Renward Wells
Encyclopedia
Renward Ricardo Wells is a retired Bahamian sprinter who specialized in the 100 metres
.
He competed at the Carifta Games in 1986 in Guadeloupe
where he won a Bronze metal in the 400 meters. He also competed in Carifta Jamaica
1988 and in Barbados
in 1989.
In May 1989 Wells helped the Boise State University
Broncos to their first Track and field Big Sky Conference
title in 22 years.
He competed at the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000 and the World Championships in 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001 without reaching the finals.
His personal best time was 10.18 seconds, achieved at the 1995 World Championships
in Gothenburg
. Wells also co-holds the Bahamian national record in the 4 x 100 metres relay
, achieved with teammates Dominic Demeritte
, Iram Lewis and Andrew Tynes
. Wells in 1994 ran one of the fastest times ever recorded under any conditions in the 200 meters Commonwealth All-Time Lists (Men)
He was suspended from August 2002 to August 2004 due to a doping
offense though some in the media thought it was unjust.http://www.bahamasuncensored.com/october02.htm.. He is rumored to be a friend and a confidant of Victor Conte
and Patrick Arnold
who were the masterminds behind the Balco
doping scandal. Wells' name, though, never came up in the grand jury trial where numerous professional athletes, including Barry Bonds
and Marion Jones
, testified.
Wells was coached From 1996 to 2001 by the famed coach Steve Riddick in Virginia Beach, Virginia
.
. His parents William Wells and Leoma Flowers were never married. In 1971 at age one, Wells went to live with his father's parents in Deadman's Cay on Long Island, Bahamas
. He left in 1973 and was sent to live with his mother's parents on the Island of South Andros
in the settlement of Driggs' Hill. At that time in the Bahamas, neither of those islands possessed electrical installations or modern sewage systems, so Wells grew up in spartan conditions assisting his grandfather, Bertram Flowers, fishing and grandmother, Natalee flowers with subsistence agriculture
farming. In December 1979, he was reunited with his mother and her husband-Yorick Smith in Freeport, Bahamas
on the island of Grand Bahama
.
With the aid of an athletic scholarships in 1988, Wells attended Boise State University in daho]. Wells left Boise State in May 1989 for an athletic scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles
, U.C.L.A. However, Boise State refused to sign his release letter required for transfer by the NCAA, so Wells had to sit out an entire year before he was able to attend UCLA. In June 1992, Wells again made another university switch leaving UCLA to attend, on an athletic scholarship, Oral Roberts University
. While at Oral Roberts, he began dating Sarah Adermann. Sarah competed in the high jump
event for the Oral Roberts University's track team. Renward and Sarah married in June 1993.
Wells graduated from Oral Roberts in 1995 with a Bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering
. While at Oral Roberts, Wells taught himself to play the guitar and has written a number of messianic
Christian
worship songs.
In September 1998, Wells enrolled in Regent University
Law School
and Divinity School
. He left Regent University in December 2000 and moved to his wife's hometown Coon Rapids, Minnesota
, to concentrate on his growing family.
Since returning home to The Bahamas, he has become politically active, discussing and debating many social issues and has become a member of the Executive Steering Committee of the National Development Party
(NDP). A Political party he was instrumental in helping to form in 2008. He became the Deputy Chairman of Executive Steering committee in October 2009 and Chairman on April 5th 2010.
The NDP was the first party in the Bahamas to allow every member of the party the right to vote for the leadership team and officers of the party. The NDP held a nationally Televised debate between the nominees for the leadership on November 17th 2010. On November 29th 2010, Wells was elected the First leader of the National Development Party at the Party's first convention.
Wells is still married to Sarah Cathleen Wells and the couple have five children; Sethren, Sasha, Sierra, Soren and Soraya. Sarah is a stay-at-home mom and the Wells' children are all homeschooled.
100 metres
The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...
.
He competed at the Carifta Games in 1986 in Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
where he won a Bronze metal in the 400 meters. He also competed in Carifta Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
1988 and in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
in 1989.
In May 1989 Wells helped the Boise State University
Boise State University
Boise State University is a public university located in Boise, Idaho. Originally founded in 1932 as a junior college by the Episcopal Church, the university became an independent institution in 1934, and has been awarding baccalaureate and master degrees since 1965...
Broncos to their first Track and field Big Sky Conference
Big Sky Conference
The Big Sky Conference is an intercollegiate college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I, with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. The BSC was founded in 1963. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the states of Arizona,...
title in 22 years.
He competed at the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000 and the World Championships in 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001 without reaching the finals.
His personal best time was 10.18 seconds, achieved at the 1995 World Championships
1995 World Championships in Athletics
The 5th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden between August 5 and August 13.This edition featured 1804 athletes from 191 nations....
in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
. Wells also co-holds the Bahamian national record in the 4 x 100 metres relay
4 x 100 metres relay
The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners begin in the same stagger as for the individual 400 m race...
, achieved with teammates Dominic Demeritte
Dominic Demeritte
Dominic Demeritte is a sprints athlete who specializes in the 200 metres.He became indoor world champion in 2004, his result 20.66 a new Bahamian record...
, Iram Lewis and Andrew Tynes
Andrew Tynes
Andrew Tynes is a retired Bahamian sprinter who specialized in the 200 metres.He won gold medals at the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games and the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Championships, and a silver medal at the 1995 Pan American Games.His personal best time was 20.22 seconds,...
. Wells in 1994 ran one of the fastest times ever recorded under any conditions in the 200 meters Commonwealth All-Time Lists (Men)
He was suspended from August 2002 to August 2004 due to a doping
Doping (sport)
The use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport is commonly referred to by the term "doping", particularly by those organizations that regulate competitions. The use of performance enhancing drugs is mostly done to improve athletic performance. This is why many sports ban the use of performance...
offense though some in the media thought it was unjust.http://www.bahamasuncensored.com/october02.htm.. He is rumored to be a friend and a confidant of Victor Conte
Victor Conte
Victor Conte is a former musician with Tower of Power and founder and president of BALCO, a sports nutrition center in California. He served time in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering....
and Patrick Arnold
Patrick Arnold
Patrick Arnold is an American organic chemist responsible for creating the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, also known as THG and "the clear". THG, along with two other anabolic steroids that Patrick Arnold manufactured , were drugs at the heart of the BALCO scandal...
who were the masterminds behind the Balco
Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative
The Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative was an American company led by founder and owner Victor Conte, a former bass player for the soul band Tower of Power. In 2003, journalists Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada investigated the company's role in a drug sports scandal later referred to as the...
doping scandal. Wells' name, though, never came up in the grand jury trial where numerous professional athletes, including Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds
Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007, for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds...
and Marion Jones
Marion Jones
Marion Lois Jones , also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is a former world champion track and field athlete, and a former professional basketball player for Tulsa Shock in the WNBA...
, testified.
Wells was coached From 1996 to 2001 by the famed coach Steve Riddick in Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay...
.
Early life
Renward Ricardo Wells was born in Nassau, BahamasNassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
. His parents William Wells and Leoma Flowers were never married. In 1971 at age one, Wells went to live with his father's parents in Deadman's Cay on Long Island, Bahamas
Long Island, Bahamas
Long Island is an island in the Bahamas that is split by the Tropic of Cancer. Its capital is Clarence Town. Long Island is one of the Districts of the Bahamas and is known as the most scenic island in the Bahamas. The population is roughly 4,000 inhabitants.-Geography:Long Island is about 130...
. He left in 1973 and was sent to live with his mother's parents on the Island of South Andros
South Andros
South Andros is a district of the nation of The Bahamas. Geographically, South Andros is the southernmost third of the land mass colloquially called Andros, which includes the districts of North Andros, Central Andros and South Andros...
in the settlement of Driggs' Hill. At that time in the Bahamas, neither of those islands possessed electrical installations or modern sewage systems, so Wells grew up in spartan conditions assisting his grandfather, Bertram Flowers, fishing and grandmother, Natalee flowers with subsistence agriculture
Subsistence agriculture
Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed their families. The typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to eat and clothe themselves during the year. Planting decisions are made with an eye...
farming. In December 1979, he was reunited with his mother and her husband-Yorick Smith in Freeport, Bahamas
Freeport, Bahamas
Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone located on the island of Grand Bahama of the North-west Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted 50,000 acres Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone located on the island of...
on the island of Grand Bahama
Grand Bahama
Grand Bahama is one of the northernmost of the islands of the Bahamas, and the closest major island to the United States, lying off the state of Florida. Grand Bahama is the fifth largest island in the Bahamas island chain of approximately 700 islands and 2,400 cays...
.
Education
Wells attended Driggs Hill All Age School, Bartlette Hill Primary School, Eight Mile Rock High School and RM Bailey Senior High School. He was an active student leader, avid reader and athlete. He graduated at the top of his class in 1987 in the science stream and was elected by students and teachers to be school President.With the aid of an athletic scholarships in 1988, Wells attended Boise State University in daho]. Wells left Boise State in May 1989 for an athletic scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
, U.C.L.A. However, Boise State refused to sign his release letter required for transfer by the NCAA, so Wells had to sit out an entire year before he was able to attend UCLA. In June 1992, Wells again made another university switch leaving UCLA to attend, on an athletic scholarship, Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University , based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the United States, is an interdenominational, Charismatic Christian, comprehensive university with an enrollment of about 3,790 students from 49 U.S. states along with a significant number of international students from 70 countries...
. While at Oral Roberts, he began dating Sarah Adermann. Sarah competed in the high jump
High jump
The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....
event for the Oral Roberts University's track team. Renward and Sarah married in June 1993.
Wells graduated from Oral Roberts in 1995 with a Bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
. While at Oral Roberts, Wells taught himself to play the guitar and has written a number of messianic
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
worship songs.
In September 1998, Wells enrolled in Regent University
Regent University
Regent University is a private coeducational interdenominational Christian university located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States. The school was founded by the American televangelist Pat Robertson in 1978 as Christian Broadcasting Network University. A satellite campus located in...
Law School
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
and Divinity School
Divinity School
Divinity School may refer to:* The common noun, divinity school* When used as a proper noun, may be an abbreviated reference to one of the following:** Beeson Divinity School** Berkeley Divinity School** Brite Divinity School...
. He left Regent University in December 2000 and moved to his wife's hometown Coon Rapids, Minnesota
Coon Rapids, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 61,627 people, 22,578 households, and 16,572 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,718.1 people per square mile . There were 22,828 housing units at an average density of 1,007.2 per square mile...
, to concentrate on his growing family.
Post athletic career
In September 2003, Renward moved back to The Bahamas and began working for The Government of The Bahamas in the Ministry of Works and Transport as a mechanical engineer.Since returning home to The Bahamas, he has become politically active, discussing and debating many social issues and has become a member of the Executive Steering Committee of the National Development Party
National Development Party
National Development Party can refer to:* National Development Party * National Development Party * National Development Party * National Development Party * National Development Party...
(NDP). A Political party he was instrumental in helping to form in 2008. He became the Deputy Chairman of Executive Steering committee in October 2009 and Chairman on April 5th 2010.
The NDP was the first party in the Bahamas to allow every member of the party the right to vote for the leadership team and officers of the party. The NDP held a nationally Televised debate between the nominees for the leadership on November 17th 2010. On November 29th 2010, Wells was elected the First leader of the National Development Party at the Party's first convention.
Wells is still married to Sarah Cathleen Wells and the couple have five children; Sethren, Sasha, Sierra, Soren and Soraya. Sarah is a stay-at-home mom and the Wells' children are all homeschooled.