ANDREW COAKLEY

FN?Sports Editor

andrewcoakley@nasguard.com

It took a long time to come, but yes, the Bahamian National Anthem will finally heard in London.

The Bahamas not only won its first medal of the 2012 Olympic Games yesterday evening, but they did it in style, capturing the gold medal in the men's 4 x 400m Relay.

The Bahamian team of Chris "Fireman" Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Matthieu and Ramon?Miller, clocked a time of 2:56.72 to give The Bahamas the gold medal and the Caribbean another medal at this year's Olympic Games.

The Bahamas went into the relay finals with the fastest time of 2:58.87, which they ran on Thursday evening.

Coaches for The Bahamas made an adjustment to the relay team, putting the veteran, Chris Brown to run the first leg of the race. Over the years Chris has been the anchor man for many Bahamian relay teams, including the run in the heats.

However, the adjustment for the Finals paid off as the younger runners of Demetrius Pinder, Michael Matthieu and Ramon?Miller, placed the finishing touches on the relay.

Chris, who ran a split time of 45.86, handed the baton to Demetrius Pinder, the Junior National Champion and National Champion, who finally got to run his 400m race.

By the time Demterius handed the baton to Michael Matthieu, The Bahamas was holding a slight lead over the American runner.

Michael and the American runner were neck and neck going up to the line for the final hand off. Ramon Miller didn't go all out when he was handed the baton, but stayed close enough as the American runner, Angelo Taylor overtook him on the back stretch.

The decision to conserve his energy for the final kick worked, as Ramon rounded the 200m mark, he shifted into his next gear and on the 100m stretch, overtook the American runner to carry the baton over the finish line.

"It was smart running on Ramon Miller's part, because he knew the American runner would be tired by the time they hit the 100m," said a Caribbean Sports Analysts, about yesterday's relay run.

This is the first time since 1972 that the USA has not won the men's 4 x 400m relay gold medal.

With their top prospect of LeShawn Merrit out, that hurt the U.S. chances of winning the race. With Jamaica out of the finals, the Bahamian chances of winning gold went up tremendously.

But they had to work for it, and The four runners left everything on the track in their final shot for a medal.

The win no doubt lifted the spirits of the Bahamians, who were disappointed in the way these Olympics were going for the country used to winning medals on the big stage.

A series of bad breaks, injured athletes and missed opportunities left many wondering if The Bahamas would go without a medal at this year's Olympic Games.

The Silver Knights became Golden Boys in London and the setting could not be more perfect.