By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

It’s official. ‘Da Bahamian Dream’ sports and lifestyle nutrition store is now open.

The store, the brainchild of quarter-miler Andretti ‘Da Bahamian Dream’ Bain, is located on the ground floor of the three-storey yellow building on Farrington Road and George Street. It provides over the counter medications, supplements, weight loss products and vitamins as well as healthy drinks and snacks, all 100 per cent drug free.

Bain, 26, and his 25-year-old wife, Cheryse Rolle-Bain, a local volleyball star, operate the store that is open 8am to 6pm daily and on Saturdays from 10am to 4pm. It’s closed on Sundays and holidays.

But Bain said if Saturday’s grand opening was any indication, he’s confident that the store will make a great impact on the Bahamian community. They were scheduled to introduce the store to the public from 2-4pm, but they didn’t close until about 11pm.

“I’ve always been business-minded. I went off to university with the intention of acquiring the skills and knowledge to open a business and be successful in life besides on the track,” said Bain, a graduate of Oral Roberts University with his bachelor’s degree in 2007 and his masters in 2008 after he completed his high school education at St John’s College.

“This year where I had the time off this summer not qualifying for the Olympic team, it was the first time since I graduated from college that I was able to go ahead and get the physical work done to get the business off the ground. For me, track and field is a major part of my life, but it’s not my life. So I just felt like I needed to do something other than track and field.”

Not that he’s thinking about retiring anytime soon, Bain said the business will give him the opportunity to prepare for his future.

“This would make my transition a whole lot smoother,” said Bain, who is also back at Oral Roberts University where he is working on his PhD in Education in modular classes that require him to be physically present just one week each month as he works on getting back in shape to compete again next year.

“Now it feels good that I have something else besides track and field.”

In preparation for his return to a competitive level of competition and hopefully a shot at the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) World Championships in Moscow, Russia, Bain spends his time training in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in Orlando, Florida where he lived before he returned home.

“My goal really is to train as a world-class athlete full time from the Bahamas,” he said. “I want to encourage other athletes to do that, but I know there are certain things that restrict us from doing so and one of the things was the availability and the affordability of proper sports nutrition, proper sports supplements and vitamins, hence the reason I decided to open this business.

“I decided that rather than wait for somebody else to fulfil my needs, I might as well go ahead and do it myself where I can be sure that if this business has just one customer every month, it will have a loyal customer in me.”

Customers coming into the sports and lifestyle nutrition store can purchase vitamins, minerals, sports bars, sports products, training products, reading glasses, proteins, fruit smoothies, low fat muffins all at very affordable prices, according to Bain, who is also providing an in house discount package for all persons who sign up free of charge.

“My goal was to focus on making it more affordable for everyone, especially our athletes here, as compared to going with the higher price items that the other companies provide here in the Bahamas,” Bain said. “The opening showed that we need a business like this for our athletes and our student-athletes.”

His wife, Cheryse Rolle-Bain, who is preparing to travel with the women’s national volleyball team to the 2014 World Championship Qualifying Tournament in Suriname on Friday, said she’s excited to be joining her husband in his new venture.

“I’m pretty excited about it. I’m very happy that he started this. In speaking with me, I know he have a lot of business ideas and I’m just glad that he really followed through with this one because it was a dream of his for a need of his own,” she said. “He wants to see affordable prices so everyone can get the nutriments and supplements that they need.

“As a volleyball player, I don’t do what I need to do to be at a higher competitive level because of the cost of the supplements. So Saturday at the grand opening, I was able to get some stuff that I need and my team-mates were committed to getting some stuff, so hopefully we could do better for the country.”

Sprinter Brunell McKenzie, who is also looking forward to making it back next year after going through his share of injuries, said he’s glad to see his team-mate take on such an initiative and he will definitely be supporting him.

“Its such a big need in the Bahamas because the competition out there have their prices so high,” McKenzie said. “But his prices are affordable and being a 38-year-old athlete, I know once I can get them, I will be able to compete with the younger guys out there. I have everything I need in the multi-pack, the animal pack and everything that I need to compete with them.”

Another customer in the store was Natisha Meadows with her mother Louise.

“It’s a really good store. All of your nutritional needs you can find here at a really good price,” she emphasised. “I’m very pleased.”

Bain said he eventually hopes to launch ‘Da Bahamian Dream Foundation’ where he will be able to get more involved in charities and sponsor a number of community events in the future as he gives back as much and as often as he can.

“The dream continues,” Bain said. “I know a lot of people wrote me off saying that I retired, I’m finished or I’m switching to the 400 hurdles because the 400 is getting so stacked, but I just want to make it perfectly clear that I’m still here. I still have the third fastest time ran by a Bahamian, so there’s no way that I’m going to be pushed from the 400 to the 400 hurdles..

“I really believe that I haven’t tapped into my full potential in the 400. I do believe that I can run 43 seconds in the 400. My goal is to be the first Bahamian to do that. I believe that was what caused me to get into the problems with my injury because after 2008, I kept pushing and pushing and I think I pushed my body to the limit where it couldn’t go anymore.”

Having learned from his lesson, Bain said he’s gearing up for a return in 2013 as he begins his off season training next month now that he has launched his new ‘Da Bahamian Dream’ store.