AP
Brendan Christian of Antigua & Barbuda looks at the scoreboard after winning the gold medal for the men's 200 metres at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Friday, July 27.

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):

Bird, in an open letter to Brendan Christian, said both he and Grayman 'were shining examples to the young people in this country as they desperately seek role models in this troubled world'.

Bird, who won a bronze in the long jump while competing for the West Indies Federation team in Chicago, USA in 1959, said the achievement also recognised the bronze medal won by female sprinter Heather Samuel in Argentina in 1995.

Bird also recalled the efforts of former sports minister Guy Yearwood and himself to persuade Christian that he should "run for the country of [his] birth and not for [his] adopted country, the USA".

Thanks to coach

"Thanks should also be given to your [then] coach Leroy Burell who encouraged you to run for Antigua and Barbuda," Bird wrote.

But he said Christian's gold medal was as a result of commitment to hard work.

"It is you who dedicated yourself to hard work and total commitment. It is you who gave truth to the saying 'no pain no gain' as day in and day out you ran and practised with total intestinal fortitude," Bird said.

"Also you have lifted the name of Antigua and Barbuda to ne in the pantheon of the athletic world so enjoy the well-deserved glory that all of us Antiguans and Barbudans heap on you."