THE MEN'S 4x400-metre (mile) relay team, as well as national cyclists Nicholas Paul and Kwesi Browne, remain Trinidad and Tobago’s final medal hopes at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
After a topsy-turvy Olympic campaign, TT is yet to attain a podium spot. All hopes now lie within these three remaining events and six athletes who climax their Olympic stint on the final two days of the Games.
If these athletes are unable to produce a medal performance for TT, it would be the first time in 29 years (seven editions) that the nation returns home from an Olympic Games without precious metal.
The last time TT concluded an Olympic campaign without medalling was at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain. At the previous editions in Moscow, Russia (1980), Los Angeles, United States (1984) and Seoul, Korea (1988), TT also did not medal.
At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, US, sprinter Ato Boldon ended TT’s 20-year medal drought by claiming a pair of bronze, in the men’s 100m and 200m events.
TT’s men’s 4x400m team will be looking to bag a precious Olympic medal on the penultimate day of competition on Saturday from 8.50 am (TT time).
[caption id="attachment_905777" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Nicholas Paul of Team Trinidad and Tobago competes during the track cycling men's omnium scratch race at the 2020 Summer Olympics, on Thursday, in Izu, Japan. -[/caption]
The quarter-milers conclude their Olympic showing running out of lane eight alongside Botswana and Belgium. They enter the medal race with the fourth fastest qualification time.
On Friday, TT’s quartet of Deon Lendore, Jereem Richards, Machel Cedenio and Dwight St Hillaire booked a spot in the final after placing third in heat one of two. They clocked a season’s best of two minutes 58.33 and finished behind winners USA (2:57.77) and second placed Botswana (2:58.33).
Poland (2:58.55), Jamaica (2:59.29) and Belgium (2:59.37) were heat two’s automatic qualifiers. Italy (2:58.91) and Netherlands (2:59.06) completed the list of eight finalists as they clocked the next two fastest times, both in national records.
Browne returns to the Izu Velodrome for the first round of keirin competition on Saturday from 2.48 am (TT time). He races out of heat one of five and faces a challenging field for a quarter-final spot.
Eight-time Olympic medallist Jason Kenny (Great Britain) and three-time medallist Maximilian Levy (Germany) lead the group of six cyclists in heat one.
Also among them are multiple World Championships medallist Sam Webster (New Zealand), European Championships and Nations Cup Team Sprint winner Ivan Gladyshev (Russian Olympic Committee), and European Games Team Sprint silver medallist Rayan Helal (France).
Browne also took part in the men’s sprint qualifying round on Wednesday where he clocked a personal best of 9.966 seconds. Although he was unable to advance, the keirin is Browne’s pet event and just one of two of last TT’s chances of an Olympic medal this year.
Si
