By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH the addition of versatile junior athlete Anthaya Charlton, head coach Rolando ‘Lonnie’ Greene said the Bahamian connection at the University of Kentucky just got stronger as a contender for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Track and Field Championships.

The 100 and 200 metre sprinter and long jumper begins her freshman year as a member of the Wildcats women’s track team at UK where she joins fellow St Augustine’s College graduates Jaida Knowles, now in her sophomore year, and Olympian Megan Moss, who is entering her junior year.

Additionally, Greene is also coaching Charlton’s older sister, Olympian Devynne Charlton, the Bahamian national women’s 100m hurdles record holder who serves as a volunteer coach at for the Wildcats.

Golden Girl Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, a five-time Olympian, is also on the coaching staff as an assistant coach.

“We are in week two, but we are still dealing with the Covid-19 challenges like everybody in the world,” said Greene of the Bahamian connection. “But we’re done a week of training and they are all doing well. Within the next 4-6 weeks we will know exactly how well they are doing and what they are capable of.”

If there’s one word to sum up his expectations for the Bahamians on the Wildcats’ team, Greene said it’s “greatness.”

He noted that the athletes have all showed up to the University of Kentucky where they are eager to start competing when the indoor season starts over the weekend of January 15-16 at the McCrary Green Invitational.

Charlton, who has produced a personal best of 11.51 seconds in the 100m with her victory at the 2019 Carifta Games in the Cayman Islands in the under-18 division, is expected to follow in the footsteps of Devynne Charlton, who competed with Greene when he was the head coach at Purdue.

“Anthaya brings depth and she brings quality,” said Greene of the daughter of Laura and Dave Charlton. “We have a great group of girls and so when you have a talent like that, and she can learn from those women who were there before her, she will only get better for us as she goes through the growing pains as a freshman.”

He noted that they are excited to have Knowles back after she suffered a hamstring injury during her freshman indoor season that prevented her from running outdoors last year.

“We could have pushed the issue, but by pushing the issue, we would have only made things worse for her,” Greene said. “So we made the decision to shut down her season and let her properly heal so she will be better available for us this year.

“We had several athletes in the system that sitting her out would not have affected our programme, so I think we made the right decision for her.”

Knowles, the daughter of Tameka Forbes and Geoffrey Knowles, is studying kinesiology. Her hobbies are listed as boating and diving and she has a fun cosmetic line named JaidaK Cosmetics.

As for Moss, she went on to represent the Bahamas at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as a member of the women’s 4 x 400m relay team that didn’t finish their preliminary race.

“No one goes to the biggest stage in the world and doesn’t want to win,” Green pointed out. “To go there just because you have an opportunity to go there is not just something any athlete would think about.

“I think the coaching staff put together the best team they could without using Shaunae (Miller-Uibo) and not putting her at risk because of her bid to go for the 200/400 double. I think Megan went out and did the best she could with the team there. It just didn’t work out for the team.”

Moss, the daughter of Nekeva and Tito Moss, ran on the team with Doneisha Anderson, Grand Bahamian Brianne Bethel and Anthonique Strachan. However, on the final leg with Team Bahamas well out of contention, Strachan eventually stopped running with a slight injury.

Prior to representing the Bahamas on her first major senior international team, Moss was named Academic All-District Team this year at the University of Kentucky and was SEC First-Year Academic Honour Roll.

On the track during the indoor season, Moss made the first-team All-American in the 4 x 400m relay as the Wildcats finished fifth at the NCAA Championships and shed was second-team All-America in the 400m with a 13th-place finish.

The accolades carried over to outdoors where Moss was a part of the eighth-ranked 4 x 400m team at the NCAA Championships that ranked the third fastest time of 3:28.68 in UK history as they earned first team All-American honours.

The human health sciences major, whose hobbies include baking and arts and crafts, also ran 52.13 in the 400m at the NCAA East Preliminaries to get the fourth best ranking on the all-time UK outdoor list.

Looking back at Charlton’s sixth place performance in 12.74 in the women’s 100m hurdles at the games in Tokyo, Japan in August, Greene said he couldn’t ask for anything better. She finished behind UK’s alumni Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, who won the gold over American Keni Harrison.

“She went there ranked at number eleven in the world, but she finished at number six,” Greene said. “So with the challenges she had, she really bounced back and performed very well. I think she will have a great season next year at the World Championships.”

Greene, a former athlete himself, said he’s also delighted to have Ferguson-McKenzie as a member of his coaching staff. He noted that she provides a wealth of experience as a five-time Olympian, who had an illustrious career where she’s earned more than 50 international medals as a sprinter.

Ferguson-McKenzie joined the Wildcats’ staff in September 2018 after she spent the previous four years as an assistant coach at the University of Houston where she helped to build the Cougars’ track and field programme into a nationally relevant contender.