As he prepares to represent Bermuda for the first time on the track, Cameron Basden is bracing himself for a quick turnaround.

Basden, a student at Barry University, is part of the island’s 4x100 relay team that will be competing at the Barbados Grand Prix, taking place at Usain Bolt Sports Complex on Saturday. He will be teaming up with Miles Outerbridge, Denver Tucker and Norre Robinson.

Soon after returning from Barbados, the 20-year-old will be heading off to Guyana with the Bermuda basketball team for the Fiba AmeriCup 2029 Central Caribbean prequalifiers.

“I’m running the relay for Bermuda on Saturday, get back home on Sunday then fly out with the basketball team on Monday,” Basden told The Royal Gazette.

“I should be good and hopefully I'll recover. That is the goal and I think our first basketball game is on Tuesday.

“It’s just been a matter of time management and it’s been pretty good so far. My first year of university, it was a bit hard balancing it because some of the time schedules didn’t add up.

“But I think now being in my second year and me gaining that experience in college, it really helped me to balance it out and be able to train for track as well as still train for basketball.”

While he has been a member of the island’s basketball national programmes for years, the multitalented rising star never got the chance to be part of Bermuda’s track and field teams.

“This is my first official invitation to run with Bermuda and it’s a great opportunity, but I wouldn’t say there was anything stopping me from running before,” he said.

“I just finished my second year at Barry University and I did three high school years in the United States as well.”

At the inaugural Barbados Grand Prix last year, the relay team recorded the second-fastest time by a Bermudian quartet.

Outerbridge, Tucker, Suresh Black and Norre Robinson clocked 40.41 sec, just 0.66 outside the national record of 39.75 set by Mike Sharpe, Dennis Trott, Cal Dill and Gregory Simons at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.

Basden, who replaced Black, believes he is adding a new dynamic for coach DeVon Bean to work with.

“I bring in some more college experience, which is great,” he said.

“My ability to run a curve, being more of a 200 runner, I think that’s really going to benefit us when it comes to the relay for the most part.

“I think the four of us are running at a high level and it’s going to be a good experience. We should learn something and continue to grow as a team.”

Outerbridge, who had a great track season for Bermuda and Montverde, has enjoyed training at Flora Duffy Stadium.

“It’s been good being back home,” the 17-year-old said.

“Training with Norre, Denver and Cameron, the level of training partners has definitely risen since I came back from Montverde.

“Having more male athletes who can go sub-11 has definitely been helpful to me and having this atmosphere around has been really fun.”

The Carifta Games medal-winner thinks they have better prospects of running faster than they did a year ago in Barbados.

“This time around we’re expecting probably a little bit higher,” he said.

“All of our athletes are fairly healthy and all of our athletes can for sure go sub-11. Last year some of our guys were struggling with injuries, it was definitely something that we had to deal with.

“This year I feel like we’re coming back a little bit stronger, so I think we can definitely expect a better outcome this time around.”