THE NATIONAL women’s and men’s 4x100-metre relay teams showed some form ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, as both teams won gold at the Blue Marlin Track and Field Classic at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium in Nassau, Bahamas yesterday.
The Trinidad and Tobago women’s 4x100m team, who are aiming to win this country’s first Olympic women’s relay medal, won in a time of 43.16 seconds.
Running the first leg for TT yesterday was Semoy Hackett, followed by Michelle-Lee Ahye and Reyare Thomas before Kai Selvon ran the anchor leg. Finishing second was Bahamas in 43.65, followed by Puerto Rico (43.77), British Virgin Islands (44.08) and Jamaica (44.50). Kelly-Ann Baptiste and Khalifa St Fort are expected to represent TT in the women’s 4x100m event at the Olympics, but did not compete yesterday.
Last year the quartet of Baptiste, Ahye, Hackett and Thomas created history with a bronze medal at the World Championships in Beijing in a national record time of 42.03. It was this country’s first relay medal in the women’s 4x100m event at the World Championships.
Yesterday the men’s 4x100m team copped gold in 39.70 edging Bahamas A to line which finished second in 39.72. Bahamas B was third in 39.94, while Jamaica was fourth in 40.67. Winning gold for TT was the quartet of Marcus Duncan, Rondell Sorillo, Emmanuel Callender and Shermund Allsop. The men’s 4x100m team is expected to run faster at the Olympics with the likes of Richard Thompson and Keston Bledman competing.
Deon Lendore, who was third in the men’s 400m final at the National Championships last month, won the same event yesterday in a Blue Marlins Track and Field Classic meet record time of 45.56. Also finishing on the top of the podium was Emmanuel Callender, winning the men’s 100m event in 10.32.
In the men’s 110m hurdles, the TT pair of Ruebin Walters and Wayne Davis had to settle for third and fourth place respectively.
Walters snatched bronze in 13.90, while Davis missed out on a medal finishing fourth in 14.38.