SPORTS SECTION E
Shaunae surges to victory By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net SHAUNAE MillerUibo, running with a heavy heart, relied on some extra external help from her late spiritual leader to boost a fantastic comeback victory in the Muller Grand Prix women’s 200 metres as the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s Diamond League’s 12-race series came to a close on Saturday in Birmingham, England, and with the finals looming in two weeks. “I want to give God thanks for another win. I want to point out that I dedicated this race to my pastor, Apostle Rodney Roberts from Five Porches,” Miller-Uibo told The Tribune after the race. “He always said one day he was going to catch one of my international races and so I knew he was watching
me from above and I miss him dearly. May his soul rest in peace.” Miller-Uibo was referring to the late Apostle Roberts, who died on July 25. Inspired by his death, Miller-Uibo went on to clock 22.15 seconds to eclipse the previous meet
record held by American Sanya Richards-Ross of 22.25 from June 11, 2006. In the process, Miller-Uibo executed a well-crafted plan to surge past a talented field of competitors to remain undefeated in three races in the half-lap race to go along with her pairs of victories in
SHAUNAE Miller with Dina Asher-Smith, of Great Britain, and, top, on her way to victory.
her one-lap specialty in the 400m. “The race went well,” said Miller-Uibo, who used her towering 6ft, 1in frame to maneuver from fourth place coming off the final curve with enough real estate ahead of her to chop down Great Britain’s world leader, Dina Asher-Smith, who led the race until the closing metres to finish second in 22.31, and Netherlands’ world champion Dafne Schippers, who had to settle for third in 22.41. She was simply spectacular and very colourful. “My coach said I did a good job, so I’ll take that,” stated Miller-Uibo, with her long, flowing two-tone pink and purple dyed hair. “As expected, all of the competitors brought their A games as we all knew it was going to be a competitive race.” Asher-Smith was coming off an exceptional European Championships where
ASHLEY Moss in practice ahead of the Centro Basket Tournament in Puerto Rico. and we will do our best with what we have.” Nesbitt, the starting point guard for the Caribbean Women’s Cup, has signed to play for women’s head coach Yolett McPheeMcCuin, who has taken on the head coaching job at Ole Miss University. Meanwhile, Rolle, one of two Bahamian female professional players, didn’t make
the trip to Suriname and Watson was hoping that she would have been available for this trip. Jonquel Jones, the other pro, is still playing with the Connecticut Sun in the Women’s National Basketball Association. Without these players, the team, managed by Lavardis Johnson, will comprise of Joette Fernander, Tracy Lewis, Ashley
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MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2018
AIMING FOR A PUERTO RICO SLAM DUNK By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas women’s national basketball team, fresh off their bronze medal performance at the FIBA Caribbean Women’s Cup Championships, is now in Puerto Rico where they hope to at least duplicate or surpass that performance at the Centro Basket Tournament. By virtue of winning the bronze at the Anthony Nesty Sporthal in Paramaribo, Suriname, in June, The Bahamas clinched their berth in the Centro Basket this week. The team, coached by Waye Watson and assisted by Varel Clarke-Davis and Anton Francis, got in a set of practices yesterday and will begin their round robin play today at 6.30pm against Puerto Rico. On Tuesday at 2.30pm, The Bahamas will play Mexico in their second game. Their final game in the round robin will be on Wednesday against Costa Rica. “Everyone seemed to be in good spirits,” Watson said from Puerto Rico. “We’re a little bit stronger than the team we took to Suriname about six weeks ago. But we’re lacking one of country’s premier point guards in Valerie Nesbitt and we are also lacking Waltiea Rolle. She never showed up. She could have been a big asset to us. but we are in good spirits and we have a pretty good team
JONQUEL SET FOR PLAY-OFFS
Moss, Shaniqua Thompson, Arlia Greene, Kendi Outten, Brea Forbes, Felicia Demerite, Sha-Londa Neely, Marvia Dean, Britenique Harrison and Leashja Grant. “We will rely heavily on our defence and hopefully our system will be able to pull us through,” SEE PAGE TWO
she dominated the sprints with two world-leading meet records and personal best performances in the 100 and 200m. That carried over in Birmingham where she asserted herself early as the pace setter. But as she’s done all season long, Miller-Uibo, the newly minted Bahamian 400m record holder in her last competition a month ago to add her name to the 200m mark she also possessed from a year ago, accelerated into another gear on the home stretch and nobody was able to catch her as she reverted to the shorter race. It was Miller-Uibo’s third impressive victory this season over AsherSmith, who is also having an exceptional showing. After pulling off the gold at the Games in the Gold Coast, Australia in April, leaving Asher-Smith with the bronze, the Bahamian
outshone the Briton again at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rabat last month where they had a 1-2 finish. “I was working on a few things and we’re definitely starting to put it together,” she said. “There are still a few things we have to work on, but for my first competition back in four weeks, I think I did a great job and it was a great feeling to be back on the track in yet another great race.” Miller-Uibo, 24, still has some unfinished business to take care of as what is presumably an off-year with neither a IAAF World Championships or Olympic Games on the agenda. She now prepares for the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels, Belgium, on August 31 where she has qualified for both the 200 and 400m. SEE PAGE THREE
COLEBROOK BACK AS PRESIDENT
By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net ROY Colebrook, a vice president of the Bahamas Olympic Committee, was returned as president of the Bahamas Amateur Cycling Federation. During the elections held on Saturday at the offices of the BOC and conducted by BOC executives D’Arcy Rahming and Colebrook went in unopposed as well as the rest of his team, that includes Kenton Roker as vice president, Barron ‘Turbo’ Musgrove as general secretary, Shirley Mireault as assistant secretary, Rowshan Jones as treasurer and Chad Albury, as assistant treasurer. “I think we have a young and vibrant board that is prepared to take cycling from one level to the next,” Musgrove said. “It showed the enthusiasm of persons wanting to get into the sport, so what we are trying to do in this term is to bring the inclusion of the Family Island Associations involved with their new ideas and activities that they have going on.” Over the course of the four years in office, Musgrove said the federation will ensure that they take advantage of all of the international competitions on the agenda, especially at the youth level where they hope to groom and develop a cadre of competitors that will eventually get the Bahamas prepared to compete in the Olympic Games. “We will have our first meeting next week because I have a meeting
with the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale, the sport’s governing body) headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on September 11 where I present all of the questions from our members pertaining to the way forward for the Bahamas,” said Colebrook, who will there for his graduation for his Masters degree in Sports Organization from the International Olympic Committee’s museum on September 14 in Switzerland. Musgrove, back as well in office as the general secretary, said they have been working to get more Family Island members on the board so that they can bridge the gap between New Providence and Grand Bahama. He said they want to include Eleuthera with their Hope for Hope, the Spanish Wells Championships, the Exuma’s Ride for Pompey and the Tour de Grand Bahama in Grand Bahama. MICA, comprising of Mayaguana, Inagua, Cat Island and Acklins, doesn’t have a major event, but Musgrove said they were delighted to have a represented at the elections and hopefully they will be able to assist them in bringing more awareness of the sport to that section of the country. “Hopefully we can see some of our young cyclists coming from there too,” Musgrove said. “I think the federation is now going to take a different approach towards cycling because New Providence is not cycling. The SEE PAGE THREE