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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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Elite athletes home for Nationals By DAHALIA SMITH ~ NG Sports Reporter ~ dahalia@nasguard.com: Olympic bronze medalist in the men's triple jump 'Superman' Leevan Sands wants great public support for himself and the other athletes expected to compete at the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) Senior National Track and Field Championships, on June 26 and 27, at the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium. The Championships are scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. on Friday and then on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. Competition is slated to be intense as some of the athletes plan on using the nationals to qualify for the 12th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Outdoor Championships, set for August 15-23 in Berlin, Germany and the Senior Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Championships in Cuba, from July 2-6. Sands arrived in New Providence last week to get re-acquainted with the venue. He last competed in a meet in Brazil last month. Sands will be jumping on Friday. He said: "I wanted to come in town early to get acclimatized and get used to the different time zone because I want to hit the big one this weekend - I mean register a leap somewhere over 17 meters. That distance would be considered the 'A' qualifying mark. I already met the 'B' standard from last year. Even though this is a local meet I treat it the same as the international ones in that I will do my best despite who my competition will be. I look forward to competing against some of the younger athletes coming up and motivate them. We have a lot of talent that is coming up, especially the young jumpers in Jumper's Inc." Other elite athletes in town, training for the National Championships, include members of the 2008 Olympic silver medal winning 4x400 meters (m) men's relay team such as national record holder in the open quarter Chris Brown. Former 200m World Indoor Champion Dominic Demeritte, Osbourne Moxey and junior elite athletes such as Sheniqua 'Q' Ferguson and Krystal Bodie are also here. Moxey, in particular, will be attempting to earn a World and CAC Championships qualifying mark. He trains under the guidance of accomplished jumps' coach Peter Pratt. "This year we have been a bit more consistent in attacking the board than we were last year. Attacking the board seems to be the last key ingredient for us to be successful. This year we have been doing a lot to try and correct our deficiencies from last year, so we should do pretty well on Friday," explained Moxey. Moxey is also scheduled to jump on Friday. One of the biggest highlights of the National Championships will happen following the open men's 400m event on Saturday. At this time, the BAAA will present the men's 4x400m relay team from the 2001 Edmonton World Championships with their gold medals. That Bahamian team consisted of former World Champion Avard Moncur, Brown, Troy McIntosh, anchor leg Timothy Munnings and alternate Carl Oliver. The team was upgraded from the silver medal position after Antonio Pettigrew doping admission last year. Pettigrew was a member of the American team which crossed the finish line first. Wednesday, June 24, 2009