By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

STEVEN Gardiner, showing some flashes of his breakout season last year when he broke the men’s 400 metres national record, led a field of Bahamian elite athletes with a sizzling performance in his specialty at the American Track League.

In Saturday’s meet at the Lakewood Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, Gardiner clocked a season’s best of 44.62 seconds as he pulled away from his competitors coming off the first curve and never relinquished the lead.

In fact, coming off the final curve and onto the home stretch, Gardiner shifted in another gear as he pulled away from an American trio that tried to catch him, leaving Michael Berry in second in 45.18, David Verburg in third in 45.30 and Calvin Smith in fourth in 45.61.

Only six other competitors, including world leader Kirani James of Grenada, have run faster than Gardiner so far this year. James has a best of 44.08 while Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown has the next best time by a Bahamian of 45.75 that he ran on May 22 in Rabat. Brown competed in the meet in Atlanta but opted to go down to the 200m where he was fifth in 20.92. The United States got a sweep of the top four spots with Tony McQuay taking the tape in 20.70, followed by Kendal Williams in 20.71, Dentarius Locke in 20.71 and Dedric Dukes in 20.80.

Meanwhile, Gardiner’s training partner Lanece Clarke contested the women’s 400m where she was eighth in 53.37. The race was another sweep by the Americans with Phyllis Francis taking the title in 50.92. DeeDee Trotter, who had to be assisted off the track, was second in 51.75, Kala Funderburk was third in 52.00 and Kendall Baisden was fourth in 52.09.

Sanya Richards-Ross, working her way back from an injury, also had to be lifted off the track after she failed to finish the women’s 100m. American Shalonda Solomon won the race in 11.28.

And national record holder Jeffery Gibson, competing in the men’s 400m hurdles, was third in 49.49 behind the American 1-2 punch of Jeshua Anderson (48.88) and Quincy Downing (49.32). Gibson was well off his season’s best of 48.96 that he ran in Kingston, Jamaica, on May 7.

“The time was not what I expected and I had made the decision from running at Eugene that I would take a break. I don’t want to get 4th and 3rd places. I want to get first every time and I want to make sure that if I don’t win I would’ve given my best,” Gibson said.

“I felt that this race wasn’t my best but each race I do learn something or remember something that I could do better in the future. I will be working on my speed and going a little harder in the gym. After having travelled to a lot of events it takes away from me having regular training and a regular gym routine since I am either travelling or abroad and don’t have the facilities.”

Gibson, a bronze medallist at the IAAF World Championships last year in Beijing, China, said he would not compete again until the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ Nationals over the weekend of June 24-25.

“I have already qualified for Rio, but I will run as if I haven’t,” said Gibson as he looks ahead to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August.