The Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) is expected to ratify a team for the world indoors this weekend, and high on the list is former world youth and world junior champion Shaunae Miller, who according to reports will be seriously going after the gold medal in the women's 400 meters (m) in Sopot, Poland.
The 15th International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) World Indoor Championships is now less than two weeks away, set for March 7-9, in the northern Polish city. Miller was unavailable for comment yesterday, but her coach George Cleare said that she is in tip top shape as her national record times in the 300m could attest. Miller ran two national record times in the event, in the span of three weeks, settling for a lifetime best of 36.10 seconds at the 107th running of the Millrose Games, at the Armory in New York, on February 15.
That stunning time was not only a national record, but also a world-leading time and a world indoor age-19 best. It also placed her sixth on the world indoor all-time list for the event. In her only 400m race of the season, Miller clocked 52.34 seconds to win that event comfortably in Blacksburg, Virginia, and
easily qualify for the world indoors. The automatic qualifying time for the world indoors is 53.15 seconds.
"She's really coming into her own," said Coach Cleare yesterday.
"Right now, she's just training and preparing for the world indoors but we're very confident that she could go there and do extremely well. Of course, the goal is to win the gold medal. Indoors is kind of a different creature, but I'm very confident that she could go there and win a gold medal.
"With indoors, you are not in your lane the whole way, so you have to be able to go out there and just run - stay clear of the field and not be tripped up or bumped. Anything could happen, but we have a race strategy and a race plan and hopefully on that day, it will be good enough for Shaunae to win the gold medal."
Miller was the highest individual finisher for The Bahamas at the 2013 Moscow World Championships, when she finished fourth in the women's 200m, in 22.74 seconds. She will be leaving for Europe this weekend, doing her last set of preparations for the global meet.
The Bahamas almost had a second qualifier in the women's 400m this past weekend, as Lanece Clarke, who also trains under the watchful eyes of Cleare in Athens, Georgia, ran a personal best time of 53.40 seconds for second, at the Virginia Tech Challenge, in Blacksburg.
"Lanece has been running very well," said Cleare.
"This is her fourth PR (personal best) for the year in the 400, and it was just a bit short of the qualifying mark. She has also PRed in the 200. Lanece is showing significant improvement. I think that with where we are at now, I could easily see us having three or four girls running 51 seconds or better over the next two seasons."
Added to the mix are Rashan Brown, a redshirt freshman at Georgia, and the trio of Amara Jones, Miriam Byfield and Cottrell Martin. Brown trains under Cleare at the University of Georgia (UGA), and Jones and Martin spend part of their seasons as a part of Team Cleare up in Athens. Tynia Gaither, who was under Cleare at UGA last year, is now a junior runner for the University of Southern California (USC), and has been running extremely well for the Trojans.
Cleare said that anytime you lose a talented athlete such as Gaither, it is considered a big loss, but he is satisfied that she is content and is running well. Gaither just barely missed qualifying for the world indoors in the 60m, running a season's best time of 7.34 seconds three weekends ago. The qualifying time for that event is 7.32 seconds.
As for the others, Brown is still recuperating from a hamstring injury suffered at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain, and Jones and Martin are showing signs of steady improvement. Jones has a personal best time of 54.51 seconds indoors, and Martin's indoors best is 55.46 seconds, ran this year. Miriam Byfield, who trains at home in Freeport, Grand Bahama, has run 53.83 seconds outdoors.
"All of the girls are gradually improving," said Cleare.
"Sometimes, someone just has to break that barrier, and then everyone falls in line. They get motivated and then things start to happen, similar to what happened with the 'Golden Girls' and also with the men's 4x400m team. I think it's only a matter of time with the women's 4x400m team.
"When you look at Rashan in particular, she is gradually getting back to form. She is healthier than she was last year. It's a steady progression for her. In the beginning, she didn't realize how serious the injury was, but now she is starting to run well again. I think this outdoor season will be her best in a while. I'm looking forward to her doing well. She had a bad injury, but she is definitely on her way back."
Overall, quite a number of Bahamians have qualified for the world indoors next weekend - Warren Fraser and Adrian Griffith in the men's 60m; Chris Brown, LaToy Williams, Ramon Miller and Alonzo Russell in the men's 400m; Donald Thomas in the men's high jump; Sheniqua Ferguson in the women's 60m; and Shaunae Miller in the women's 400m.
The BAAA is expected to ratify a team this weekend.
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