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‘NO PINDLING ON THE TICKET’ Former PM’s daughter says PLP leaders feared ‘negativity’ of his record

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net MONIQUE Pindling, the daughter of former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling, said the Progressive Liberal Party’s “leadership” told her she would not receive a nomination because the PLP does not “want a Pindling on the ticket”.

She made her comment during an appearance on

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net DEPUTY Prime Minister Desmond Bannister yesterday dismissed the idea of him serving as “coPrime Minister” if the Free National Movement is reelected to office, noting Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ recent comments

on the matter were made as a kind gesture towards him.

He made the remarks when responding to questions from the media yesterday concerning Dr Minnis’ statements that he and Mr Bannister will undertake an initiative that has never been done in the country’s history.

SEE PAGE FIVE

SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAKESIA IS APPOINTED MINISTER PAKESIA Parker-Edgecombe has been appointed as the new Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction in the Office of the Prime Minister. The announcement was made by the Cabinet Office last night.

She replaces Iram Lewis, who was removed from his previous post to become the new Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture after the SEE PAGE THREE

the 96.9FM talk show “The Revolution” yesterday.

“They alluded to something about negativity of my dad and didn’t want it to be the focus and things like that,” she said.

Ms Pindling ended her bid to secure the PLP’s nomination in Central and South Andros last summer after party officials made it clear that she would not get the nomination.

SEE PAGE THREE

SHARED ROLE? MINNIS WAS JUST BEING KIND

ROLLE IS NOT A LOSS - SHE WAS A LIABILITY

INGRAHAM OUT OF HOSPITAL

SHOT ON EVE OF HIS LITTLE GIRL’S BIRTHDAY ANTONIO Russell was shot dead on Monday near LW Young High School - a day before his eldest daughter’s 11th birthday. See page two for the full story.

ABACO LOUNGE FINED $30K FOR BREACH

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net THE co-owners of an Abaco lounge were ticketed $30,500 for breaching COVID-19 Emergency Powers Orders by having nearly 100 people crammed into a space only meant to hold 24.

The news of the citation was released by police after a video was circulated on social media showing

AN IMAGE from video showing some of the people in Chubb’s Kitchen. dozens of people pouring out of Chubb’s Kitchen, a restaurant and lounge. The video showed men and

women, many with drinks in hand, leaving the lounge while being ordered by police to put their masks on. The individuals were not practising social distancing and many either were not wearing masks or had them pulled down to their chins.

There were 95 people in the space, when it should have only had 24 persons, police said.

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE FOUR

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was discharged from Doctors Hospital yesterday.

His doctor, former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands, said yesterday: “He has made great progress.”

Mr Ingraham was admitted to hospital last week Tuesday with COVID-19.

SEE PAGE FOUR

TECHNOLOGY

2030 VISION AS VOLVO AIMS TO GO ALL-ELECTRIC

SEE PAGE NINE

PAGE 2, Wednesday, March 3, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

‘I just want a job so I can get off the street’

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

FOR the last several days, 48-year-old Tharon Bethel has slept on a small piece of cardboard on the stoop of a Shirley Street liquor store.

When The Tribune encountered him on Friday night just before curfew, the father-of-one had just finished looking for food in the Bay Street area.

He came back to the cardboard he’d left a few hours before and sat there gazing into the street.

Despite his circumstances, he was happy to talk about the issues he’s been facing.

Mr Bethel said he’s comfortable sleeping at the liquor store because it is a place where no one bothers him.

But it’s also a harsh reminder that he’s been homeless for a long time and he knows he can’t continue to sleep there.

Mr Bethel will be 49

on March 31 and told The Tribune he wants to find a permanent job that will allow him to afford food and pay rent at a small efficiency before his birthday.

If this happens, Mr Bethel said he also wants to relocate his son from Freeport to Nassau to live with him.

However, he has no cellphone so he can’t receive or make calls.

The Grand Bahama native only has a small bag of belongings so he will be starting his life all over again, he said.

He doesn’t mind though, because then it would mean he finally has somewhere to lay his head at night that provides the shelter of four walls and a bathroom.

Before he began sleeping outside the liquor store, Mr Bethel said he used to sleep “somewhere safe” at the nearby dock.

Prior to that he rented a small apartment but was unable to pay rent after odd jobs slowed to a halt due to

Hurricane Dorian and then the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s a long story but this where I just end up,” he said when asked how he came to live on the street.

“I be all about in a nice safe spot, but before here I was by the dock and I used to live in Freeport.

“I had a lil’ place over here but it went down because I couldn’t keep up with the rent so I’m around now but looking to try make things lil’ better.

I have to try and get a job and get a lil’ place to stay.

“Right now, finding food is a struggle and sometimes I go over there to Princess Margaret Hospital and they feed me over there. Other times, ya know, I ask people to wash their cars for money so I can buy something.”

Mr Bethel says before he fell on hard times, he got jobs as a painter, did a little carpentry, but mainly was paid as a landscaper.

“I’ll do any lil’ thing to help me get somewhere to live and a way to feed myself.”

SHOT ON EVE OF HIS LITTLE GIRL’S BIRTHDAY

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE man who was shot dead on Monday night was killed a day before his eldest daughter’s 11th birthday, his mother has revealed.

When she spoke to The Tribune yesterday, the victim’s mother Antoinette Fernander said she had not yet told her grand-daughter that her father was dead.

Antonio Russell, a fatherof-two, was fatally shot on Monday near L W Young High School. Police were alerted to the sound of gunshots in the area of Bernard Road shortly before 10pm.

“Officers responded and found a male lying on the ground unresponsive

just outside the northeastern boundary of the L W Young High School, with what appeared to be gunshot injuries. Emergency Medical Services visited the scene and pronounced the body lifeless,” police said in a crime report.

Ms Fernander said her 30-year-old son was walking home at the time he got killed. She recalled hearing the shots.

“I started calling him. He was last seen online (at) 9.31 and my daughter started calling him and he would not answer. Apparently after a little while, say like hours later, an officer then answered the phone. I said ‘Tony, where are you? I was calling you’ and then the officer identified himself...”

Ms Fernander said

she was not allowed on the scene that night. She described Russell as her “protector” and called his death as her “first pain”.

“I can’t believe he’s actually gone… He isn’t in no gang. He wasn’t in none of those things... (someone) take his life just like that and he was just trying to get home. He was like a few seconds away from home.”

Russell’s homicide pushed the murder count to 22 for the year, according to the Tribune’s records.

Last week alone, from the period of February 21-25, there were six killings - with two separate incidents occurring an hour apart on February 22.

Anyone with information on this shooting is asked to call police at 502-9991.

THARON BETHEL

THE SCENE of the shooting on Monday night.

Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

POLICE PROBE DROWNING EXUMA police are investigating a drowning that occurred on Monday morning.

Shortly after 9am officers from the Exuma district received reports from the operator of a cruising vessel that while sailing in Elizabeth Harbour he

had saw a man who appeared to be struggling in the water.

“The swimmer was approached and asked if he needed assistance,” police said.

“However, he barely gave a response. The body was fished out of the water and

CPR was administered, following which the male was unresponsive.”

The victim was take to shore and was later examined by a medical doctor who pronounced him dead.

An investigation is underway.

MAN IN HOSPITAL AFTER SHOOTING A MAN is in hospital after he was shot Monday night.

The incident took place after 7pm. Police were told

that a man was leaving an establishment on East Bay Street when he was approached by a gunman who shot him on the right

side of his back before fleeing the scene in an unknown direction. The victim was taken to hospital where he is listed in serious condition.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, March 3, 2021, PAGE 3

‘No Pindling on the ticket’ from page one She said her mother, former Governor General Marguerite Pindling, was at the meeting when the PLP’s “leadership” told her that a Pindling would not be on the ticket.

She did not specify which PLP leaders she met with.

Although current Central and South Andros representative Picewell Forbes said on Monday he would no longer seek the party’s nomination, Ms Pindling made it clear she does not expect to be the party’s standard bearer in that constituency.

“I didn’t like what I saw (on Monday),” she said.

“I’m very saddened (by) the way in which Mr Forbes felt that he needed to do something like that, that was definitely not an intention of mine, it had nothing to do with me.

“Please let me say this categorically for listeners out there, it had nothing to do with me, the Pindling machinery faction had nothing to do with what you saw (on Monday) and no, I have not been called, I have not been given the nomination, I have not been

MONIQUE PINDLING, the daughter of former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling. ratified, I am not going to be the presumptive nominee. If you go back, if you have listened to what I’ve said, if you’ve read anything, they did not want me, they still do not want me in that seat.

“I think if you look now at the news, there is someone else who is out there who wants to be in the running

for Andros. If you put two and two together and if you really think about this carefully, it was never about me.

I was just used as a distraction, I think, that’s only my humble opinion.”

Support in the constituency appears to be coalescing around Leon Lundy, a former member of the Democratic National

Alliance.

PLP supporters in South Andros have told The Tribune they respect Mr Lundy’s ties and work in the community. Other hopefuls, many of them say, have not done the continuous work over the years that is needed to win their support.

Mr Lundy, when asked about his relationship with

PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis, confirmed to this newspaper on Monday that he is Mr Davis’ godchild.

During her interview yesterday, Ms Pindling suggested she feels the PLP only wants to use her father’s name when it is convenient for party leaders.

“It’s not that we have sole ownership (of his legacy), but my thought is, you can’t use him when it’s convenient for you, you can’t use him for good and then say it’s bad, you can’t use him when it’s good occasions or certain occasions and then drop him when you feel like it,” she said.

“If you’re gonna use him, use him for good. Don’t just use him as if he’s a commodity when you could get up and you could say what you want to say.”

Ms Pindling said when she met with the PLP’s leadership sometime in August or September of last year, she was shocked by their comment about the Pindling name.

She said she met with PLP leaders again sometime in January.

“They wanted me or my mom or my family to participate at the (Sir Lynden’s)

gravesite for Majority Rule,” she said.

She said the meeting was “interesting,” adding: “It was tight”.

Photos later showed Ms Pindling and her mother visited the gravesite of Sir Lynden on Majority Rule Day, but did not do so alongside PLP leaders.

“I feel as though there is a way in which you do things, there is a way in which you treat people, there is just a way in which things are handled and I think it could’ve been handled differently,” Ms Pindling said.

“I understand, you’re an aspirant candidate, you’re at the pleasure of the leader and whatever his decision is, that’s what it’s supposed to be. “(But) it’s the way in which you say things to people because you can tell people all kinds of things, it’s how you make a person feel that matters the most and it just did not come out the way I think they intended it to be and so I will give them that. Unfortunately, all of this could’ve been avoided, all of this could’ve been handled properly, this whole thing that’s happening now could have been avoided.”

LIGHTBOURN CHASING PLP PARTY NOMINATION FOR PINERIDGE

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net GRAND Bahama resident Leslie Lightbourne is seeking the nomination as the Progressive Liberal Party’s candidate for Pineridge.

He secured a majority of the 70 votes cast on Sunday during the branch runoff held at PLP headquarters on Grand Bahama.

Mr Lighthourne — a trade unionist and longtime employee of the Grand Bahama Power company — won over Bahamasair employee Harold Williams, with 44 of the votes.

The final decision on candidates will be made by the PLP’s Candidate’s Committee along with party leader, Philip “Brave” Davis.

Mr Lightbourne is no stranger to politics. He broke ties with the PLP and ran as a candidate with the Democratic National Alliance in the 2017 general election.

“I went back home (to the PLP) after things happened in that other party,” he said. “I wanted to make a change and that did not happen; I was happy that

the PLP leader welcomed me with open arms.”

Mr Lightbourne has a 35-year history with the PLP. After returning in 2017 following the general election, he went right to work in the Pineridge branch.

Mr Lightbourne has been employed at GB Power for some 30 years.

He revealed some of his plans for the Pineridge constituency if successful in his bid. Of the six areas of focus, youth development is foremost.

The prospective candidate said he will establish a peer training programme for students starting from grade 10.

“They will be paired up with persons in Pineridge that have skills in areas such as carpentry, auto body work, nail technicians, or whatever profession for training,” he said.

Mr Lightbourne said that the stalwarts and the elderly is another aspect that will receive attention.

One of his ultimate goals is to establish a Pineridge hurricane shelter and relief facility to assist constituents in times of disaster.

He said assessment and rebuilding of damaged homes by a Pineridge construction team would also be part of his plans.

“Pineridge is going to be self-sufficient. All business owners that reside in Pineridge, we will support those businesses. We will be the first self-sufficient constituency. That is what I am vowing,” Mr Lightbourne said.

He said serving people is his passion.

“I am going to be a true example of what an MP is supposed to be.

“I have a heart for the people, and I have been in labour for many years helping people and fighting for workers for the last 25 — I know Pineridge,” he said.

“If I am selected as the Pineridge candidate and armour bearer for the PLP in this upcoming 2022, I will be the next MP for Pineridge,” he said.

The seat is currently held by Free National Movement MP Frederick McAlpine, who has been at odds with his party for some time. He is not expected to get the FNM’s nomination to run in the next election.

LESLIE Lightbourne hugging a supporter after winning the Pineridge run-off on Sunday.

Photo: Vandyke Hepburn

PAKESIA IS APPOINTED MINISTER from page one

PAKESIA PARKER-EDGECOMBE MP, the new Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction in the Office of the Prime Minister.

shock resignation of Lanisha Rolle last week.

In the face of Mrs Rolle’s resignation and her male replacement, the Minnis administration faced criticism for not having a woman in Cabinet.

Last week, the Caribbean Women in Leadership Bahamas Chapter (CIWiL) expressed dismay about the development and said it is disappointed the government did not ensure women representation in Parliament was not further deteriorated.

Several senators also expressed disappointment.

When asked last week to address concerns about the lack of women representation in Cabinet following Mrs Rolle’s resignation and if a woman won’t be appointed to the Cabinet until after the next election, Dr Minnis replied:

“I don’t know when the bell may ring, but the bell may ring tomorrow and you may not have time for that but those are matters we will address.

“And we always feel that we want to ensure that there are equal men and women not only in Cabinet but even if you look at the Office of the Prime Minister; both my secretaries are females. “My Delivery Unit director is female. My communications director is female. The individual in charge of my Bahamas Investment Authority – female. Women are doing very well and I look forward to the day that we have our first Bahamian prime minister.”

Ms Parker-Edgecombe, the MP for West Grand Bahama and Bimini, previously served as parliamentary secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for information and communication.

PAGE 4, Wednesday, March 3, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

AN IMAGE taken from video showing the interior of Chubb’s Kitchen as people were filmed leaving.

Abaco lounge fined $30k for breach from page one While the business was not named in their release, police said shortly after 9pm on Friday, February 27, Abaco officers were on mobile patrol when they saw a number of vehicles in the Central Pines area at an establishment.

“On further checks, officers observed a large crowd on the inside who were not social distancing and were not wearing face masks,” police said in a release.

“Upon further checks and (a) headcount, there were a total of 95 persons in a space that should only occupy 24 persons in total for social distancing compliance.

“As a result, both coowners of the establishment were warned and spoken to by police in regard to the breach of the Emergency Powers COVID-19 orders.

They were ticketed in the amount of $30,500.”

The island currently has an 8pm-5am curfew, which went into effect on Sunday, because it has seen a recent spike in coronavirus cases. North Abaco island administrator Terrece Bootle-Laing told The Tribune last week it is expected the curfew will reduce the

TOTAL CASES

TOTAL DEATHS

8,558 180 NEWLY CONFIRMED CASES SUNDAY 7 CASES NEW PROVIDENCE 4 GRAND BAHAMA 2 ABACO 1

SOME covered faces as they left to avoid being filmed but were not wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. number of gatherings. strictly adhering to because “The evening hours tend as you move in and about to be the more high social and you get a lot of concerns gathering time and that is about bar room gatherings what we’ve paying atten- and persons not wearing tion to in terms of you masks into up to the curfew know when persons begin time and so we were seeing to socialise and intermingle that becoming very conwith each other and found cerned about persons letting persons have not been their guards down,” she said.

TOTAL TESTS

68,473

HOSPITALISED

13

CASES IN ICU

2

RECOVERED

7,337

SIX NEW CASES CONFIRMED ON MONDAY SIX new cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Monday, according to the Ministry of Health.

Four of the cases are in

New Providence, one is in Grand Bahama and the other is in Abaco.

Fourteen cases are in hospital with one in intensive

care.

One hundred and eighty people have died from the disease, with 15 deaths under investigation.

INGRAHAM OUT OF HOSPITAL from page one

His medical team included an endocrinologist, a kidney specialist, a pulmonary specialist and an infectious disease specialist.

Mr Ingraham led the Free National Movement to an historic general election victory in 1992 and followed that up with victories in 1997 and 2007.

He told the Nassau Guardian last week that both he and his wife tested

positive for the virus.

He said he was unsure how he got the virus, adding that he was careful and limited his movements since last March.

Mr Ingraham declined comment when contacted last night.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, March 3, 2021, PAGE 5

D’Aguilar: Things will get better as vaccines roll out

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar said yesterday he is hopeful things will improve for the country’s tourism industry “during the course of the year” as vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 continue to be rolled out worldwide.

On Monday, Baha Mar confirmed it has made another 100 staff members redundant as it prepares to reopen its high-end Rosewood and SLS resort properties.

Yesterday, the Tourism Minister said the move further exposes some of the challenges faced by the hotel industry as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to impact travel internationally – therefore resulting in low occupancy levels.

However, he said while some Baha Mar workers will no longer be called back to work, others will be re-engaged with the reopening of the SLS and Rosewood.

“There are going to be ebbs and flows in the hotel sector,” Mr D’Aguilar said before attending Cabinet.

“At the same time, you’re having the downsizing at Baha Mar, they’re about to open the SLS and Rosewood, so you’ll see workers being called back to work there. As we progress through the year, I am of the view that as more people get the vaccine and are emboldened to travel, more people will travel.

“During the course of the year, things will begin to get better. Culminating the end of the year where I think we shall have a fairly robust Christmas at-least compared to the Christmas in 2020.

“There are, we have to understand, impediments to travel. There are no flights to Europe because they are in a constant state of lockdowns, opening up, lockdowns. Canada has banned all flights to the Caribbean through the 30th of April.”

He added: “World leaders are recommending to their citizens to not travel.

When you come to The Bahamas, you need to get a PCR test. You have to upload to get a visa, you have to get a rapid antigen test to return to the United States. Some people feel like that’s just too much.”

Mr D’Aguilar said while he understands the nation’s current travel protocols may not be as tourism friendly as many would like, it’s important for the government to have certain measures in place to safeguard Bahamians.

“There’s a consequence to that and the consequence is there are impediments to travel,” he said.

He said as “more and more” of the world begins its mass vaccination efforts, only then will the government move to ease more restrictions, allowing for a further re-opening of the economy.

He said: “Obviously once we get to 70 or 80 percent, the expectation is that things will improve significantly because people will not be afraid of getting the virus.”

Until then, he said officials will continue to work on strategies to attract more visitors.

He added officials are expecting an uptick for the spring break period and also pointed to the successes seen in the highend tourism market like yachting.

“Christmas was a

relatively good month. We expect spring break and Easter for more people to make the effort to come but in terms of the mass tourism that we’re used to, it’s just not there yet but what I will say is in the very high end, niche market, the private aviation, the yacht business, they’re doing exceptionally well.”

“Wealthy persons who are looking to travel have rediscovered The Bahamas because we have so much to offer. We have all our different islands and so for them to come in their yachts and move seamlessly through our country without any impediments as compared to the Southern Caribbean... who have these different entry protocols.

“We find that The Bahamas is becoming very attracted to the yacht and high-end travellers.”

While speaking in the

House of Assembly on Monday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced that the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will move The Bahamas from a level three travel health notice to a level two.

The CDC had previously issued a level four travel advisory against The Bahamas.

Yesterday, Mr D’Aguilar said the low COVID-19 numbers in The Bahamas justifies the move.

He told reporters: “We were at four and we moved to three and we certainly believe our numbers are there and justified to move us to a (level) two and every movement for those travellers that check that stuff, that’s very important so it was great when we moved from four to three and it would be even better when we move from (level) three to two.”

PINDER: USE BAHA MAR REDUNDANCY TO BECOME ENTREPRENEURS

By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net

DIRECTOR of Labour John Pinder is calling on the 100 staffers made redundant by Baha Mar to use some of their disengagement funds for “low risk investments” and look at their redundancy as an opportunity to become entrepreneurs.

On Monday, another blow was delivered to the tourism industry when, due to low bookings, the Baha Mar resort and casino made 100 workers redundant.

Certain parts of the property reopened recently, re-engaging several employees who were

furloughed due to the pandemic and the hotel’s closure last year.

Mr Pinder said he was satisfied with the payout figures given to the staff.

“They decided that they had to make some staff redundant and keeping with the law they would have paid out the redundancy package that the staff was entitled to,” he said.

“In addition to that they have also kept up with the policy that speaks to persons made redundant and if positions become available again they will have first preference to fill those positions.

“I am pleased to hear that they made arrangements like that. Based on a conversation we had in a

meeting about two weeks ago prepared to give them a little more just to help them. I would also like to advise those persons receiving the separation packages to not spend on their money.

“Try to pay your bills up but it’s important to look for some low risk investment to make some returns so you can keep yourself employed. Certainly this is an opportunity to increase entrepreneurs.”

The Tribune contacted the president of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union, Darrin Woods, to weigh in on the redundancies. He offered no comment as he said his union is not recognised to represent Baha

Mar workers as yet, but he is hopeful that it will one day come to fruition as his administration is working on it.

For his part, Mr Pinder continued by explaining how the workers were targeted for redundancies.

“So to my knowledge they have combined certain services and there were some areas that they didn’t see a need, any longer, based on their adjustments and the new protocols,” he continued. “So those are some of the choices made in the redundancy.”

Mr Pinder said all is not lost with the workers who were made redundant, as there is a silver lining.

Those workers will have first dibs on employment

when other parts of the hotel start to open up and when the resort’s theme park comes on stream this summer.

“They are currently building their theme park so will also create some new jobs,” Mr Pinder continued. “When I spoke to them last they had some 15 or so persons in training to become lifeguards. I think they have a target date for in the summer by June. I think that’s the target date when they will have the project up and running for the summer vacationers.

“So by this summer other areas of the hotel will hopefully be able to open and those furloughed will be the first sets back to work.

Now everything depends on

bookings so if the United States, Canada and Europe were to lift their travel restrictions and the receiving of vaccinations etc then we will be at a good place in The Bahamas in terms of people coming.”

He also advised the disengaged employees to start looking into employment at the area at Baha Mar that is currently under construction.

He said, “I would advise those who received the redundancy packages to be proactive and start to look at what is necessary – what is the immediate skill set to function in that area that they are building, because when that opens they will be able to be fully engaged.”

SHARED ROLE? MINNIS WAS JUST BEING KIND from page one

While speaking in the House of Assembly, Dr Minnis said the two will “split” the leadership in a move that will allow him to solely focus on creating opportunities for the poor and making land more affordable for Bahamians.

He said: “The Deputy Prime Minister and I have a commitment. I said to him that ‘listen, how government is run today, we have to look at it differently – never done before,’ and what I’ve said to him in our next term [is] I want to concentrate on the poor, I want to concentrate on land, giving out to Bahamians to ensure everyone has

an opportunity for land and a home.

“And, I want to concentrate on Bahamian ownership. I want to confine myself as Prime Minister in the next term just to those components and he,” Dr Minnis said, patting Mr Bannister on the shoulder, “will run the rest of the government. Let me confine myself to that. So, we’re going to split. It has never been done before, but it will be more effective, more effective especially when you have a great relationship. It’s never been done.”

Yesterday, Mr Bannister explained that there’s no such thing as a “co-Prime Minister” and noted he has no plans to serve in such

capacity.

He also said he believed the Prime Minister was “just trying to be kind” to him.

“I’m the Deputy Prime Minister. I have no pretensions about his job. (Dr Minnis) is the Prime Minister. He assigns jobs to ministers so if he assigns certain things to me in my portfolio, they are things I will be honoured to carry on but he’s the Prime Minister. There’s no co-Prime Minister and if the Prime Minister said that, he was just trying to be kind to me.”

Both Dr Minnis and Mr Bannister have yet to be ratified by the FNM for the next general election.

However, Mr

Bannister did not express any concerns on the matter yesterday, telling reporters he has every intention to seek a nomination from the FNM to represent the Carmichael community.

“The people of Carmichael are my people and there’s no question that I am going to be applying to my party to be nominated as the candidate for Carmichael.”

Asked if he believed he might win his seat again once ratified, Mr Bannister replied: “I’m going to speak about that in the current debate and I hope that y’all listen and there’s no place in this country where you see the developments that has happened in Carmichael over the last few years.

“Even when the PM talks about these lots that some of y’all may want to live in the western Killarney, think about Carmichael because there’s more opportunity in Carmichael.”

Yesterday, the minister also spoke about Central and South Andros MP Picewell Forbes’ decision not to seek re-election.

Mr Bannister, who is good friends with Mr Forbes, said while he was shocked to hear the news, he believed the PLP MP did the honourable thing.

“I went to speak with him as a colleague and as a friend to just affirm that what he was doing in my view was absolutely the right way to do it and the right way to let his people

know that he was not going to contest the election,” Mr Bannister said.

“He knows that what he did was the right thing and I think having said that, I also affirmed to him that the projects he has ongoing in South Andros which some of you will see very soon, outstanding contributions to the legacy that he’s left in Andros.

“He was not elevated in two terms that his party was in power but if you look at the leaders of his party and what they’ve done in their constituencies, none of them has done what he has done in his constituency.

None of them and so he has an outstanding legacy and he will always be my friend.”

PAGE 6, Wednesday, March 3, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

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Judge by achievements, not by a name SINCE the departure of Lanisha Rolle from the post of Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, there has been a lot of talk about women in politics.

As our columnist Alicia Wallace argues in her column today, the problem isn’t the departure of Mrs Rolle – but the absence of women on the political scene altogether.

Looking across the political divide from the FNM, which looks like it might not be giving Mrs Rolle a renomination for the election either, we see there are just as few women, more or less, in the ranks of the PLP. One of those who might have been given a nomination was Monique Pindling, the daughter of former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling.

She had hoped to run in the constituency long held by her father, but was told last summer she would not get the nomination.

Ms Pindling had also caught the eye at the PLP convention, when she lambasted the PLP and said it had “become weak” and “dishonest” and allowed the political ambitions of a “few men to dash the aspirations of a whole people”.

That she talked of men seems all the more pointed now.

Fast forward to today, in the wake of Picewell Forbes stepping aside from the race to win that Central and South Andros seat Ms Pindling had hoped for, and it appears there is still no prospect of her securing that post. Instead, it looks likely the nomination will go to Leon Lundy – who among other things is the godchild of PLP leader Philip “Brave” Davis.

Indeed, Ms Pindling seems to fear her father’s name counts against her now.

She said party leadership “alluded to something about negativity of my dad and didn’t want it to be the focus and things like that”.

Goodness knows her father has featured many times in this column – and the legacy he left for this country was one that led us to a path of higher crime and an international reputation as a nation for sale. He was surrounded by corruption claims, leading to an official commission finding evidence of corruption in his Cabinet and the police.

Ms Pindling, however, is not her father. Her legacy is just starting, and she should be judged on her own merits, not for her surname.

Turn to Alicia Wallace’s column and you’ll see she points out the number of women securing nominations is falling far short of even 30 percent. Less than a third. As it stands, there are just five women in Parliament – 12.8 percent of the total. That’s less than one in seven.

Blocking the path of candidates such as Ms Pindling because of those who went before her isn’t any way to increase the number of women in Parliament.

There is, again, one woman in Cabinet. Lanisha Rolle’s position may have been filled by Iram Lewis, but Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe has moved to fill Mr Lewis’ former position as Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction.

One is not enough – and both parties should be doing more to give women a chance at candidacy. Judging them for what they offer – not for what others have done before them – would be a start.

Electric costs

Grand Bahama Power Company isn’t looking to win any friends.

The company’s delayed plan to introduce a charge on customers to recover the costs it ran up in Hurricane Dorian has come into effect – from January this year.

No formal warning was made of the new charge it seems – which seems grossly unfair. You can’t just charge customers more without telling them, that’s completely inappropriate.

If we cast our gaze further afield, power companies in Texas recently ran into a public relations disaster when it started charging customers many thousands of dollars more without warning after its own supply chain had problems because of the winter storm. People weren’t told they had to pay more until they saw it in their bills, it seems – and that caused enough of a backlash to lead to widespread resignations from board executives.

The scale of the charge in Grand Bahama is not as high – but the principle is the same. You have to tell people what they can expect to pay.

As Pastor Eddie Victor says, unemployment in Grand Bahama could well be around 50 percent right now.

He said: “Can you now imagine trying to extract more revenue from a destitute population? It doesn’t make any sense.”

The rebuilding job needed after Hurricane Dorian was extensive – no one is arguing that. But the manner in which Grand Bahama Power Company is going about paying for it is alienating customers rather than making everyone feel as if they’re all in it together.

In September, this column argued that it was time for a rethink by the company.

If there was a rethink, this wasn’t the best idea.

Life and death EDITOR, The Tribune.

THESE people through Brown’s Alley/Benneby Alley, here off Kemp Road, are being allowed to ruin another evening, another Sabbath Day. Last time I complained, night-before-last, nothing was done – no one was sent and the music went on until a minute or two minutes before 4am. Not until then was there silence. Not until then was I able to consider sleeping.

If I can quickly, let me explain why my house looks like an abandoned building even though I have been living here since returning in 2018, after being away in Africa for four years.

And I have been living here since 2018 without light and without running water as well.

How can these criminals be allowed to get away with disturbing the peace as they do?

How can they be

allowed to take over the entire neighbour with their foolish, unending music? Am I nor allowed to have a life?

Haven’t I a right to privacy and tranquility to make my own private use of? Why are these persons allowed to spend everyone’s time in the way they choose?

My pursuits are worlds away/apart from what these fools are into. It so depresses me and insults me that I am discouraged from investing anything in a neighbourhood that does not permit me to feel at home at all. I go to the pump for water and I am plugged into my neighbour’s’s electricity for which I pay a fee, but I had forgotten why I have sunk into such a situation.

It is because of what these fools are allowed to get away with and the law does and says nothing about it. Is a community not

for everyone in it?

Why are these imbeciles being allowed to bite off so much? Is It not meant to be shared with us all?

Are we not all to be equally respected?

My house looks awful! It embarrasses and depresses me but I am not inspired to spruce it up – not inspired to make myself feel at home here – make myself feel at home where I am made to live on the margin of what these fools are into – feeling pushed aside – feeling like my life is less significant than theirs.

It puts a bad taste in my mouth for the whole Bahamas and about being Bahamian. There is a lack of Balance here – a lack of fairness here. It seems as if rules are not in place or these rules, for the good of all, are not being enforced!

OBEDIAH M SMITH Nassau, February 28, 2021.

Loretta should run EDITOR, The Tribune.

I AM compelled to raise a political question what if? What are the possibilities if Loretta Butler Turner had not left or moreso was excommunicated from the ranks of leadership of the FNM and had stayed in place avoiding the bad advice she was given to challenge the leadership of that party. I believe everything is based on exact divine timing. I am convinced if she were still in place, now would be the perfect timing for her to challenge the leadership and perhaps become the leader of that political entity.

I refer Loretta to take a google moment and see the rising tide of women around the world to political leadership positions, as close as ninety miles off our shores and especially women here in the Caribbean. Since I was not living in the Bahamas at the time of your challenge for the party leadership and have since come to learn of those persons attached to your camp were placed there to give advice (bad) and to “throw you off”, so that the leadership would go to anyone else other than yourself, assuring then that you would never attain that position, you should have been aware that the first rule in politics is to be sure of those persons you surround yourself with.

In my opinion I am not aware of another female who could stand up on stage and hold your own debating issues as well as yourself.

None! Your early departure was a great loss to women, young girls,and the entire Bahamas. You had and still have so much to offer, politics is your DNA, unlike so many current aspirants who simply want to line the pockets of friends and close family members. Even if you decide not to return to the FNM, PLP, DNA you have a great chance as an independent candidate now is the time for you to relight that Milo Butler fire you inherited. Now is the time. Can’t you see the large amount of independent candidates... they are all reading the tea leaves and see the opportunity

LETTERS

letters@tribunemedia.net that awaits them. An independent candidate would become the power broker in a split house.

It is generally accepted that the voting population is fed up with both parties, you stand a better chance more than any of them of being successful. A candidate such as yourself and the other factions together would be a formidable force to reckon with in the House. My only concern with this scenario is fighting for position in a coalition government where nothing gets done. The only solution is to agree among themselves who and what position each is to take like allowing individuals to govern as the PM for a period of time then allowing another member to jump in. Run Loretta run.

Loretta why not explore past financial backers, choose a new slate of advisors and see what happens.

How about a simple survey to see how the people respond.

I sense now is the right time when there is great discord among the prime parties, most of them are on their backs, get in now while they are weak, it’s hard for them to fight when there is so much fighting among themselves. Fight them at their weakest point, when they are down. The opportunity is there and may never come again. Run Loretta run. The natives seem restless and are wanting change.

Loretta get in the fight you are still young, your daughter just returned home as a physician and until she gives you some grandchildren you have plenty of energy to give to your country. Your talent is so evident compared to the neophytes entering the arena, rescue our politics I am convinced only a feminine divine can put the Bahamas back on track to once again leadership position in the Caribbean. As my school mate the late Dr Myles Munroe opined “Die empty.” Your time is now, seize the time you may

never have this opportunity again it’s all in perfect timing. Read the tea leaves.

Run Loretta run.

The one thing lacking here in the Bahamas is female leadership, we had more female leadership here in these islands 50 years ago than we could ever imagine today. Women are the majority voters all they need is good leadership. You would get a great support from them, however a lot of them would not ever vote for a female.

Chalk if off as female haters. I think you would be surprise the amount of support you would get from our male voters as well, they may not admit it but once in that booth a lot of them would think long and hard in giving a woman a chance. Us men have messed up things for so long. Women all over the world are taking up primary roles in forging ahead for the future of mankind.

Run Loretta run.

You can beat them at their game, you need to become more perceptive. Read the tea leaves, become visionary. Imagine if. This time be careful of those traitors who set you up the first time. Timing was off. They were just concerned with their own selfish greed. It’s a new century woman are no longer confined to the kitchen, it’s a new day look around the world where ever women are in power those countries prosper. Become the feminine divine giving birth to a new generation of believers.

I know you were betrayed by those so-called “men” the night of convention who plotted your downfall, we all saw the disappointment in your face when you invited those men to join you on stage as a show of unity only one took you up on it, this would make any human being bitter and disgusted, but Loretta it is all in the perfect timing. Think on these things and if you decide to jump “in” with the right crew there would be no stopping you.

DR DEREK PINDER ND; P.HD; D.Hom Nassau, March 2, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, March 3, 2021, PAGE 7

Bid to appeal rulings dismissed in incest case

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net THE Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed the applications of two men who attempted to appeal two judicial rulings that gave police permission to have medical practitioners draw blood samples from them to aid officers in their investigation into an incest case.

According to two judgements, the men, who are relatives, are both suspects in a police investigation involving incest where DNA samples are required to verify or negate their involvement in the alleged offence.

In an effort to further their investigations, police secured permission

from a magistrate to have a physician take an “intimate sample” from Man 1 without his consent. He filed for constitutional relief in the Supreme Court from the magistrate’s order but was denied. He recently appealed that decision on the grounds that the judge erred when she ruled that order did not violate his constitutional rights.

Likewise, a magistrate also gave officers the authority to get a DNA sample from Man 2 without his permission. He also appealed that decision after arguing that the “evidence was wrongly considered by the learned magistrate”.

On Monday, Justices Jon Isaacs, Maureen CraneScott and Roy Jones dismissed both applications and affirmed both the

judge and magistrate’s rulings, after concluding that there were instances when an individual’s rights had to “give way to the more overarching objective” of protecting society at large.

In their judgement regarding Man 1’s appeal, the panel noted that in June of last year, the woman alleging the offence told police her father’s brother had sexual intercourse with her when she was just 15 years old. The complainant, who is now 38, further alleged that a child was born from the incest.

“Pursuant to Section 34 of the Police Act (the Commissioner of Police) sought an authorisation to obtain a blood sample from the applicant,” the court documents read.

“Magistrate Kara

MARINES repainting the island library interior and, below, working on the site of the hurricane shelter.

Turnquest-Deveaux on the same date granted an authorisation being satisfied that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that the applicant had been involved in the offence of incest...and that a sample would confirm or disprove (Man 1) in relation to the same.”

That same day, officers went to Man 1’s home and informed him that he would have to go to the local clinic the next day to have his blood extracted so that it could be used in a DNA test to determine whether he was the father of his niece’s child.

However, he “never met the police that day, nor did he have the blood sample extracted”. Instead, nearly two weeks after the matter was initially reported, he

MEMBERS of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force have been taking part in community projects on Crooked Island.

The first project began at the proposed site for the island’s hurricane shelter and community centre in Landrel Point.

A team of 32 members of HMBS Nassau arrived

at the site to work on the building’s structure, led by Senior Lieutenant Gladstone Moss and Chief Bousin Mate Edison Rolle.

The second project entailed the painting the settlement’s library, and the crew painted the entire building both inside and out.

Woman Marine Naja Brown said: “This community service in Crooked Island has been nothing short of amazing. Everyone treated the crew of HMBS Nassau as if we all grew up there.

“Seeing the happy faces of the residents gave me a feeling like no other.”

about a statutory power being exercised by the magistrate but without raising any justiciable issue about the constitutionality of Section 34 itself.”

In Man 2’s case, the panel also ruled that there was nothing to suggest that the magistrate had “wrongly considered” the evidence the police presented to her.

“Nor can what is stated by the magistrate, that is, the appellant is suspected of committing the offence of incest with his niece, be insufficient to support the magistrate harbouring a reasonable suspicion that the appellant is involved in the offence,” they furthered.

They ruled: “In the circumstances of this case, the decision of the magistrate is both reasonable and supportable”.

TEEN WHO PUNCHED RIVAL TOLD TO TAKE ANGER MANAGEMENT CLASSES

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

MARINES LEND A HELPING HAND IN CROOKED ISLAND

filed an originating notice of motion for relief in the Supreme Court.

In their judgement of Man 1’s appeal, the justices said that he failed to demonstrate that Section 34 of the Police Force Act could not be “reasonably justified” in a nation built on democracy.

“It is not competent for a justice of the Supreme Court to injunct the police from investigating allegations of crime without the clearest evidence that such actions by the police have involved egregious behaviour that violates not only their codes of conduct, but the consciousness of all right-minded persons in the society,” they stated. “...The present challenge amounts to no more than the appellant complaining

A TEENAGER who admitted punching and slapping his rival during a fist fight was yesterday ordered to attend anger management classes.

Police said the 17-yearold injured another teen when he fought him in the Fox Hill area on February 24.

He pleaded guilty to one count of causing harm during his hearing before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes.

The court was the guardian of the complainant told police her son was in the Fox Hill area when the accused approached and assaulted him. The woman said her son required medical attention after the incident and

requested police action.

The accused was arrested a short time later.

When he was questioned in police custody, he owned up to the offence. According to the prosecution, the complainant’s hospital form indicated he had sustained swelling to his eye.

The youngster was subsequently charged.

During his arraignment, the teen told the magistrate he only fought the other young man because he and a group of his friends had tried to “beat him up” when he was out with his little brother on Fox Hill Day. He said when he happened to see the boy on his street corner, he thought he could get him back “one on one”.

In response, Magistrate Forbes told the youngster if he and the complainant

kept going back and forth with one another there was a possibility his mother would have to make funeral arrangements for him in the future. He explained that although he may want the altercation to end this time since he got the last hit, the other teen may not be willing to let the situation stop there.

He said the reason why the country has the challenges it does is because people do not know when to stop escalating issues with one another. As a result, he ordered the teen to attend anger management and dispute resolution counselling at the Department of Social Services for 12 months. He warned him if he failed to comply with the conditions of his release, he would be sentenced to three months in custody.

‘PAY MONEY BACK OR GET A CRIMINAL RECORD’

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MECHANIC who accepted funds for a service he never completed was ordered to reimburse his client to avoid getting a criminal record.

Vandrick Smith, 30, was charged with stealing by reason of service after he was accused of taking $300 in cash from a woman to perform mechanical work he never got around to doing.

He owned up to the offence when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt.

The court was told that the woman paid Smith the

money on February 1 to transfer the engine transmission out of her red Jeep into another vehicle she owned of the same make and model. The complainant told police she also loaned the accused a $60 gas jug at the time of the transaction.

The prosecution said Smith told the woman he was coming back to do the work, but never returned.

After she filed an official complaint with police, he was arrested. When he was interviewed by officers, he admitted the offence.

During his hearing, Smith told the magistrate he finished “more than half of the work” on the woman’s

Jeep. He also claimed he returned her gas jug and said he had even spoken to the woman’s husband who agreed to give him more time to finish the job as he was busy “working on some other cars that were off the island”.

In response, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt told the accused his actions were “professionally sloppy” and could result in him receiving a criminal record. However, she said she was not minded to impose a fine and gave him an opportunity to reimburse the woman that same day to avoid getting convicted.

“It was an error in judgement that you need not do again,” she warned.

HAITIAN MAN ACCUSED OF FRAUDULENT MARRIAGE

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A HAITIAN man was remanded into custody over allegations he entered into a fraudulent marriage more than a decade ago in order to obtain a spousal permit.

Geno Joseph, 42, appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes after he was accused of lying to an immigration officer and attempting to commit fraud by false pretences.

During the arraignment, he was also charged with making a false declaration of marriage and being in the unlawful possession of Bahamian and Haitian legal documents.

The prosecution said Joseph lied to a senior immigration officer when he was approached and questioned in Marsh Harbour, Abaco on February 6.

The accused attempted to obtain a Bahamian residential spousal permit from the Department of Immigration under false pretences

in November 2019.

Joseph was also accused of unlawfully obtaining a Bahamian birth certificate, a Haitian passport and two Haitian birth certificates which bore the names of two other men on February 6.

Police said the accused also made a false declaration of marriage in 2006.

Joseph denied all of the allegations and the case was adjourned to July 1 for trial.

He returns to court tomorrow to determine the issue of bail.

PAGE 8, Wednesday, March 3, 2021

We need women in Parliament who can do real work. Rolle is not a loss - she was a liability INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day is next Monday, March 8. The theme set by UN Women is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.”

This theme is meant to align with that of the upcoming 65th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)— “Women’s full and effective participation and decisionmaking in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.” Both themes are important and need more than one to 12 days of discussion, analysis, and action planning. We can see that quite clearly in the national context, particularly as we are in the midst of election season.

Political parties continue to announce the ratification of candidates and are far from gender parity.

Not even 30 percent of the slates are women. This is no surprise considering the fact the two major parties had four and six women on their slates of candidates. We currently have five women in Parliament — 12.8 percent. It stands to reason that if both political parties had more women as candidates, women would comprise a higher proportion of Parliament and we may have actually had better representation.

It is important that, even as we advocate for a political quota, we emphasise the need for quality candidates. We do not need more women in Parliament who will not only fail to represent women in all our diversity and work to address issues that directly and disproportionately

THE TRIBUNE

By Alicia Wallace affect us, but embarrass us paying attention knew that repeatedly and help to set it would not go well. Giving Rolle oversight of the minus back.

We do not need women istry with departments who simply want to be a responsible for serving part of the “boys club” people in need and meeting obligations or want to set themselves international apart by distancing them- such as CEDAW made no selves from women’s sense. The Department rights issues or “feminine” of Gender and Family Affairs was suffocated by characteristics.

We do not need more her refusal to recognise the people who simply want necessity of its work. It was stagnated, to occupy a seat. We need devastatingly women who are well- despite the work of some of the most dediequipped to cated, qualified represent their ‘Rolle, when staff - and it has geographic asked for yet to recover. constituencies Rolle, when and the larger her position asked for her constituency of on marital position on marwomen. ital rape, said It has been rape, said marital rape marital rape was particularly a private matter. interesting was a private Are other forms to watch the matter. Are of violence hypocritical within the home response to the other forms of private resignation of violence within also matters?

The Lanisha Rolle personal is politfrom the Min- the home ical. This is not istry of Youth, also private just a saying. It is Sports, and Cul- matters?’ ture. All of a a truth we need sudden, people to understand. and organisations are con- The decisions we make as cerned about the absence of individuals and the strucwomen in Cabinet. tures of our relationships Over the past four years, and institutions, including very little was said about families and businesses, are there being only one woman directly impacted by and in Cabinet, and that one directly impact the ecowomen being among the nomic and political spheres. worst of Cabinet Ministers.

We can look at the state Her earlier appointment of households during the to the Ministry of Social COVID-19 pandemic Services and Urban Devel- (though the same dynamics opment was cause for great existed before this exacerconcern. Those who were bation). We continued to

LANISHA ROLLE MP, who has resigned as the Minister of Sports, Youth and Culture. work, whether on-site or from home, and took on the additional work of supervising virtual learning and the tasks that could no longer be done by others due to restrictions. Most of the added labour fell to women who had to continue their regular work, help children with virtual learning, look after elderly family members and keep the house clean and prepare meals on a more frequent basis.

Before this, women and men were working and, in most cases, women came home to the second shift, handling domestic tasks and care work. Some may say this is a personal matter.

The way people divide their household work is up to them, right? Well, how do they come to these decisions? Are they actual choices, made consciously, or predetermined due to circumstance or the (often unspoken) gender division of labour?

The way tasks are divided work with minimal support. are home depend heavily on Rolle is not a loss. She was the ways women and men a liability the entire time see themselves, not only on a she was a Cabinet Minister personal level, but culturally, and remains a liability as a politically, religiously. If only Member of Parliament. one person in the houseThis month, as we advohold can work overtime in cate for women to be in order to ensure household positions of political leadmatters are dealt with, it is ership, it is critical that we likely to be the person who are clear in the demand is making the most money. for feminist leadership and This is directly impacted by true representation. We do the gender wage gap and the not simply need women, difference in opportunities but women who believe available to and accessed by in equality. Women who men and women. understand and explicitly A woman does not truly state that marital rape is choose to spend less time on rape. Women who advocate paid work and take care of for comprehensive sexualthe children if the issues are ity education in all schools. that no one else Women who is available to do ‘The Prime have studied and it and/or the man have mastery is able to make Minister said of international more money in he wants to mechanisms and less time. This see a woman declarations “private matter” such as CEDAW is affected by be Prime and the Beipublic issues Minister one jing Platform of education, day, but he has for Action and employment, have fresh ideas and social secu- done nothing and plans of rity, among to move us in action for legothers. that direction. islative reform Returning and implemento the absurd Look at the tation. Women idea that mari- 2017 slate of who are engaged tal rape is a candidates with civil society private matter, organisations we have to look and look at that are engagat the factors the ratified ing in women’s that affect and candidates to rights work. are affected by The Prime dynamics within date. Is there Minister said the home. When representation?’ he wants to see we create this a woman be kind of divide Prime Minister between private and public, one day, but he has done we leave people defence- nothing to move us in that less.

Rolle’s comment direction. Look at the 2017 communicated to the public slate of candidates and look that what happens to any at the ratified candidates to woman at home is her own date. Is there representaproblem. The government tion? Are the candidates is not concerned about such equipped for the task at matters and sees no need to hand? interfere.

Taking notice of the lack Miriam Emmanuel, no of gender parity now could better than Rolle, saw fit to be a sign of opportunism share a disturbing anecdote because it is election season about her father’s victim- or because it is a global blaming regarding intimate priority. Better late than partner violence. Com- never when the latecomers ments like these send the are ready to go the whole message that women are way. Let us not lament the disposable, unprotected, resignation of Rolle as and complicit in their though we have suffered own harm while men are some great loss. We have excused or even revered for not. Focus the discontheir brutality, creating the tent on the actual tragedy environment for violence in — the continued lack of the home to proliferate. It representation for women is important to understand and all indications that the that the effects are not lim- next term, no matter the ited to the individual, but administration, will be quite affect public health and the similar to this one. While all economy. Hospital visits parties still have room on and sick days do not affect their slates, pressure them just one person. to ratify qualified women We need true repre- who believe in and will sentation for women in advocate for human rights.

Parliament and Cabinet. Pay attention to what The We need women who are Bahamas says in internaaware of the issues affect- tional spaces. Hold the ing women, care about government to the commitabout addressing them, ments it makes. Call it to a and are prepared to do the higher standard.

Sun, sand... shots?

PAGE 10, Wednesday, March 3, 2021

US SANCTIONS RUSSIANS OVER NERVE AGENT ATTACK

THE Biden administration sanctioned seven mid-level and senior Russian officials yesterday, along with more than a dozen businesses and other entities, over a nearly fatal nerve-agent attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his subsequent jailing.

The measures, emphasising the use of the Russian nerve agent as a banned chemical weapon, marked the Biden administration’s first sanctions against associates of President Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader was an intimate and favorite of President Donald Trump even during covert Russian hacking and social media campaigns aimed at destabilising the US. The government officials included at least four whom Navalny’s supporters had directly asked the West to penalise, saying they were most involved in targeting him and other dissidents and journalists.

RACIST IMAGES HALT PRINTING OF SIX DR SEUSS BOOKS SIX Dr Seuss books — including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” — will stop being published because of racist and insensitive imagery, the business that preserves and protects the author’s legacy said yesterday.

“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr Seuss Enterprises said in a statement.

The other books affected are “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”

In “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” an Asian person is portrayed wearing a conical hat, holding chopsticks, and eating from a bowl. “If I Ran the Zoo” includes a drawing of two bare-footed African men wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads.

279 KIDNAPPED SCHOOLGIRLS ARE RELEASED HUNDREDS of Nigerian girls abducted last week from a boarding school in the country’s northwest have been released, a state governor said yesterday.

The girls, aged ten and up, dressed in light blue hijabs and barefoot, packed into Zamfara state’s Government House conference room. They will receive a medical checkup before being returned to their parents.

Zamfara Gov. Bello Matawalle said that 279 girls had been freed after being abducted from the Government Girls Junior Secondary School in Jangebe town on Friday.

The government last week said 317 had been kidnapped. It was not clear if the higher number was an error or if some girls were still missing.

FBI: DOMESTIC TERROR GROWS FBI DIRECTOR Chris Wray bluntly labeled the January riot at the US Capitol as “domestic terrorism” yesterday and warned of a rapidly growing threat of homegrown extremism that law enforcement is scrambling to confront through thousands of investigations.

Wray defended his own agency’s handling of an intelligence report that warned of the prospect for violence on January 6.

And he firmly rejected false claims by some Republicans that anti-Trump groups had organised the deadly riot that began when a violent mob stormed the building.

THE TRIBUNE

A TOURIST, wearing a protective face mask amid the new cornavirus pandemic, walks along the beach shore in Havana, Cuba, yesterday.

Photo: Ramon Espinosa/AP

CARIBBEAN SEEKS VACCINES TO REVIVE ECONOMY

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Associated Press

THE Caribbean is hunting for visitors and vaccines to jump-start the stalled economy in one of the world’s most tourismdependent regions.

Clear waters and warm sand attracted a record 31.5 million tourists to the Caribbean in 2019, but visits plummeted by an estimated 60% to 80% as the pandemic hit last year. That’s devastating for a region whose countries depend heavily on visitors for income.

“Many countries prefer hurricanes compared to what has happened with the pandemic,” said Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, a former Bahamian tourism minister who also led the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

Tens of thousands of tourism-related jobs were lost, including those held by Nadia Kidd and her mother in Jamaica. Kidd, 31, was a waitress at a resort and her mother worked at a guest house. Kidd, like many other workers, has yet to receive her severance pay and now runs a tiny grocery store out of her home to support her mother and daughter.

“Everything is all on me,” said Kidd, who worked at the Meliá Braco Village resort in Trelawny. “I have loans to pay, light bill and internet (that I) have to pay because my daughter has to go to school online.”

Desperate to create safe conditions for tourism, the Caribbean is turning to India and China for vaccines at a time when global supplies are strained and richer nations are ahead of them in line for shots from other sources. A few have been fortunate to get quick

shipments, while others could wait weeks, if not months.

The Caribbean saw COVID-19 levels rising in November, along with variants feared to be more contagious. More than 522,000 cases and more than 7,500 deaths have been reported in 35 of the region’s countries and territories.

“The rate of increase has been alarming,” said Dr. Joy St. John, executive director of the Trinidadbased Caribbean Public Health Agency.

The small nations adopted a variety of antivirus measures, nearly all requiring visitors at a minimum to show recent negative tests upon arrival.

Cuba — the largest Caribbean nation and the only one working on its own vaccines — choked off arrivals after seeing infections surge. It requires visitors to stay in designated hotels and to take new tests upon landing.

International travelers to St Kitts and Nevis must stay at certain hotels, and St Eustatius requires visitors to register their reason for traveling before giving approval.

Many islands ask visitors to isolate, though how long and under what conditions can vary: Those arriving in the Cayman Islands or Barbados must stay inside a hotel for at least a week or face jail. Others, like Puerto Rico, don’t require quarantine if a negative test is presented upon arrival, and tourists can roam the US territory’s beaches and forests.

Aruba, Anguilla, Curacao and Montserrat and others have promoted themselves as havens for those who can work by internet from a room by the

sea, although officials can be harsh on visitors who flout virus restrictions.

At least 13 countries in the region have signed up for the World Health Organization’s COVAX program, created to ensure access to COVID-19 shots for low- and middle-income countries.

Among those is Jamaica, which had pursued an aggressive reopening to tourism despite not receiving a single shipment of vaccines. On Sunday, however, it announced it was closing public beaches and rivers until March 22.

Its government says it expects to receive 50,000 vaccines from India this week and 14,400 AstraZeneca vaccines next week via the COVAX program. It also anticipates receiving 1.8 million vaccine doses

by April via the African Medical Supply Platform, a nonprofit initiative by the African Union.

Despite those pending vaccines, Alica Brown said she would not return to the tourism industry. The 34-year-old has not found a job since she was laid off last year as a supervisor at a resort, forcing her to move in with her family and dip into her savings.

“The pandemic has opened my eyes so much,” said Brown, who is considering a venture into farming. “It’s made me realize that no job is safe, especially tourism jobs because when something like this happens, and tourists cannot travel, how will we survive?”

Others, like Cranston Calnick, said he is waiting for the resort where he worked as a waiter to reopen next month. The 29-year-old said that in the meantime, he has been picking fruit and selling it

CHINESE VACCINES SWEEP WORLD THE plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago’s airport in late January, and Chile’s president, Sebastián Piñera, was beaming. “Today,” he said, “is a day of joy, emotion and hope.”

The source of that hope: China – a country that Chile and dozens of other nations are depending on to help rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic.

China’s vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccines to more than 45 countries.

With just four of China’s many vaccine makers claiming they are able to produce at least 2.6 billion doses this year, a large part of the world’s population will end up inoculated not with the fancy Western vaccines boasting headline-grabbing efficacy rates, but with China’s humble, traditionally made shots.

Amid a dearth of public data on China’s vaccines, hesitations over their

A HEALTH worker administers a dose of China’s Sinopharm vaccine at the Health Ministry in Dakar, Senegal. efficacy and safety are still pervasive, along with concerns about what China might want in return for deliveries.

Nonetheless, inoculations with Chinese vaccines already have begun in more than 25 countries, and the Chinese shots have been delivered to another 11.

It’s a potential face-saving coup for China, which has been determined to transform itself from an object of mistrust over its initial mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak to a saviour. Like

India and Russia, China is trying to build goodwill, and has pledged roughly 10 times more vaccines abroad than it has distributed at home.

“We’re seeing certainly real-time vaccine diplomacy start to play out, with China in the lead in terms of being able to manufacture vaccines within China and make them available to others,” said Krishna Udayakumar, founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University.

on the street: “This is how I have been surviving.”

Unlike Jamaica, other islands have been luckier, having received AstraZeneca doses under India’s “Vaccine Friendship” program. That vaccine’s protocol requires two shots per person.

Dominica, an eastern Caribbean island of 74,500 people that is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria in 2017, got 70,000 doses last month and has begun vaccinations.

“I did not fancy my chances of getting such a swift, positive response to my request,” said Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit. The country has shared some of the doses with other nations, including Grenada and St. Kitts and Nevis.

Dominica also is due to receive doses from China and the COVAX program.

Barbados, with some 300,000 people, received 100,000 doses from India, and the prime minister thanked New Delhi for its “quick, decisive and magnanimous action.” Barbados donated 2,000 doses to Trinidad and Tobago.

That twin-island nation of 1.2 million remains under strict virus restrictions and has requested 250,000 doses from India.

India also has helped the Dominican Republic and Antigua and Barbuda, but the region remains far short of what is needed to achieve herd immunity for the over 18 million people in the Caribbean Community trade bloc.

“We knew from past history and from human behavior that it could have been possible... that the strong ones would eat first and the weaker ones would starve to death,” said Keith Rowley, Caricom chairman

and prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

Meanwhile, China sent 768,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to the Dominican Republic, a country of 10.6 million people, which is also starting to get shipments of AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots.

Beijing also has pledged to ship 20,000 doses by March to Guyana.

Meanwhile, the islands are seeing more tourists, as well as complaints about them flouting pandemic restrictions.

Barbados recently fined a former UK beauty queen $6,000 for violating virus protocols and imprisoned a Jamaican tourist who was unable to pay a fine after being accused of breaking quarantine.

St John, director of the Caribbean’s public health body, said her agency has trained more than 8,000 hotel workers in measures to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

Neil Walters, acting secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation. said experts estimate the Caribbean could reach its pre-pandemic tourism levels by 2022 or 2023.

Visits to the region increased in November but fell in January, in part because the UK, the European Union and Canada restricted travel, said Frank Comito of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association. The record 30 million cruise ship visitors the region attracted before the pandemic also are gone.

But he said the US Virgin Islands actually saw at least a temporary surge in flights to greater than prepandemic levels as airlines switched their schedules from Europe and Asia to the Caribbean.

TEXAS EASE RULES DESPITE WARNINGS TEXAS yesterday became the biggest state to lift its mask rule, joining a rapidly growing movement by governors and other leaders across the US to loosen COVID19 restrictions despite pleas from health officials not to let their guard down yet.

The Lone Star State will also do away with limits on the number of diners who can be served indoors, said Republican Gov Greg Abbott, who made the announcement at a restaurant in Lubbock.

The governors of Michigan, Mississippi and Louisiana likewise eased up on bars, restaurants and other businesses Tuesday, as did the mayor of San Francisco.

“Removing statewide mandates does not end personal responsibility,” said Abbott, speaking from a crowded dining room where many of those surrounding him were not wearing masks.

“It’s just that now state mandates are no longer needed.”

A year into the crisis, politicians and ordinary Americans alike have grown tired of rules meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed over a half-million people in the United States. Some places are lifting infection control measures; in other places, people are ignoring them.

Top health officials, including the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have responded by begging people repeatedly not to risk another deadly wave of contagion just when the nation is making progress in vaccinating people and victory is in sight.

US cases have plunged more than 70 percent over the past two months from an average of nearly 250,000 new infections a day, while average deaths per day have plummeted about 40 percent since mid-January.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021, PAGE 11

‘I consider it an honour that God has ordained this for me even before I was in my mother’s womb’

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net HE was once listed as the fastest male sprinter in the country, albeit with a wind-aided time, but now two-time Olympian Iram Lewis will be racing down the halls of Parliament as the 17th Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture.

On Monday, the Grand Bahamian native received his instruments of appointment as the third Minister of the triple headed ministry under the Free National Movement (FNM) government led by Prime Minister Hubert Minnis.

A day later, Lewis met with some of his staff before he took his seat in Cabinet. The engineer by profession said he’s humbled by his transition as the State Minister of Disaster Preparedness.

“I consider it an honour that God has ordained this for me even before I was in my mother’s womb,” said Lewis, who intends to officially head into his new office today.

“He has crafted this moment for me and I’m happy that I was able to overcome the challenges and tragedies that I experienced in life to get to this point.”

Considered a late bloomer, Lewis didn’t make his first Olympic team until he was 31 years old in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia and four years later, he returned for his second appearance in 2000 in Sydney, Australia.

The 55-year-old, who once ran a wind-aided 9.95 in Florida, the fastest ever by a Bahamian at the time,

also holds the distinction of being the champion of the 100m at the inaugural Bahamas Games in 1989.

He also teamed up with Renward Wells, Sylvanus Hepburn and Dominic Demeritte as they broke the Bahamas national record that was set by Tommy Robinson, Bernard Nottage, Norris Stubbs and Kevin Johnson.

Through all that he had to endure, Lewis said it has helped to mould and fashion him for the position he holds today, blending youth, sports and culture into the one melting pot.

“When I lost my son, who was only 23 years old with a stellar career as a high school football player and I lost my father, I thought and asked why I am being punished, but it was more preparation than punishment for me,” he said.

“Instead of me looking at it from the negative side and not the positive side, I got sidetracked. But having experienced these dramatic times in my life, I feel I can now take on any challenge, including this one as the new Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture.”

Iram Taveras Lewis died in 2015 in Alabama. Ironically on June 25, 2015, Lewis and his son were preparing to take the stage to model a t-shirt line. Instead, at 2pm on that day, Lewis attended the funeral service for his son.

“I know he would want me to go on and continue with what we started together,” Lewis said. “He always wanted to start a youth camp for boys in Alabama and he was hoping to do the same thing in Water Cay and in Grand Bahama

IRAM LEWIS to empower young men as he preaches that powerful message.”

His father, Reverend Aram Lewis, passed away in 2008. But unfortunately, the younger Lewis was unable to attend because he followed in his father’s footsteps as a member of the USA’s Youth Olympics on their 4 x 100m relay team that won the bronze.

“I’m building from those experiences and encouraging people to know that even though you may have your challenges, just stay focused and let God take you through it,” said Lewis, who ironically was 27 when his son was born, the same age that his father was when he was born.

During his tenure on the track, Lewis ran a personal best of 10.20 and 20.64 in the 200m and around 48 in the 400m. He officially retired in 2001 at the World Championships in Edmonton, Canada where he handed the baton to Dominic Demeritte from the third to anchor legs.

Prior to that, Lewis excelled at Freeport High School and the University of the Bahamas before he enrolled at Tuskegee

University on two academic scholarships where he earned an A-grade in engineering while running as a member of their intermural track team.

Now back at Cabinet with a broader portfolio as a fullfledged minister compared to a minister of state, Lewis said Minnis has already given him his mandate, including the reintroduction of the Bahamas Games.

“I don’t take his charge lightly,” Lewis said.

“I pledge to do my best to see how I can build a better Bahamas in partnership with all relevant stakeholders.”

Replacing the resigned Lanisha Rolle, the first female ever appointed as the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Lewis said he’s excited to continue to carry the baton as they accelerate and manoeuvre through.

“I’m very positive and encouraged to take on this awesome responsibility,” said Lewis, who was a past president of the Grand Bahama Amateur Athletic Association and a vice president of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations and the Bahamas Olympic Committee.

“I want to meet with all of the heads of the various departments in the ministry - youth, sports and culture - and then have a general staff meeting before I meet with the National Sports Authority and then the stakeholders in the various sporting bodies.”

The long-term focus, according to Lewis, is the reintroduction of the Bahamas Games, a mini version of the Olympics, which brought the islands

together in competition in various sporting disciplines in six previous editions.

“It will probably take us about two years to plan it properly,” Lewis.

“By then, the country will be 50 years old, so it would be a good time for us to put on a big celebration for the country.”

Minnis, in the House of Assembly on Monday, stated that they have already commenced work on the gymnasium in Andros where they intend to hold the preliminaries of basketball and will stage baseball on Grand Bahama, Bimini and Eleuthera.

All finals are expected to be completed in New Providence.

It’s an undertaking that Lewis said is high on his agenda, but he will take it in stride as he works with all relevant parties.

To all the stakeholders in sports, Lewis indicated that he’s here as a “part of the big team. I realised that when I competed for the Bahamas, I did it as a part of a team on the relay.

“So I realise what it is to be a team player and to develop good chemistry. So I want to hear what their programmes are all about and moving them forward.

It’s all about engaging our

youth from the sporting to the cultural arenas.

“We will look at the lower fruits hanging and try to get them up to speed and then we will look at our short and long term goals to ensure that all of the components are on the same page so that we can have one cohesive unit and so we can support each other to build a stronger community.”

The work is just beginning, but Lewis said he has his sprints to get through this season that God has blessed him with as the new Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture.

TOKYO OLYMPICS ADD 12 WOMEN TO EXECUTIVE BOARD TO REACH 42% TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics made a symbolic gesture toward gender equality yesterday by appointing 12 women to the body’s executive board.

The board will now have 19 women among its 45 members, or 42 percent.

To accommodate the new women, the size of the board was increased from 35 to 45. Several resignations yesterday also created more space.

The move was announced

by CEO Toshiro Muto after an executive board meeting. The names of the new members were expected to be announced today.

Seiko Hashimoto, the new president of the organizing committee, prompted the changes.

She took over last month after 83-year-old former president Yoshiro Mori

was forced to resign after making derogatory comments about women.

Essentially, he said they talk too much.

“Regarding the promotion of gender equality, we believe that it is necessary to work with a sense of speed and produce solid results in order to restore the trust in the organising committee,” Hashimoto said at the start of the board meeting.

Hashimoto, a former Olympic bronze-medal winner in speedskating, promised when she took over to increase female participation in the body’s executive board. It had stood at about 20 percent.

Muto also said the board will now have one female vice president among seven.

Japan ranks 121st out of 153 in the World Economic

Forum’s gender-equality ranking, and women are seldom found in leadership roles or in the boardroom.

The move is unlikely to have long-term impact. The Tokyo Olympic organising committee employs about 3,500 people but will be dissolved after the postponed Olympics take place.

Hashimoto is scheduled to meet today in a “five-party meeting” with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa.

A main item is likely to deal with fans being allowed into Olympic venues, and if any fans from abroad will be permitted to enter Japan.

WOMEN’S RUGBY WORLD CUP TO BE POSTPONED DUBLIN (AP) — The Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand is set to be postponed until 2022 because of continued uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

World Rugby cited the “challenging global COVID-19 landscape” yesterday for its recommendation to delay the tournament, scheduled September 18 to October 16.

The recommendation will be considered by the Rugby World Cup board and World Rugby executive committee next week.

It said its decision had been made in consultation with stakeholders including New Zealand Rugby, the New Zealand government and participating unions.

“While appreciating the recommendation is extremely disappointing for teams and fans, it has their interests at heart, and gives the tournament the best opportunity to be all it can be for them, all New Zealanders and the global rugby family,” World

Rugby said in a statement.

“The recommendation is based on the evolution of the uncertain and challenging global COVID-19 landscape.”

Farah Palmer, a former New Zealand captain, Women’s World Cup winner and a board member of New Zealand Rugby, said the delay was understandable given all the uncertainties but still disappointing.

Palmer said it was unlikely for the recommendation to be overturned.

“There will have to be some kind of miracle for that to change, so we just wanted to front foot and make sure everybody is aware that we did try our best,” Palmer told TVNZ’s Breakfast programme today.

COVID-19 is affecting all teams, “they haven’t even had a chance to play, some of the national teams.”

Nine teams — New Zealand, Australia, Wales, Canada, the United States, England, France, South

Africa and Fiji — have qualified for the 12-team tournament.

Three more teams were to be found through qualifying tournaments.

World Rugby said it was clear from recent talks with stakeholders that “it is just not possible to deliver the environment for all teams to be the best that they can be on the sport’s greatest stage.”

“The challenges include uncertainty and the ability for teams to prepare adequately for a Rugby World Cup tournament both before and on arrival in New Zealand and challenging global travel restrictions,” it added.

“Rugby World Cup 2021 is the pinnacle of women’s rugby and we are committed to provide the best conditions for players and teams to prepare fully and compete at their best,” he said.

“Postponing the tournament to next year provides the best opportunity to do that.”

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City beats Wolves 4-1 for 21st straight win, 15 clear in EPL MANCHESTER, England (AP) — A 15-point lead, 21 victories in a row, a club record-tying 28 games unbeaten.

The extraordinary numbers are stacking up for Manchester City as Pep Guardiola’s winning machine powers to the Premier League title and — whisper it — a potential quadruple.

Guardiola particularly liked what he saw in the 4-1 win over Wolverhampton yesterday.

Heading into the final 10 minutes at Etihad Stadium, City’s players were in the unusual position of being held, 1-1, but there was no panic. Instead, they just stepped up a gear, overwhelmed Wolves with their pressing and scored three goals.

“When you have a run of 20 wins, you’re not always going to win 3-0, 4-0, 5-0,” Guardiola said.

“So that is why how you recover from difficult situations is what I’m looking for.”

Gabriel Jesus scored in the 80th minute and again from close range with virtually the last kick of the game after Riyad Mahrez had made it 3-1, capping a period of incessant pressure by City after Wolves equalised in the 61st minute through Conor Coady’s header — the visitors’ first touch in City’s box.

Leander Dendoncker had given City the lead for the first time with an owngoal in the 15th.

Another test passed by City in its march to reclaiming the title from Liverpool, with Wolves having proved a tough opponent for City in recent years — winning their meetings home and away last season, for example.

City’s class of 2020-21 is made of sterner stuff this season, though. The team

MANCHESTER City’s Gabriel Jesus scores his team’s second goal during the English Premier League soccer match against Wolves at the Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, yesterday.

(Carl Recine/Pool via AP) has won every game it has played in all competitions since December 19 and now has 15 victories in a row in the league.

Its unbeaten streak stretched to 28 matches — tying a club record also achieved under Guardiola in 2017.

City hasn’t trailed for a single minute in any of its last 19 league games.

Asked how impressed he was by City’s recent

run, Guardiola said: “Man United” — referring to City’s next opponent at the weekend.

Pressed to expand, he said: “We talk about records and everything we have done in the league when it is over.”

And it nearly is over.

Second-place Manchester United can restore the 12-point gap to City by beating Crystal Palace today but doesn’t have the

consistency being shown by Guardiola’s side.

United also is in the final of the League Cup, the quarterfinals of the FA Cup and leads 2-0 after the first leg of its matchup with Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League’s round of 16.

City has players in supreme form, too.

Mahrez is one of them, the Algeria winger playing a key part in the opening goal

by controlling a searching pass by Rodri and driving over a cross that would have been turned into the net by Raheem Sterling if Dendoncker hadn’t done so himself.

Wolves’ only good spell of the game came after Coady scored his first Premier League goal, with Adama Traore blazing two shots over the bar.

City regrouped and after Jesus swept in a loose ball

from the edge of six-yard box after Kyle Walker’s cross was blocked near the goal line, Mahrez placed a shot into the bottom corner in the 90th after Wolves were hounded out of possession.

Jesus converted from close in for the fourth goal in stoppage time.

This was after goalkeeper Rui Patricio could only parry out a shot from substitute Ilkay Gundogan.

MATCHDAY: BARCELONA FACES SEVILLA IN COPA DEL REY SEMIFINALS A LOOK at what’s happening in European soccer today: SPAIN Two days after former president Josep Maria Bartomeu was arrested in an investigation into alleged irregularities during his administration, Barcelona tries to reverse a 2-0 firstleg loss to Sevilla in the semifinals of the Copa del Rey. The teams met in the Spanish league on Saturday, with Barcelona winning 2-0 in Seville. Today’s match will be at the Camp Nou Stadium.

The Copa del Rey is the tournament in which Barcelona is the closest to ending its title drought. It lost 4-1 to Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the round

of 16 of the Champions League and is five points off the lead in the Spanish league.

Sevilla, sitting fourth in the Spanish league, was coming off a nine-game winning streak in all competitions but has won only one of its last three games.

ENGLAND Injury-hit Leicester is looking to ward off another late-season collapse as Brendan Rodgers’ team heads to Burnley in the Premier League.

Leicester is third and five points clear of fifth-place Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification but has seen key players like James Maddison, Harvey Barnes, James

Justin and Jonny Evans get injured in recent weeks.

Injuries contributed to a loss of form late last season as Leicester dropped out of the top four in the final days. Second-place Manchester United, which is a point ahead of Leicester, visits Crystal Palace and last-place Sheffield United is 15 points from safety ahead of a home match against Aston Villa.

moved to just one behind third-place Lyon in a fascinating title race much closer than most observers had anticipated.

Defending champion PSG is away at Bordeaux, and Monaco is in Alsace to play Strasbourg, while Lille hosts seventh-place Marseille, and Lyon welcomes a visiting Rennes side in the ninth spot after three straight league losses.

FRANCE After dropping points with draws last weekend, Lille and Lyon need wins to pressure Paris Saint-Germain and hold off Monaco.

Lille remains in first place but only leads second-place PSG by two points, while fourth-place Monaco has

GERMANY Leipzig hosts Wolfsburg in the quarterfinals of the German Cup with the daunting task of beating a Wolfsburg defence which hasn’t conceded a goal in eight league and cup games. The two teams are also battling in the league,

where Leipzig is second and Wolfsburg third. Leipzig is on its own run of good form, with six wins from its last seven games, the only blip being a 2-0 loss to Liverpool in the Champions League. Leipzig left-back Angelino is set to miss the game for fitness reasons.

Fourth-tier Rot-Weiss Essen is by far the lowestlevel team left in the cup as it hosts second-division Holstein Kiel. Both teams pulled off surprise wins earlier in the competition as Essen eliminated Bayer Leverkusen and Kiel knocked out reigning champion Bayern Munich.

ITALY AC Milan will be without key forward Zlatan

Ibrahimovic as it attempts to close the gap to league leader Inter Milan.

Second-place Milan will be looking to win at home against Udinese to move to within one point of its city rival, with Inter playing at Parma the following day.

Atalanta should keep hold of fourth place as it hosts bottom club Crotone but Roma and Napoli will want to take advantage of any slip up and they visit Fiorentina and Sassuolo, respectively.

At the other end of the table, Cagliari could move out of the relegation zone with a victory over Bologna.

Benevento and Genoa are also far from safe and they host Hellas Verona and Sampdoria, respectively.

UK government offers $4M for 2030 World Cup bid with Ireland

By ROB HARRIS AP Global Soccer Writer THE British government will provide 2.8 million pounds ($4 million) to pursue a five-nation bid for a World Cup with Ireland.

The English Football Association disclosed the financial assistance for a potential British Isles bid on Monday as it received fresh backing from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“We are very, very keen to bring football home in 2030. I do think it’s the right place,” Johnson said in an interview with “The Sun” newspaper. “It’s the home of football, it’s the right time. It will be an absolutely wonderful thing for the country.”

Johnson calling England the “home” of football is

the language the country’s bid for the 2018 World Cup sought to avoid so the FA didn’t give the impression of seeming entitled to host the FIFA men’s showpiece.

The 2018 bid flopped, with only two of 22 FIFA votes received, despite Prince William lobbying executive committee members on the eve of the decision.

England, which hosted and won the 1966 World Cup, is exploring bidding with Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

London, Glasgow and Dublin are being used this year among the 12 cities across the continent staging the 2020 European Championship that was rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We will continue to undertake feasibility work to assess the viability of

a bid before FIFA formally open the process in 2022,” read a joint statement on Monday from the five British Isles football associations.

“Staging a FIFA World Cup would provide an incredible opportunity to deliver tangible benefits for our nations.

“If a decision is made to bid for the event, we look forward to presenting our hosting proposals to FIFA and the wider global football community.”

FIFA is planning for its congress of 211 football nations to pick the 2030 host in 2024.

A rival bid in Europe is being pursued by Spain and Portugal and UEFA wants a single proposal from the continent.

There is also a coalition of South American countries pushing ahead with a

bid from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile.

China could also bid if FIFA changes its rules on rotation of World Cup hosts with the Asian Confederation also staging the 2022 edition in Qatar.

The continent’s turn on hosting is not due to come again until 2034.

The 2026 World Cup will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The 2018 bidding process was mired in controversy with many of the voters later embroiled in investigations or banned.

David Cameron, who was British Prime Minister at the time of the 2010 vote, said “the corrupt undertones were all there.”

During the World Cup bidding, FIFA was led by Sepp Blatter who was later banned from football for

BRITAIN’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

(Anthony Devlin/Pool Photo via AP) six years by the FIFA ethics committee after being forced from office in 2015.

Cameron said the corruption at FIFA reflected an issue “that proved to be more prevalent than I had expected.”

“Those same forces that had denied Britain the World Cup,” Cameron wrote in his 2019 autobiography, “bribery, lack

of transparency, collusion, fraud were depriving people around the world of safer, healthier, wealthier lives.”

FIFA has been led since 2016 by Gianni Infantino. A special prosecutor in Switzerland last year recommended opening a criminal investigation against Infantino, who denies wrongdoing.

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UB Mingoes sprinter Romica Josey won the open women’s 200m at the Road Runners Track and Field Meet on Saturday. She won the event in 26.60 seconds.

UB Mingoes sprinter Donya Roberts takes second spot in his open men’s 200m heat. He finished sixth overall in a time of 50.86 seconds.

Wednesday, March 3, 2021, PAGE 13

UB Mingoes sprinter Paige Stuart wins her heat in the under-20 women’s 200m. She won her heat in 26.38 seconds and placed eighth overall.

UB MINGOES PICK UP TWO WINS AT ROAD RUNNERS TRACK MEET THE University of The Bahamas Athletics team picked up two wins at the Road Runners Track Meet at The Thomas A Robinson National Stadium over the weekend.

Romica Josey won the open women’s 200m and Brittany Lundy won the open women’s 100m hurdles. Keianno Rolle took second spot in the open men’s triple as well.

“We had some really strong performances,” said Mingoes head coach Ednal Rolle. “The wind was really strong out there and some of our athletes had to fight but overall I think we did pretty good as a team.”

Josey won the open women’s 200m event in 26.60 seconds after a strong start out of the blocks. Coming off the curve she was very relaxed and picked up the win. “I just listened to coach and went up the hill and came down the hill in the second half of the race and cruised to the win,” she said. “I really liked my start especially considering I usually have problems with my blocks and I didn’t today so that was a good thing.”

Lundy won the open women’s 100m hurdles with a time of 15.90. She said she could have attacked the hurdles a bit more but still felt great about picking up the win.

“I liked my start but I felt like I was floating over the hurdles,” she said. “I need to work on that more before the next race.”

Keianno Rolle finished second in the open men’s triple jump with a best leap of 13.55 metres (44 feet – 5 1/2 inches). “It was a strong head wind out there and I was really fighting that,” he said. “I had to come out harder and push off much harder but it was ok.”

Mingoes multi-event specialist Kendrick Thompson tied for second place in the open men’s 400m in 49.03.

Andre Wells had the same time. Ian Kerr won the event in 48.92.

Mingoes sprinter Donya Roberts finished second in his heat and sixth overall in a time of 50.86.

Paige Stuart had the best performance in the under20 girls 200m for UB. She won her heat in 26.38 but placed eighth overall.

UB Mingoes multi-event specialist Kendrick Thompson takes second spot in his open men’s 200m heat at the Road Runners Track and Field Meet on Saturday, February 27 at The Thomas A Robinson National Stadium. Thompson tied for second place in the open men’s 400m in 49.03 seconds.

Andre Wells had the same time.

Photos: UB ATHLETICS

US men’s soccer to play Jamaica on March 25

UB Mingoes Keianno Rolle takes off from the board in the open men’s triple jump. He finished 2nd in the open men’s long jump.

CHICAGO (AP) — The United States men’s soccer team will play 47th-ranked Jamaica on March 25 at Wiener Neustadt, Austria, the first of two exhibitions with the full player pool in Europe on FIFA international fixture dates.

The Americans had previously scheduled a March 28 match against Northern Ireland in Belfast.

The Jamaica game was announced Monday by the US Soccer Federation.

The matches will be just the third and fourth in 16 months with the full player pool, a schedule caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The 22nd-ranked US tied 0-0 at Wales on November 12, followed four days later by a 6-2 win over Panama at Wiener Neustadt.

The US is preparing for a June 3 match against Honduras in a semifinal of the CONCACAF Nations League followed by a championship or third-place game on June 6 against Mexico or Costa Rica.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup starts July 10 and includes first-round matches against Canada, Martinique and either Haiti, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Guatemala or

Guyana. Exhibitions also are planned for May 30 and June 9.

The delayed start of World Cup qualifying from August 30 to September 8 includes a match at El Salvador or Trinidad and Tobago, a home game that could be against Canada or Haiti, and a road game at Honduras.

October includes home qualifiers against Jamaica and Costa Rica around a road qualifier at Guatemala or Panama, and November has a home qualifier against Mexico and a road qualifier at Jamaica.

SPORTS

PAGE 14, Wednesday, March 3, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

CELTICS TOP CLIPPERS AFTER KAWHI LEONARD SCRATCHED LATE BOSTON (AP) — Kemba Walker had 25 points and six assists, and the Boston Celtics took advantage of a late scratch of All-Star Kawhi Leonard and held off the Los Angeles Clippers 117-112 last night.

Jaylen Brown finished with 18 points.

Jayson Tatum and Payton Pritchard each added 14 as the Celtics posted three straight victories for the first time since January.

The Clippers, who have lost five of eight, played without Leonard after he was ruled out shortly before the game due to back spasms.

Paul George led Los Angeles with 32 points.

Reggie Jackson took Leonard’s place in the starting lineup and finished with 25 points and seven assists.

Leonard was listed as a starter before the game, but never took the floor during warmups. The team announced late in the first quarter that he had been ruled out.

HAWKS 94, HEAT 80 MIAMI (AP) — Trae Young scored 18 points, including 13 straight for his team in the fourth quarter, and Atlanta snapped Miami’s six-game winning streak.

John Collins scored 17 for Atlanta, which lost at Miami on Sunday and fired coach Lloyd Pierce on Monday. Kevin Huerter scored 16 for the Hawks and Clint Capela had 10 points and 17 rebounds.

JOKIC’S TRIPLEDOUBLE LEADS NUGGETS TO 128-97 ROUT OF BUCKS

By STEVE MEGARGEE AP Sports Writer

CELTICS forward Jayson Tatum (0) drives against Clippers guard Patrick Beverley, left, and centre Serge Ibaka (9) in the third quarter last night in Boston.

TOP - Clippers centre Ivica Zubac (40) blocks a shot attempt by Celtics guard Kemba Walker in the fourth quarter.

(AP Photos/Elise Amendola) Duncan Robinson and Goran Dragic each scored 14 for Miami, which missed a chance to get over .500 for the first time this season.

Bam Adebayo scored 11 for the Heat, who shot 37% — their fourth-worst showing of the season.

Miami was outrebounded 47-26, by far its worst margin of the season, and was held to a season-low in points. The Heat were again without Jimmy Butler, who missed his second consecutive game with right knee inflammation.

GRIZZLIES 125, WIZARDS 111 WASHINGTON (AP) — Ja Morant had 35 points and 10 assists, De’Anthony Melton and Dillon Brooks each added 20 points, and Memphis beat Washington.

Jonas Valanciunas had 11 points and 16 rebounds for Memphis, which has won back-to-back road games for the first time since winning four in a row away as part of a seven-game win streak from Jan. 8 to Feb. 1.

Russell Westbrook had 23 points and 15 assists

for the Wizards, but also committed eight of Washington’s 22 turnovers.

Bradley Beal also scored 23 points for Washington, which has lost two in a row after winning seven of eight. Robin Lopez added 14 while hitting all six of his field goal attempts.

SPURS 119, KNICKS 83 SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Trey Lyles scored a season-high 18 points, Dejounte Murray added 17 and San Antonio used a balanced effort to end New York’s three-game winning

streak. San Antonio had eight players score at least eight points, with Patty Mills and Luka Samanic each adding 14 points in the Spurs’ seventh straight home victory over New York.

Immanuel Quickley led New York with 26 points.

RJ Barrett added 15 and All-Star Julius Randle had 14.

The Knicks had won seven of nine entering yesterday’s game, but were never able to find a consistent rhythm against the Spurs.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Nikola Jokic had 37 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his ninth triple-double of the season and 50th of his career, and the Denver Nuggets trounced Milwaukee 128-97 last night to snap the Bucks’ five-game winning streak.

Jamal Murray added 24 points as the Nuggets earned their third straight victory and showed no signs of wear one night after winning 118-112 at Chicago.

Denver handed Milwaukee its most lopsided loss of the year and shot 55.8%, the highest field-goal percentage by any Bucks opponent this season.

Giannis Antetokoumpo had 27 points and eight rebounds for Milwaukee as the Bucks finished an eightgame homestand in which they went 5-3. Khris Middleton added 20 points.

Antetokounmpo had his string of four straight games with at least 35 points end.

The reigning two-time MVP was one off the team record owned by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored at least 35 points in five straight games on two separate occasions during the 1972-73 season.

P.J. Dozier had 19 points, Will Barton 14, Michael Porter Jr 11 and Monte Morris 10 for Denver.

Brook Lopez had 12 points for Milwaukee.

Antetokounmpo shot 10 of 15 overall and recorded dunks on three straight possessions early in the first quarter. But the Bucks couldn’t slow down the Nuggets, who led 37-23 after going on a 15-2 run to close the first quarter.

SPORTS

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, March 3, 2021, PAGE 15

Russian doping reform plan approved by track authorities MONACO (AP) — Russia moved a step closer to having its longstanding suspension from track and field lifted after a new plan of doping reforms was approved by World Athletics.

The plan was written by a commission set up by the Russian track federation and tasks it with implementing a series of “immediate actions” with deadlines at various points this year.

That includes funding more testing of athletes, a crackdown on Russian regions with particular doping problems, encouraging whistleblowers and giving athletes

more of a voice in how the sport is run.

The plan also contains a detailed admission of past wrongdoing, including by the federation, though it doesn’t address any involvement by the Russian state in doping or cover-ups.

“A history of extensive and sometimes blatant anti-doping rule violations involving athletes, coaches and officials is acknowledged,” the plan states. “The root causes of an extensive doping and covering-up culture involving athletes, coaches and officials arose from inheriting a post-Soviet

doping culture aimed at winning by all means including doping.”

World Athletics hasn’t set a date to fully readmit the Russian track federation, which is known as RusAF and has been suspended since 2015. A World Athletics taskforce will monitor its progress with the reforms, as will foreign experts.

“This is not the end but the beginning of a long journey, with an incredible amount of work for RusAF to do to rebuild trust,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said. “The international experts believe the team that

ASSOCIATION CONGRATULATES ABIGAIL SIMMS ON A PERFECT SEASON SO FAR BAHAMIAN Abigail Simms, with her exceptional play, has been instrumental in the Indiana Tech Warriors going undefeated (5-0) for the start of the college season.

Simms also has a perfect record for the season in singles and doubles - 3-0 and 5-0 respectively.

On February 19, playing against Indiana University East, Simms won over Ashlyn Hubbard in singles, 6-1 and 6-0.

On the doubles side, Simms and teammate Hrnjak won easily over Caballero and Marino 6-1.

On February 22, Simms played doubles with Hrnjak against the Lourdes University Gray Wolves. This duo played exceptional and won 6-0.

This focused and consistent play led to Abigail making history for women’s tennis at her school by earning national rankings in the Oracle ITA NAIA Women’s Rankings (ranked 38th) at the end of last year.

The Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) congratulates Simms on a perfect season so far and wishes her all the best in future match play.

ABIGAIL Simms

Kyle Alcine 4th in high jump at Big 12 Indoors

KYLE ALCINE

SASHA from PAGE 16 was nice to see that they all did a very good job.”

At the end of the month, Wells will be switching her focus to the outdoor season and hopefully repeating as the Summit League 100 and 100m hurdles champion, earning a trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships and the postponed 2020 Olympic Games, which will be held in Tokyo, Japan, in the summer.

“I’m just going to start my transition to outdoors and trying to attain my goals,” she said.

“I think the fact that we didn’t have a season last year and the Olympics was postponed because of the pandemic, I got a little more time to refocus on some technical stuff that I had to work on.”

Wells is hoping to follow in the footsteps of her father, Renward Wells, the Minister of Health, who was a two-time Olympic sprinter for the Bahamas during his heyday out of Oral Roberts as well.

“Before he officially retired, I have memories

KANSAS State’s Kyle Alcine picked up a fourth place finish in the men’s high jump at the 2021 Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships that was held over the weekend at the Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.

Alcine, a 6-foot, 2-inch junior out of Cloud Community College, cleared

of going to the track when I was around four-five years old, and that sort of inspired me to enjoy running track,” she said.

“And obviously, I would like to follow in his footsteps, going to the Olympics, holding the national records and stuff, so that’s a big inspiration for me.

“And my parents really push me to be the best that I can be in athletics and academics.”

Wells, the Free National Movement (FNM) Member of Parliament for Bamboo Town, said his daughter has always been a very dedicated and determined individual in whatever she puts her mind to do.

“She always goes forward and accomplishes it with excellence,” said Wells of his daughter, who is also an advert reader, having read more books than he has ever opened and studied.

“My daughter is truly a gift from God, and I am happy to just contribute to her life and try to steer her down the path that God has declared for her. I constantly pray over her and speak blessings over her, as I do, for all of my children to succeed in whatever

2.15 metres to trail the trio ahead of him, including his team-mate Tajaswin Shankar, who won with 2.21m.

Vernon Turner and Chris Banks, a pair of junior competitors from Oklahoma, posted the same height of 2.18m for second and third respectively.

endeavours that they pursue.”

Unlike him when he competed in the men’s 100 and 200m, Wells said his daughter has shown that resilience to mount a comeback and close out a race,” he reflected. “I was a fellow who was fast from the crack of the gun and faded as the race went on. She is able to endure. That is the hallmark of a great sprinter.

She’s extremely dedicated and determined when she puts her mind into anything to do.”

Wells is the proud parent of five other children, including Sethren, a men’s hurdler who graduated from Oral Roberts. The other three children, Soren, Soraya and Sakarren, are all home-schooled by their mother, Sarah.

With each meet and each season, Wells said her ultimate goal is to get better and better and to make her parents and the Bahamian people proud of her achievement.

As the team captain at Oral Roberts, Wells said a lot of people rely on her for advice and encouragement, so they are motivated, even if they don’t come through successfully.

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that is now in place will be able to deliver on the milestones they have put in place.”

The approval didn’t come in time for Russia to send athletes to this week’s European indoor championships in Poland. World Athletics said its council will discuss on March 17 and 18 whether to restart issuing exemptions so individual athletes can compete at international events as “authorised neutral athletes.”

World Athletics also has a limit of 10 athletes on any Russian track team for major events like the Olympics, far smaller than usual.

SHORT COURSE METRES WORLDS LAST CHANCE MEET SET FOR THIS WEEKEND THE Bahamas Aquatics Federation will continue its 2021 season this weekend at the Betty Kelly-Kenning Aquatic Centre with the Short Course Metres World’s Bahamas Aquatics Last Chance Meet.

The meet, which is open to swimmers aged nine (9) and over, will begin with Session 1 at 6pm on Friday.

Session 2 will be staged from 9am on Saturday and will wrap up with Session 3 on Saturday, starting at 4:30pm.

All BAF registered swimmers as of the entry deadline on Monday will be allowed to participate. Any registration after the entry deadline date will be considered a late entry and applicable penalties will apply.

Swimmers, whose BAF registration has expired as of the entry deadline date, will be ineligible to compete in the Last Chance Meet and if renewed after the entry deadline date, will be considered a late entry and applicable penalties will apply.

Clubs who have not renewed their 2021 Registration or are in arrears with payments to the BAF will be ineligible to enter swimmers into the Last Chance Meet.

If renewal is completed after the entry deadline, all club entries will be considered late, and the applicable penalties will apply.

International swimmers are eligible to compete if they have been duly authorised by their federation.

There will be no spectators in the stands. The meet will follow the BAF’s social distancing protocols, including the warmup/down pool activities.

SPORTS PAGE 16

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2021

SEE PAGE 11

Sasha Wells named most outstanding athlete again

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

or the second consecutive year, versatile Sasha Wells was named the Most Outstanding Championship Performer, becoming the first athlete to earn the feat at the Summit League Indoor Championships more than once.

“It feels good. This meet was interesting because this year I was having a few difficulties with some of my races like finding my rhythm in my hurdles because I changed up my approach, so it feels good to come out and see my performances acknowledged in the form of these awards,” she told The Tribune.

“I was a little disappointed that I didn’t retain my 60m title, but that race showed that there are some things that I need to work on. I was really proud of my 200m. That was a two-tenth PR for me, so I can’t be bad at it.”

On Sunday, Wells ascended the podium four

F

times after she repeated as champion in the 60m hurdles in 8.54 seconds, relinquished her 60m title with a second place in 7.61, got third in the 200m in 24.27, and anchored the Golden Eagles’ 4 x 400m relay, that included Bahamian Gabrielle Gibson on second (other two members were Tay-Maro PowellPeters and Victoria Neville on pop off and third legs respectively), to third place in 3:49.85.

It was a post 22 birthday present for Wells, who celebrated on February 15 with her sister, Sierra, and her roommate, Victoria Neville. That coupled with the fact that she’s been pushed by the coaching staff has helped to inspire her.

But despite her achievement, Wells said she wouldn’t mind turning in the accolades for a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Indoor Championships.

“I was hoping to make it in the hurdles, but with all of the conference championships held this weekend,

I dropped to about 25th on the list, so I didn’t make the top 16 cuts, so I won’t be going,” she said.

“I needed to at least run my PR in the hurdles in order for me to have any chance of getting in. That was probably my biggest disappointment for this weekend because my goal was to make it this year, but we will have to move on.”

At the meet, Wells led a contingent of Bahamians who competed for Oral Roberts and North Dakota State. She was very proud of all of them, including Daejha Moss, who earned the most outstanding field award.

“It was nice to see them all succeed. I know Daejha Moss was struggling with some injuries, so it was really good to see her earn her awards,” Moss said.

“Amelia Peterson (of Western Illinois) medalled in the triple jump, Bradley (Dormeus) won in the 400m and Gabby (Gabrielle) and Indea (Cartwright) both competed against me, so it

SEE PAGE 15

SASHA WELLS with her awards.

DAEJHA MOSS MOST VALUABLE PLAYER IN FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net DAEJHA Moss couldn’t ask for a better ending to her junior year at North Dakota State University after she was named the Field Championship MVP at the Summit League Indoor Championships over the weekend.

“Being named MVP was such a surprise to me even though I know I put in a lot of work to get to the level that I was at,” Moss told The Tribune. “I am so grateful and happy that I received the award. I’m also so thankful to God for carrying me through the weekend injury-free.”

Moss, battling back from an injury during the indoor season in 2018 that prevented her from competing outdoors, said she was a

little disappointed that she didn’t perform better than she did in winning the women’s high jump to go along with her fourth place in the triple jump.

“My performance was alright. I did a lot of work on it and I really wanted to make the (NCAA) Nationals,” she said of the championships that will complete the collegiate indoor season over the weekend of March 12-14.

“I just started the triple jump this year and I managed to set a personal record on each jump, so I was happy with that. But in the high jump, I was kind of disappointed. I really wanted to clear 1.82, but it wasn’t my day I guess.”

Looking back on her performance, Moss admitted that she knew where she went wrong as she only managed to soar 5-feet, 8

DAEJHA MOSS with her hardware.

1/4-inches for her triumph in her speciality in the high jump.

Although she got fourth in the triple jump, she still produced a lifetime best of

38-6 (11.73m). Those two feats enabled her to earn 21 points for the Bison and the top scorer in the field events in the championships. When asked which

of the performances she enjoyed the most, Moss noted: “I would probably say the triple jump, simply because I was improving on each mark.

“That’s the thing about starting a new event. It’s so easy to get a PR.” The Queen’s College graduate, who only had one meeting last year where she cleared 5-6 (1.68m) indoors before the outdoor season was washed away because of COVID-19, joined Oral Roberts senior Sasha Wells in securing one of the postconference championship awards.

Wells, who retained her title in the 60m hurdles and had top-three finishes in the 60m, 200m, and on the 4 x 400m relay, was named the Most Outstanding Championship Performer.

“Sasha always shows out at the conference, so

I was not surprised at all in her being named the most outstanding athlete,” said Moss, in congratulating her former CARIFTA team-mate. “She’s done so well all season and I am extremely proud of my old Club Monica team-mate.”

Moss, the daughter of Delvin and Raquel Moss and sibling to Petra and Prince Ferguson, said she’s content with her indoor season and is now looking forward to the outdoors.

“Now that I missed out of a seat at nationals, I’m going to get prepared for outdoors,” said the exercise science major. “I’m really excited to see what I can do in this fourth collegiate year.”

The schedule has not yet been released for the outdoor season, which is being carefully monitored because of COVID-19.