Thirty three athletes from Harbour Island, North Eleuthera, Central Eleuthera and Preston H. Albury High schools gathered on an overgrown and poorly maintained track in Rock Sound for a grueling meet, under the watchful eye of their coaches on Wednesday afternoon< April 2nd, 2014.
Mr. Mackey of PHAHS, led the athletes through the 1 hour, taxing trials, which he said were timed in the same manner the races would be at the IAAF World Relays in New Providence on May 24th and 25th at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium. There were 12 minute recovery times allowed between 4 tough races.
For the females it was a 400m, 100m, 200m and a final 200m, that had them laid out on the field after. Not all were able to complete the four races and even less were able to complete the final 200m with competitive zest.
For the males it was a 800m, 200m, 400m and 100m that had even the best among them winded at the end of the 60 minutes.
It was certainly inspiring to see the effort expended in a quest to represent the island.
“You’re representing Eleuthera, not Harbour Island, Not North, Not Central, Not Preston”, Mr. Mackey emphasized to the youngsters.
In encouragement he told them, they should all be proud they were selected to come to the trials.
The final 10 males and 10 females who will be selected are expected to be named on Thursday.
Five on the list will certainly be Juan Ambrister, Rashad Cartwright, Aaron Cox, Trenique Hall and Wendeisha Symonnette, who clearly distinguish themselves as power sprinters. The other 15, will come from a field of keen youngsters, some as young as 14.
It is an utter shame that the best track these young Bahamians, aiming to represent their country, have to train on, is in as poor a condition as this knee pounding, uneven, overgrown, field is.
