Cheaters never prosper, at least not for long but hard work does pay-off.

Eleutheran native and Olympian Christopher Brown can attest to  this. He along with his 4x400 meter relay teammates were  presented by Sports minister Desmond Bannister with the 2001 Edmonton IAAF World Track and Field Championships  gold medals at the nationals during the last weekend in June at the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium.

Brown's teammates include Avard Moncur, Troy McIntosh, Carl Oliver, and Tim Munnings who actually won the silver in 2001 behind a U.S. team. But during the relay  the U.S. side won the gold because it had a  cheater on the team, Antonio Pettigrew. He recently admitted and was found to be using performance enhancing drugs at the time of the Championships in 2001.

As a result, the Bahamas team anchored by Brown were proven to be the actual winners, vindicated by the International Olympic Committee that was in a long court battle with Pettigrew's teammates who did not want to relinquish their gold medals. 

"All of these years of hard work paid off," admitted Brown. "It was not  an Olympic medal but World Championship gold is better than no gold at all. I thank the Lord and my teammates for sticking with me and the Bahamian fans for supporting me." 

Another Bahamian who was promoted to gold medal status from  the same 2001 Championships was Debbie Ferguson McKenzie. She was awarded with the gold medal in the 200 meters after U.S. sprinter Marion Jones Jones was exposed for cheating  as well by using performance enhancing drugs in 2001.

Jones is  currently serving time in prison for cheating. Brown also made the Central American and Caribbean Championships (CAC) national team on Saturday. He is a part a 29 member team  preparing to compete at the CAC that will be held in Cuba, the first weekend in July. 

So this goes to show all of the youthful Eleutheran athletes, work hard and never give up!