The Bahamas’ men’s 4x400m relay team the inaugural IAAF World Relays Bahamas 2014 held May 24-25 at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium. Out front Eleuthera’s Chris Brown taking the second leg of the race; the team clocked 2:57.59 to take silver medal. (BIS Photo/Raymond Bethel)     

NASSAU, The Bahamas – The Bahamas Government has begun the process of negotiating to host the International Association of Athletics Federations World Relays 2015, the Minister of Youth, Sports & Culture the Hon Daniel Johnson announced. “Bahamian officials will immediately begin negotiating its bid to host next year’s event.

The country has been selected but it still has to put in an appropriate bid and we are very interested in it. Negotiations are expected to be completed by the end of June,” Mr. Johnson said. He made the statement during a press conference Monday, May 27, at the Ministry of Youth Sports & Culture. The inaugural IAAF World Relays Bahamas 2014 were held May 24-25.
Another opportunity would be the discussion of the establishment of the IAAF Hall of Fame in The Bahamas, Mr. Johnson said. The IAAF World Relays Bahamas 2014 brought together the best athletes in the world in competition at the newly upgraded Thomas A Robinson Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 15,000. In competition were about 700 athletes managed by 300 team officials from 40 countries.

The following races were held: the 4x100m, 4x200m, 4 x 400m, 4 x 800m and 4 x 1,500m with qualifying rounds for the 4 x 100m, 4 x 200m and 4 x 400m (male and female). Three world records were set on the state-of-the-art track – the Mondo’s Super X720. They were Kenya’s Mercy Cherono, Faith Kipyegon, Irene Jelagat and Hellen Obiri and their mark of 16:33.58 in the women’s 4x1500m relay, taking 32 seconds off the previous record of 17:05.72 set by another Kenyan team in Nairobi last month.

The second record was set by the Jamaican men’s 4x200m quartet of Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir, Jermaine Brown and Yohan Blake of 1:18.63 to beat the prior record set by the United States in 1994 by 0.05. The third world record was set by the Kenyan men’s team of Collins Cheboi, Silas Kiplagat, James Magut and Asbel Kiprop who ran the4x1500m relay in 14:22.22, which shattered the previous time of 14:36.23 set by Kenya in 2009 by 14 seconds.

“Three world records were set in one weekend, in one beautiful place, The Bahamas was seen on 150 news agencies and channels worldwide, on every continent. This is the first time that The Bahamas has really been on the world stage, and we performed fabulously well,” Mr. Johnson said.

The total prize purse of $1.4 million was paid by The Government of The Bahamas, while the IAAF funded the $50,000 bonus for each national record broken. The Bahamas’ men’s 4x400m relay team clocked 2:57.59 to take silver medal. Mr. Johnson said, ”If the Bahamian team had won that gold medal, I think we would’ve had to close Nassau on Monday. You would’ve had to have a public holiday and I don’t know how we were going to get out of that stadium that night.” Mr. Johnson noted that there are other events being planned by the IAAF and the request is being made to have The Bahamas on the IAAF world tour. “So every year we’d want to get an event in The Bahamas and end up hopefully with about 10 major events in this country that are on tour or something going forward,” he said.

The International Association of Athletics Federation is the governing body for the sport of athletics around the world including the Track & Field disciplines (indoor and outdoor), Cross-country, road racing and walking. It was founded on July 17,1912 at its first congress in Stockholm, Sweden. The 2014 IAAF World Relays served as a qualifying competition for the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing. 

 

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