SPORTS SECTION E
NPBA
Championships, Page 3
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2018
Tamara Myers 9th overall in triple jump final By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net GOLD Coast, Australia — National record holder Tamara Myers came here with the goal of making the final eight to contest for a medal at the XXI Commonwealth Games. In the final Tuesday night at the Carrara Stadium, Myers fell one place shy of accomplishing that feat when she had to settle for ninth place with a best leap of 13.12 metres or 43-feet, 1 3/34-inches. Jamaica got a sweep of the gold and silver from Kimberly Williams with a personal best of
14.64m (48-0 1/2) and Shanieka Ricketts with 14.52m (47-7 3/34). Thea Laford was the bronze medallist with 13.92m (45-8). “It didn’t go the way I wanted it to go. I guess I just have to rebound,” Myers said. The 24-year-old native of Conch Sound, Andros, said her series of jumps were indicative of her
TAMARA MYERS performance. She scratched her first attempt, was slightly behind the board on the second attempt for a leap of 13.06m (42.10 1/4)
and she put it together for her best effort on the third. “It was too late to come back,” said Myers, who missed the eighth and final spot for the final three jumps. I don’t know. It was just bad approach work. During warm up it was fine, but I don’t know what went wrong.” Myers said she will take some time off to recuperate before she starts to prepare for the trip to the Central American and Caribbean Games in Mexico in July. Hopefully, by then, she would have corrected the mistakes that she made here. She was the first Bahamian on the track team to make it to a final at the games. Tonight, Donald
Thomas and Jamal Wilson will go head-to-head in the men’s high jump final at 8:05pm (Australian time). Also, Bianca ‘BB’ Stuart will be in action at 7pm as the eighth out of nine competitors on the runway in Group B of the women’s long jump qualifying round. And Shaunae Miller-Uibo will run at 8:18pm in lane six of heat two and Anthonique Strachan will follow in lane eight in heat three of the women’s 200m semi-final. Teray Smith will then contest the men’s 200m semi-final in lane eight of the last of three heats at 9:06pm. The first two and the next two fastest losers will advance to Thursday’s final.
Evans 4th, just shy of bronze in 400m free By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
GOLD Coast, Australia — It was probably the worst position any athlete would want to finish in a final, especially when there’s medals on the line like at the XXI Commonwealth Games. That was the position Joanna Evans found herself in on Tuesday night at the Optus Aquatic Centre as she just missed getting on the podium with a fourth place in the women’s 400 metre freestyle. Her time of four minutes and 08.82 seconds had her trailing Australian champion Ariarne Titmus, the gold medallist in 4:00.93 and England’s Holly Hibbott, the silver medallist in 4:05.31 and bronze medallist Eleanor Faulkner, who did 4:07.35. In fact, Titmus pulled away from the field and easily won in a games record, shattering the previous mark of 4:04.47 that was held by Lauren Boyle of New Zealand. Back in action after she got off to a promising start as the flag raiser during the opening ceremonies, Evans encountered some technical challenges when she competed in her first event in the 200m free and even though she had some time to recuperate, she was just not the same on the final day of competition for swimming. “It’s just annoying,” said a disgusted Evans. “I came in and tried to do what I had to do and some things just did not add up.” When asked to elaborate, Evans said there were some things that were “out of my control. I would rather not mention it.” Obviously disappointed, Evans said there’s no reason why she should not have been on the podium. “Yeah, yeah,” she stated, when asked about how disappointing it
JOANNA EVANS, at the Optus Aquatic Centre Tuesday night, just missed getting on the podium with a fourth place in the women’s 400 metre freestyle at the XXI Commonwealth Games. was that she didn’t get there. With her second Commonwealth Games behind her, Evans said she will now go back to the drawing board at Texas A&M where she’s a junior and try to work on the things that didn’t come through for her here. The 19-year-old Grand Bahamian said her performance here was much better than it was four years ago when she competed in
the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, but she’s undecided on what her future holds. “I will go back to Texas and practice and see where it goes from there,” she stated. Earlier in the day, Evans advanced to the final by placing third in her heat in 4:12.38 for sixth place overall. Her performance came after she had four days to relax from her fourth place in
her heat for 12th place overall in the 200m freestyle in 2:01.75. She admitted that she took the time to enjoy the experience here in the Gold Coast. “It’s always good to adjust to the time and get used to the environment,” Evans summed up. During the race, Evans posted splits of 28.50 in the first 50m, 30.81 for 59-55 at 100m; 31.33 for 1:30.88 at 150m; 31.50 for 2:02.38 at 200m; 31.52 for 2:33.90 at 250m; 31.67 forb 3:05.57 at 300m; 32.04 at 3:37.81 at 350m and 31.21 in her final 50m. It was just a little too short of getting her on the podium.
COLEBROOK: ‘IT WAS BREEZY AND THE HILLS WERE HARD, BUT I HAD A GOOD RIDE’ By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net GOLD Coast, Australia — Although he was not pleased with the adjustments he had to make to his bicycle before the race, Anthony ‘Biggie’ Colebrook said
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he went out and gave it his best shot in the men’s time trials at the XXI Commonwealth Games. On Tuesday morning at Currumbin Beachfront, Colebrook did the 38.5 kilometre race in one hour, 10 minutes and 59.85 seconds for 52nd position out of a field of 53 competitors who finished. One cyclist didn’t. “It was breezy and the hills were hard, but I had a good ride,” said Colebrook, the only member of the cycling team that participated in the first of two events for him and team-mate Jay Major Jr. Before coming here, Colebrook said he was concerned because he wasn’t aware of what to expect and so when he found out that in order for him to ride his bike, he had to make some adjustments to the frame, he was even more disappointed.
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SWIMMER FERNANDER ‘IS FINE, HE IS HAVING A GREAT TIME’ By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net GOLD Coast, Australia — After being quarantined for two days for treatment for Influenzavirus B, swimmer N’Nyhn Fernander has been cleared medically. Unfortunately, his confinement in the Games Village kept him from competing in his final two swims at the XXI Commonwealth Games. After competing in the heat of the men’s 50m butterfly where he was 28th overall in 25.39 seconds, Fernander had to skip both the men’s 100m and 200m freestyle as he was confined to the Games Village. “He had contracted Influenzavirus B, which is just the flu virus and had the chills, a fever, the cough and was feeling extremely weak with a sore throat,” said Dr Rickey Davis, the head of Team Bahamas’ medical staff. “We went to the polyclinic here so that I could examine and at the same time, I asked one of the doctors here at the polyclinic to also check him out. His throat was red and swollen, so at first we thought it was tonsillitis. “When we did a swab, it came back positive for Influenzavirus B and over here in Australia, they are very adamant about quarantining persons in an environment that is isolated, so no one else can catch whatever the symptom the person might have.” While being quarantined for the 48 hours, Davis said
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TABLE TENNIS: ROLLINS LOSES 14-MINUTE MATCH By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
ANTHONY Colebrook (right) warms up as Jay Major Jr checks his bicycle.
GOLD Coast, Australia — Adrian Rollins lost his match 4-0 to Rohan Sirisena of Sri Lanka in the men’s singles group 15 game one of the table tennis competition at the Oxenford Studios on Tuesday. The match lasted 14 minutes. Rollins, the oldest member of Team Bahamas at 54, was beaten by the 36-year-old Sirisena 11-3 in game one, 11-2 in game two, 11-4 in game three and 116 in game four.