Press Top 10 Sports Stories of 2009: At an international level

• Ramon Miller

AP Photo Jeremy Wariner of the United States, right, and Dickinson State sprinter Ramon Miller of the Bahamas compete in a men’s 400-meter semifinal race at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin on Aug. 19.

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Dickinson State track and field coach Pete Stanton doesn’t think any other athlete he’s coached can say they’ve had a better collegiate career than Ramon Miller.

Not Derrick Atkins. Not Trevor Barry. And not Aaron Cleare.

“He had as good a career, to be honest, as anybody in the history of the NAIA,” said Stanton, who coached Miller to seven individual national championships and four more in relays.

The Nassau, Bahamas, native soared to new heights in 2009 as he won three titles at both the NAIA indoor and outdoor nationals and earned most valuable performer honors for both meets.

At the indoor championships last March, he won the 400 meters with a time of 46.98, just .03 shy of his NAIA record time from the 2008 championships. He also won the 200, flirting with the NAIA record in the event, and anchored the Blue Hawks to a win in the 1,600 relay.

At the outdoor finals in May, he won the 400 with a school-record time of 45.43 seconds, ran lead on the 400 relay team and anchored the 1,600 relay team, both of which set school records while winning titles.

His performances earned him the North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters’ Outstanding Achievement Award.

The only thing Miller didn’t get in 2009, was a national team title. The Blue Hawks finished second in the race for the outdoor team championship for the third consecutive year.

“I wasn’t expecting everything to be positive,” Miller said. “I had thoughts in my mind about winning a national championship, but I said to myself that I’m going to do my job to try and help us out as much as I could.

“I did my job.”

Miller also did fine work at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin.

He finished 10th overall in the 400 meters despite running a career-best time of 44.99 seconds and ran the opening leg for the Bahamas 1,600 relay team that was disqualified after finishing second in its preliminary race after one of the runners stepped outside his lane.

Miller said if he has any regrets from the World Championships, it wasn’t about the relay, but his early exit in the 400.

“I came in and said I’m the underdog, I didn’t have anything to lose. I had a plan race for the heats and for the semis,” Miller said. “After I saw (United States gold medalist) Jeremy Wariner run up on the side of me, I got too excited. I ran with him and it really hampered my race. I would have made it to the finals and it would have been a greater outcome than it was.”

While Miller’s collegiate career is over, his ability to run with the world’s best shows that his time on the track is just beginning.

He is now, essentially, a professional and plans to graduate from DSU in May. During the winter and spring, he plans to run at some top-flight national meets while trying to lock down a sponsor.

The next steps after that? Well, that’s obvious.

The 2011 World Championships in South Korea and the 2012 Olympics in London are already in Miller’s sights.

“I think being in the Olympic finals and going towards a medal is a realistic goal for Ramon in London in 2012,” Stanton said. “His prime is going to be coming up in the next four to six years. He sees himself having a very realistic shot as being able to compete for an Olympic medal in a couple years.”

Tags: ramon miller, track and field, blue hawks, sports, college