs the 'A' standard in any event, for another person to make that Olympic team in that event, they too would have to run the 'A' standard. So for all intents and purposes, Mackey knew what he needed to do, at what turned out to be the region's final Olympic qualifying meet, and he went out there and did it. He finished fourth in that 200m final in Guanajuato, but accomplished his goal of setting a new personal best and running under the 'A' standard for the games.
"Everything is just coming together at the right time," said Mackey. "I know this is my first Olympics but I'm very excited to get out there and just compete. I feel like I can run much faster and these Olympics present the perfect opportunity for me to do that. I'm excited and just ready to go."
The heats of the men's 200m will run Tuesday, August 7. Mackey will be joined by Michael Mathieu in that event. Mathieu is The Bahamas' national record in that event, running a time of 20.16 seconds in Brazil, in May.
As for Mackey, the sky is the limit. At just 20 years of age, he has personal best times of 10.31 seconds in the 100m and 20.52 seconds in the 200m. He will only run the latter at these 30th Olympic Games here in London.

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