JONATHAN RAMNANANSINGH & JELANI BECKLES
RELATIVES OF Trinidad and Tobago’s Olympic men’s 200-metre finalist Jereem ‘The Dream’ Richards are over the moon on his qualification to Wednesday’s medal race.
The current world number nine booked a spot in the final on Tuesday, after placing third in the third semi-final in a season’s best time of 20.10 seconds.
He finished behind heat winner and Tokyo 2020 men’s 100m bronze medallist Andre de Grasse (Canada) and two-time Diamond League winner Kenneth Bednarek (United States) respectively.
From the three semi-final heats, only the top two finishers and the next two fastest times advanced to the final. Luckily, Richards’ time made the cut as the second fastest 'loser', behind US’ Noah Lyles (19.98 seconds), outside of the six automatic qualifiers.
Richards now lines up in lane two of the medal race which gets underway at 8.55 am on Wednesday (TT time).
Brittney Richards-Nelson, Richards’ sister, said on Tuesday that his family back at home is rooting for the 28-year-old sprinter.
“Our entire family, we are ecstatic, elated and so thankful that he made the final. This is an extremely huge deal because this is an Olympic final. This is literally the biggest stage of any sport,” she said.
In the final, Richards will have an uphill task as he takes on de Grasse, Bednarek, 2019 World Athletics Championships winner Lyles and Aaron Brown (Canada), the 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) Olympic semi-finalist.
Also among the start list are this year’s World Athletics Tour bronze receiver Erriyon Knighton, 2018 Diamond League winner Rasheed Dwyer (Jamaica) and Joseph Fahnbulleh (USA).
Richards however, is a men’s 200m Commonwealth Games champion (2018) and World Athletics Championships (2019) bronze medallist. He also earned gold with the national 4x400m team at the 2017 World Champs, and the 2019 World Relays.
Richards-Nelson said she was pleased her brother was able to progress from such a tough semi-final round and secure a spot among the globe's top 200m sprinters.
“We’re already proud that he made the final. He went in there into a very tough and tight heat. He went in there, did his best and we are so proud.
“We’re happy he’s in the final and we will continue to pray and we anticipate he will do well (on Wednesday) as well,” she added.
Richards’ family however, will not be hosting any viewing party for the final as they plan to adhere to the government’s covid19 regulations for gatherings of no more than five people.
On a possible viewing party with family members and friends, Richards-Nelson responded, “Because of covid19, no, but everyone would be watching at their homes. All our relatives will be watching. I will be at work I will probably run away and have a look."
Although Richards’ sister had no yet communicated with the athlete following his semi-final run, she said he spoke to his aunt and was “in good spirits, feels great and is ready for t
