The World Athletics Championships featuring the highest level of senior international track and field athletes from across the world began on July 15 in Eugene, Oregon. 

Starting in 1976, the event in its limited form was held in 1980, with the first championships featuring all the events took place in 1983.  Initially, the championships were held every four years, same as the Olympic Games, until 1991. Since then, they have been held every two years.

This year’s event is held at Hayward field with a capacity of 30,000 persons. There are 1972 athletes from 192 nations competing in 49 events over the course of ten days.

On day one, the Bahamas featured athletes competing in the 4 x 4 mixed relay, the men’s 100 meters, and the long jump.

In the 4 x 4 mixed relay, the Bahamas lined up a team consisting of Bradley Dormeus, Megan Moss, Alonzo Russell, and Doneisha Anderson. Competing in heat two, the Bahamian team finished 7^th with a time of 3:19.73. The top eight teams from all the heats combined advanced with the lowest qualifying time of 3:14.59. Team Bahamas finished 15^th overall.

The next event featuring a member of team Bahamas was the men’s 100 meters. Going up against a very strong field, Samson Colebrook came out of the blocks in heat five in 0.125 seconds and finished with a time of 10.23. The three fastest times in each heat advanced along with the next three fastest times. The cutoff to advance, Colebrook missed advancing by 0.05 seconds and finished 38^th out of 57 competitors.

In the men’s high jump, Donald Thomas from Group B had a jump of 2.21 meters, finishing 12^th in his group and 23^rd out of 29 competitors overall.  A total of 12 athletes qualified for the next round with the cutoff jump of 2.25 meters.

The final competitor from the Bahamas with hopes of advancing to the next round was LaQuan Nairn, who competed in the long jump.  He had a jump of 7.80 meters out of group B and finished 10^th.  Nairn finished 10^th overall out of 16. The top 12 advanced with the cutoff jump of 7.93 meters.

Although team Bahamas failed to advance in any event on day one, just making it to the World Championships to compete against the best athletes in the world is an amazing accomplishment.  The Bahamas should be proud of the fine effort put forth by the incredible athletes representing the nation.