SPORTS SECTION E
WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2016
Basketball Smiles
CISC champions
Summer camp, Page 8
BAHAMAS GETS HIGH MARKS FOR HOSTING OF CISC By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
I’m happy with where we are as a country.” Murray, one of the most successful swimmers who went on to represent the Bahamas at three Olympics, becoming the first to make a final in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, said the team was well put together and the coaches worked extremely well to manage the team. “We couldn’t do it without trying to convince some swimmers to swim multiple events,” Murray said. “I think the coaches did a very good job of emphasising those points to the swimmers and that was what led to our success. “The management of swimmers is not easy. It’s not one of my favourite things to do. I think Andy and Travano did an excellent job with that, so awesome job to Team Bahamas, both swimmers and coaches and even the parents for
FELIX Calderon gave the Bahamas Swimming Federation high marks for the staging of the XXI Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships. The BSF hosted the week long championships three days after completion of their annual Royal Bank of Canada National Swimming Championships at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex. “It was excellent. They have a very good organisation,” said Calderon, president of the CCCAN, the organisers of the championships. “It was much bigger than we expected. “For the CCCAN, we only have 18 countries in the Caribbean, but because this one was a qualifier for the Olympic Games, we had 14 more countries, which brought a lot of quality to the meet.” Calderon, who hails from Puerto Rico, highly praised BSF president Algernon Cargill for the tremendous job in pulling off the championships, noting that they have a fantastic group of officials, who worked diligently in making the event a success. With both CARIFTA Games and the Commonwealth Youth Games coming to the Bahamas next year, Calderon said he intends to return to experience another first class event staged by the BSF. Cargill said while the BSF is basking in the success of winning the CISC title for the first time, he’s singing the praises of the organising committee for going beyond the call of duty to get the job done. “Our victory is a result of the hard work of our swimmers and our coaches and our organising committee,”
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WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS: Team Bahamas with the trophy after winning the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships for the first time. Photo by Tim Clarke/Tribune Staff By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
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hree years ago, the Bahamas Swim Federation won the Carifta Swimming Championships for the first time and successfully defended it in 2015 before losing it to Guadeloupe this year. This year, the BSF hosted the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships for the first time and they finally hoisted the trophy in the XXI version of the biggest regional competition yesterday. The Bahamas didn’t win the fivw kilometre open water swim race in Long Wharf as Matthew Lowe did in the 10K race on Sunday. But the team accumulated enough points to help secure the overall title with the swimming competition combined from the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex last week.
When the final tally was done, the Bahamas posted a total of 1,144 points to out-distance their nearest rivals, Puerto Rico, who got 1,036 for second. Trinidad & Tobago was third with 900.50. “Thirty years ago when the coaches were working together, one of the long range plans that we had turned into the BSF was to win Carifta and to win CISC, so here it is now, we have accomplished that,” said head coach Andy Knowles. “We also included putting people in the Olympic Games and making the finals and we’re almost there with accomplishing our game plan. A lot of people don’t know that it was something that we had actually set out to achieve and now we are doing it.” Knowles, back then one of the younger coaches in the BSF, teamed up with two of his rising young protégés in Travano McPhee and Allan Murray, assistant coaches on the
team, to help coach Team Bahamas to victory. “I think it’s really important that we point out the fact that all of the coaches worked together,” Knowles said. “When we come together as coaches, we are able to produce the kind of results that we got from the swimmers in this meet. That is one of the strengths where we are today.” McPhee, a former national team swimmer, couldn’t agree more. “We’ve come from a place where we were making finals at CISC where we dominated the meet this year,” he said. “I think this was something special for these swimmers, who just came off competing in the National Swimming Championships a couple days before. “To go to back-to-back championships and perform as well as they did was remarkable. The team camaraderie was very good. So I’m happy with their performances and
Seeded players advance to 2nd round, BFA NAMES Bahamians ousted in Junkanoo Bowl MEN’S U-17
NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM
By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net ALL of the remaining seeded players in the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association’s Junkanoo Bowl ITF Junior Circuit Tournament advanced to the second round, while the final Bahamian got eliminated. Abigail Simms, the final player carrying the Bahamian flag at the National Tennis Centre, lost a 6-3, 6-2 decision to American Skyler Miller as the final eight matches in the first round were completed. “It was tiring,” said Simms after the match. “I was a little shaky. I didn’t play my best strokes. I was kind of banged up a little bit. I tried my best.” Simms, 15, said Miller just simply played much better than she did. Miller, making her debut in the Bahamas, said the Bahamian people were so kind and welcoming and coupled with going on the beach, she’s enjoyed her stay here so far. “My match was really good,” Miller said. “The girl from the Bahamas was really good. I hit some big serves and she returned a lot of them. But I was the aggressor in the match.” Miller broke Simms in the first game and she held until 5-3 when she broke Simms again to take the first set. Then in the second set, Miller broke at 2-1,
ALL remaining seeded players in the BLTA’s Junkanoo Bowl ITF Junior Circuit Tournament advanced to the 2nd round as the junior tournament continued yesterday at the National Tennis Centre. Photo by Tim Clarke/Tribune Staff but Simms returned the favour. Miller, a 17-year-old resident from Oklahoma, got another break at 5-2 and held serve for the game, set and match. “I expect to play well,” Miller projected. “I’ve been training hard and I hope to continue to do very well in the rest of the tournament. Hopefully I can go very far in the tournament.” In one of the two matches featuring seeded players, No.2 seed Lulu Radovic from Switzerland didn’t have any mercy as she blanked American Macey Miller 6-0, 6-0. “It was good. I was pretty
confident and I played very well,” said Radovic, 15, who is playing here for the first time as well. “I was the one who was the most aggressive. I really like being here in the Bahamas. I hope that I can be first place.” The other seeded player on the girls’ side was American Nada Dimovska, who at No.5 also made easy work of her opponent, winning 6-1, 6-0 over River Hart from Canada. The only seeded player on the boys’ side in action was American Rohan Jachuck. The No.3 seed eliminated Kyle Frankel from Aruba 6-4, 6-1.
Beside the few singles played, the doubles matches got underway yesterday as well, but none of the Bahamian players advanced. O’Neal Mortimer and Nagid Walle lost 6-1, 6-2 to Santiago Hinojosa from Mexico and William Peters from the USA and John Kelly, teaming up with American Joshua Bode, lost 6-3, 3-6, 10-4 to No.3 seeds Kyle Frankel from Aruba and Ronan Jachuck from the USA. And on the girls’ side, Sierra Donaldson and Afrika Smith
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THE Bahamas Men’s Under-17 National Soccer Team has been selected and will represent The Bahamas in the upcoming Caribbean Football Union’s Men’s Under-17 Qualifiers in Suriname. Fred Lunn, general secretary of the BFA, has confirmed that the following players will represent The Bahamas: Aleksey Matsas Jordan Farquharson Anthony Dias Joseph Edgecombe Andre Roberts Keyshawn Forbes Camrawn Cox Khalil Fernander Dante Hanna Rashawn Hamilton Emmanuel Munroe Nathan Wells Jacob Charles Oakland Duncan Johnathan Antor Seth Strachan Jonathan Richardson Tevin Lewis The team has been training in preparation for the last four months, and has been prepared by head coach Dion Godet and his technical staff. The team is scheduled to travel to Suriname on July 17 and will compete against the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and Suriname on the 20th, 22nd and 24th of July respectively.