By DAHALIA SMITH, NG Sports Reporter, dahalia@nasguard.com

National relay co-ordinator and President of the Silver Lightning Track and Field Club, Rupert Gardiner, intends to make the Silver Lightning meet, which was held on Saturday at the Thomas A. Robinson Track and Field Stadium, an annual affair. He told The Nassau Guardian that his club is back on track.

"From here on, I expect for this meet to be held every year with no interruption. With this in mind, I would like to see Olympic hopefuls from around the Caribbean like Jamaica and Barbados attend this meet next year, so I will extend invitations to the athletes in those other countries.

"It was, however, good to see some of our senior athletes return home to participate in this meet, namely Adrian Griffith, Rodney Green, Jamaal Forbes, Lavardo Smith, Sasha Rolle and Shakeithra Henfield. Maybe next year we will see even more senior athletes come out instead of just competing in the states. This way more of the young people and Bahamians will get to see them," he noted.

Gardiner added that during the initial year of the meet (2006), it was held in February. However, last year Club Monica was able to reserve that date for its track meet. Nonetheless, Gardiner is content with having his meet scheduled after the Carifta Track and Field Championships.

"Once you plan your meet properly you will get a favorable turnout. This year I was pleased with the amount of athletes who participated. After Carifta, track and field support slackens off. However, we were still able to get over 500 athletes to compete which is a pretty good turnout for this time of the year," added Gardiner.

Meanwhile, athletes such as Carifta standout Tia Rolle from St. Augustine's College and Nassau Christian Academy's Carlton Taylor-Hepburn had alternative reasons for participating in this meet. Rolle, who specializes in the 100 meter (m) dash, has a personal best time of 11.86 seconds. She clocked 12.12 seconds on Saturday. She noted: "The whole point of competing here was to try and better my time for the upcoming Junior Central American and Caribbean Championships coming up in June. I was hoping to better my time but there were only seven competitors in my event, so I was not given the push that I wanted. Next week Saturday, I will be running in the Striders Track meet when I hope to better my personal best time."

Taylor-Hepburn, a 110m hurdler, was hoping to field fast times in an effort to impress college scouts.

"It was imperative for me to run in this event so that I could have sufficient times for college. I have applied to Southern Illinois, Central Michigan University and the University of South Florida. My personal best from last year is 14.11 seconds - today I ran 14.51. I am still confident that I will be able to better my times. I started off rocky this year because I had an injury. However, I was able to get back on the track successfully and I got a good review from my coach, Diane Woodside," said Rolle.