Bahamas wins goldBy Stephon Nicholas Saturday, August 11 2012
click on pic to zoom in
We did it!: Bahamas' Michael Mathieu, right, and Demetrius Pinder celebrate after winning gold in the men's 4x400-metre relay final at the Olympic Gam...
Bahamas continued the domination of the Caribbean on the track yesterday with a gold medal victory in the men’s 4x400-metre relay final at the London Olympics.
The quartet of Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller shattered their national record with a time of 2:56.72 seconds to leave Americans Bryshon Nellum, Josh Mance, Tony McQuay and Angelo Taylor with the silver after clocking 2:57.05.
The Trinidad and Tobago team of Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon, Ade Alleyne-Forte and Deon Lendore took the bronze in a new national record of 2:59.40.
The Bahamas victory effectively ended the dominance of the Americans who have won gold in that event in a remarkable six of the previous seven Olympics. But with not a single American in the men’s 400 metres final, that era has certainly passed and the Caribbean teams are now coming to the fore.
Bahamas went into the final with the fastest qualifying time (2:58.87) while the US were second with 2:58.87 and TT third (3:00.38).
Led by a superb final leg from Miller, the Bahamas ensured the medals would be distributed in that very order. Miller got the baton some five metres behind US anchorman Angelo Taylor, but never lost his composure and sped by the American in the last 50 metres to burst to the finish.
Brown, the veteran, had earlier given them a very good start, which Pinder built on before Mathieu lost the lead. Luckily, Taylor, of the US, could not finish strongly under strong pressure from Miller in the stretch.
“We owe it to the Lord,” an ecstatic Brown said.
“It was not just the Bahamas we did it for, we did it for the entire Caribbean, all those who came before us and those who trying to go and do what we did tonight.”
He continued, “It was tough for us because we ran the same four guys as we did in the heats. They (US) brought in two fresh legs and we still came out victorious so we owe it to God to bless us with this talent we have.”
Pinder added, “It’s history. No one ever did it before so we were ecstatic, which led to the celebration at the end.”
