Trinidad and Tobago athletes displayed grit and determination on Saturday the opening day of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games.
At the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre Natatorium,  David Mc Leod was the first T & T athlete in action.
Mc Leod,  a Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships (CISC) and Carifta champion,  placed second in heat two of five in the Men's 100 m backstroke preliminaries but 27th overall in a new personal best time of 58.18.  His previous PR was 58.72.
From the starter's signal,  Mc Leod was always in second,  splitting in 27.57 seconds at the midway point behind eventual heat two winner Canada's Javier Acevedo (57.87) and maintained his position for two laps of the Olympic-sized pool.
After the race,  Mc Leod said:"I am pleased with my swim because I felt strong and did a new best time.  It augurs well for my pet event,  the 50 m back,  on Tuesday (tomorrow) where I expect to be even stronger and faster and hopefully achieve a semifinal place. "
Mc Leod takes his final splash in the pool in the Men's 50m backstroke on Tuesday while World Juniors silver medalist Dylan Carter also dives into action on that day in the Men's 50 m freestyle prelims.
At the Youth Olympic Sport Park, T&T Beach Volleyballers Chelsi Ward and Malika Davidson battled but went down in straight sets 2-0 (21-17, 21-10) to Germany’s Sarah Schneider and Lisa Arnholdt.
Coach Sean Morrison said Ward and Davidson traded point for point up to 15 in the first set before the Germans imposed their will while the T&T team started too relaxed in the second set,  making too many errors and conceding  a big lead to the Germans from which  they failed to recover.
The T & T duo will try and look for their first points of Group E competition when they tackle Indonesia today from 3 pm (3 am local).
" Indonesia is even a better team defensively than Germany but we will try  to out-hustle them to score points tomorrow (today), " Morrison,  a national Men's player,  said.
Morrison added that he is looking to score wins over easier Group E opponents Bolivia and Congo for T&T  to advance  out of Group E, a group that also includes hosts China.
" Once the girls keep focus on their game throughout   we will be okay against Indonesia, "he said.
In sailing,  T&T' sole representative Abigail Affoo took to the waters of Jinniu Lake for the Women's One Person Dinghy from 11 am (11 pm Sunday TT time).
On Sunday,  Affoo put the finishing touches to her Dinghy and also had a trial race in preparation for today's race.

T&T athletes get there track and field campaign on the way on Wed 20th, with Jeminise Parris in the women's 100m Hurdles.


Interested persons can follow the progress of the T&T team at the T&T Olympic Committee (T&TOC) social media websites, twitter  www.ttoc.org and the Games’ websitewww.nanjing2014.org/en.