While her baby brother was at the IAAF World U18s in Nairobi, Kenya, setting new heights, Bahamian Shaunae Miller-Uibo was in another African nation over the weekend, flying to victory in her specialty, the women's 400 meters (m).
Miller-Uibo won easily at the Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athletisme, the 10th stop of the 2017 International Association of Athletics Federations' (IAAF) Diamond League, in Rabat, Morocco, on Sunday. She took the tape in a meet record of 49.80 seconds, just off her season's best time of 49.77. She has run under 50 seconds in all three of her 400m races this season.
American Natasha Hastings finished second in 50.86 seconds, just ahead of U.S. national champion Quanera Hayes, who was third in 51.08 seconds.
Younger brother Shaun Miller Jr. was fifth in the boys high jump at the world U18s, clearing a personal best of 2.11m (6' 11").
As for Miller-Uibo, The Bahamas' Olympic champion from a year ago, she said that she used the race as a tune-up going into the London World Championships, which is less than three weeks away. She won by more than a second over second place finisher Hastings.
"This was actually a training race for me," Miller-Uibo said on the IAAF's website. "The time is good, but that's not very important for me now. What counts is the world championships."
The 16th IAAF World Championships is set for August 4-13 in London, England.
Also in the race was Rio de Janeiro Olympics 800m Champion Caster Semenya, of South Africa, who has been completely dominant in the longer race in the past two years. The face-off between the two never materialized, though, as Semenya was never really in the race. She finished seventh in 51.53 seconds.
Miller-Uibo was smooth throughout the race, taking an early lead, and coasting to victory. By the 200m mark, she was the clear leader. Miller-Uibo came off the final bend with a three to four-meter lead, and seemed to pull away from the competition on the home stretch. She still trails defending World Champion Allyson Felix, of the United States, and Hayes, on the IAAF's Top Performance List this season, but Miller-Uibo said that her main focus right now is to remain healthy and to be running well heading into the London World Championships.
She has already stated her intention of going after the double (running both the 200 and 400m) at the world championships. Miller-Uibo is undefeated in her three 400m races this season.
The other Bahamian competing in Rabat yesterday was high jumper Donald Thomas. The 2007 World Champion had a best jump of 2.27m (7' 5-1/4") to finish sixth. Andriy Protsenko, of the Ukraine, won with a leap of 2.29m (7' 6"). The next five jumpers all cleared 2.27m, but Thomas was pushed down to sixth based on number of knockdowns. He cleared 2.15m (7' 0-1/2") on his second attempt, and had to take three attempts to clear both 2.23 (7' 3-3/4") and 2.27m.
Robert Grabarz, of Great Britain, and Tikhomir Ivanov, of Bulgaria, finished tied for second in the competition.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian