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Road Runners set for year ending banquet By SHELDON LONGLEY ~ NG Sports Editor ~ slongley@nasguard.com: Yet another track and field club in the country is set for their end-of-year awards banquet. Dexter Bodie and the Road Runners Track and Field Club will stage their 10th Annual Presentation and Awards Banquet this Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Wyndham Nassau Resort and Crystal Palace Casino. The banquet will be held under the theme 'Climb Every Mountain, Fulfill Every Dream', and club president Bodie said that with this being the 10th year, they are aiming to do something different which will be entertaining to the crowd. The year-ending banquet aims to highlight the outstanding performances from the athletes of the club for the 2008/09 season, but Bodie said that it will also be a celebration of another successful year in track and field for the club. He said that about 80 of their 96 members will be honored on Saturday. "We're just looking forward to having a wonderful and great night," he said. "We had a wonderful track season and this will be the culmination of that. Right now, I think that we are the best club in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, simply because we are not just a track club, we are a ministry. We cater to athletes who are also in need of tutoring, lunch and other things. We always put God first in everything that we do and that has paid off for us," he added. The Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Desmond Bannister, is expected to make an appearance at the banquet as well as Bahamian quarter-miler Chris 'The Fireman' Brown and long-standing track and field supporter Basil Neymour out of Grand Bahama. David Wallace out of Freeport, Grand Bahama will serve as the event's Master of Ceremony. As far as entertainment is concerned, Bodie said that they are awaiting confirmation from Ancient Man, and as a special treat, two of the club's young athletes, five-year-old Alex Williams and 11-year-old Shacara Whymms, will perform a Michael Jackson rendition that will be a "thriller." "This one will be different from the rest. It will be real colorful," he said. "A lot of awards will be given out that night and we just want the public to come out and support some of the young track and field stars of the country." One of the special awards that will presented is the Dominique Higgins award which will be given to the student-athlete who maintained a 4.0 Grade Point Average (GPA) or the student-athlete who was closest to that standard. According to Bodie, some of the athletes in the running for that award are Jenero Knowles, Abiah Missick and Kenisha Gibson. Higgins is a former club member who is expected to be at the banquet Saturday night. He is currently studying medicine but graduated from Jordan Prince William Baptist High School with a 4.0 GPA and attained 10 Bahamas Government Certificates of Secondary Education (BGCSE) with 10 'A' grades. "That was a tremendous accomplishment," said Bodie. "He never used to miss a practice or a track meet and we always wondered how he used to balance his academics and athletics. He was a phenomenal student-athlete." Other awards that will presented on Saturday night include the Dianna Lynn Thompson award, Most Improved Athlete awards, and Athlete of the Year awards, which Bodie said should be full of surprises. Also, collegian Shawn Lockhart, who is a former club member, will be in town for the event and there will be an award named in his honor. He made quite a few national teams as a member of the Road Runners Track and Field Club. As far as their performances this year is concerned, Bodie said that they saw a lot of improvement in the athletes and are looking forward to more personal best times in the future. They attended the 18th Annual BAYTAF Classic in Tampa, Florida in May and turned in some exceptional performances where a number of the athletes recorded personal best times and distances. "We came back with more medals than ever before from that meet and also a lot of personal best times which was a great accomplishment for the club," said Bodie. "We had some great performances at the New Providence meets as well. We have a number of great athletes, but out doors are always open to anyone who is willing to accomplish great things in track and field," he added. Club member Ojay Ferguson, a 16-year-old C.R. Walker student, ran some exceptional times this year in the 400 meters and easily qualified for the CARIFTA Track and Field Championships but was unable to compete for The Bahamas as he is originally from Jamaica. "He was unbeaten all year in the 400 meters and had a season's best of 48.1 seconds," said Bodie. "He would have made the team based on the times he ran but based on his status he couldn't compete. Nevertheless, we are looking for quite a few of our athletes to make the CARIFTA team next year." With the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) elections now completed, Bodie said that they are willing to work with the new president for the betterment of track and field in The Bahamas. "The voters have spoken and they decided to go with the Mike Sands team, so I hope that now we can put aside the different personalities and work together for the common good of the sport. At the end of the day, it's not about us, it's about the children," he said. "We are looking for transparency, honesty, integrity and trust. That is what they were campaigning on and that is what we expect to see. At the same time, we hope that they would not victimize any coach or any person. We are all in this together and we expect everyone to be treated equally. We don't want just one or two coaches dominating every national team when you have about 100 coaches who could do the job just as good. We hope to see a fair playing field as we continue to strive for excellence in the organization," he added. Wednesday, November 25, 2009