By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

The 2024 World Relays to be hosted on home soil at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium is already shaping up to be exciting but officials added another layer of excitement with the launch of the pregame show “Showdown in Paradise”.

The pregame show will feature champions from the 2024 CARIFTA Games, high schools and top competitors from the United States of America and Canada. There will also be special appearances by Kids Athletics and Special Olympics on May 4-5. Athletes from the Kids Athletics portion of the event will range from under-7 up to under-15 and will compete in shuttle hurdle relays. The top three finishers from the CARIFTA Games will also be in action as well as the top participants from the High School Nationals scheduled for this upcoming weekend.

Pharez Cooper, former GBAAA president, talked about the exciting aspects of the pre- game show. “What makes this year’s ‘Showdown in Paradise’ is we have invited champions from CARIFTA. The top three finishers in each relay will come down to The Bahamas along with Central America, North America and countries like the USA and Canada. It’s a real ‘Showdown in Paradise’ for the penultimate event to Paris. Our pregame show is built to be just as exciting or more exciting in my opinion than the actual World Relays events because we have countries that have already qualified at the CARIFTA Games,” Cooper said.

The pregame show will begin at 4pm and wrap up at 5:15pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The athletes in the under-11 to under-15 category will compete in the 4x100m relays.

Meanwhile, in the invitational (co-ed) event, athletes are set to compete in the 4x100m and 4x400m mixed relays.

Laura Pratt-Charlton, who is the assistant CEO of the World Relays, spoke about the excitement building ahead of “Showdown in Paradise”.

“It is expected to be very exciting. At the CARIFTA Games in Grenada recently, we would have seen exciting relays happen there. We have teams that have expressed interest and some were saying they want to bring teams for all three invitational events.

“We have teams like Grenada, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. There was a buzz and countries who didn’t make the top three also asked that should we have a lane or two open, that they be included. We are excited that we will have those persons coming,” Charlton said.

“We will have our high school athletes. We will have another GSSSA, another BAISS challenge coming up in those relays with our high school students. It is expected to be a very exciting event, maybe even more than the actual relays. We are encouraging persons to come out and support our athletes in the pregame show,” she added.

The high school relay teams will include the top three finishers from New Providence, two teams from Grand Bahama and one team from Abaco.

Drumeco Archer, president of the BAAA and CEO of the World Relays, described the upcoming pregame show as exciting. “The pregame show is set to be one of the most exciting events. In fact, in our local environment this is probably gonna be the most sought after event since many of our Bahamians who follow track and field locally will see some of the best athletes that we would’ve produced in this edition of these games.

“I like this event as the DNA of track and field where the priority of the federation is to ensure that this becomes a legacy of our sport. Long after the relays have come and gone we can look forward to having an event that showcases not only our junior athletes but also to consider the future of our sport which would be our Kids Athletics programme. It is in direct alignment with what we hope to achieve as a federation that continues to grow and to develop young and ambitious dreams of becoming one of the best countries in track and field,” he said.

The Bahamas will be hosting the World Relays for a fourth time.