Babb: Invest in relays

Article by Sherrylyn Toppin

Barbados is starting to reap the rewards in relays on the international scene and the national association should pick runners specifically for those events rather than cobbling together teams.

Coach Alwyn Babb made this suggestion coming out of the summer athletics series where Barbados won a gold medal in the men’s 4×100 metres at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Barranquilla, Colombia, and silver at the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Championships in Toronto, Canada.

Babb, who was coach for both championships, said the island was finally displaying the depth to have relays and for the first time in more than ten years, Barbados also fielded a men’s 4×400 metres relay team in international competition.

The 1600 metres quartet finished fifth in a time of 3 minutes 05.97. It comprised one true quarter-miler in Anderson Devonish with a split of (47.15 seconds) and included 800 metres specialist Anthonio Mascoll (46.30) and 400 metres hurdlers Kion Joseph (47.39) and Fabian Norgrove (45.17), but they are not strangers to the event.

“We shouldn’t treat relays as putting together four guys because they qualified, but put a team. We have to realise the significance given to countries by relays. It is for Barbados, not the individual runner,” he said. (SAT)

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