Ato hails Team T&T
By: Kwame Laurence (T&T Express).
Gordon in elite company, says former sprint star
Ato Boldon is very proud of the Trinidad and Tobago team that competed at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, here in Berlin, Germany.
The former T&T sprint star told the Express he is particularly proud of 17-year-old Jehue Gordon, who finished fourth in the men's 400 metres hurdles final in 48.26 seconds, the clocking earning him second spot on the all-time junior (under-20) performance list.
"That, without question, is THE best performance by a T&T athlete, and the best performance ever by a T&T junior athlete--17 years old, World Championships, national record, final, and then the way in which he ran the final.
"It was the only time," the NBC commentator continued, "I ever had trouble keeping calm in the booth. And I have sat through six, seven world records now. It was the only time I had a problem just being quiet in the booth and just allowing what we are doing to happen.
"If Jehue Gordon never does another thing in his life, he is assured that what he did here is one of the best performances by a T&T athlete in history. I mean, Hasely (Crawford), me, Darrel (Brown), Dwight Yorke, (Brian) Lara--he's on that list already, at 17."
The men's 4x100m combination of Darrel Brown, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender and Richard Thompson snapped up silver for T&T, while Josanne Lucas (women's 400m hurdles) and Renny Quow (men's 400m) earned bronze.
"When I was asked to make my predictions," Boldon explained, "there are two things that I wrote down-- Josanne third and Renny third. I was really, really happy to see that Josanne finally broke that drought we have with no female medallists at Worlds or Olympics; and Renny Quow, because he trains sometimes at my facility at Miramar (Florida), so I do feel a real connection to what that young man is doing. He is going to be the next great 400 metres star for our country."
The men's sprint relay team clocked 37.62 seconds in the final.
"I did not think they were ready to run that fast this year. That makes us the third fastest country ever. That is proof that the sum is greater than the parts because none of them is running as fast as they have in their lifetimes, but they came together and had some good stick passing."
But Boldon said the T&T team could have run even faster in Saturday's championship race.
"I am more encouraged now that we need to put a programme in place. You can't run one, maybe two races for the entire year and then think you're going to come here and it's going to be perfect. And it was not perfect. Had it been perfect the outcome might have been different."
The women's 4x100m team advanced to the final, finishing seventh in the championship race.
"That's a big, big, big, big step," the 1997 200m world champion declared. "If anything shows that we can be best in the world, it should be the fact that the women have now made the final and the men were five metres from being world champions."
T&T had a total of seven finalists at the 2009 World Championships.
"This is what I dreamed about in 1992 . I have lived to see it. I said that Beijing was the best performance by a Trinidad and Tobago team in my lifetime. This team can make an argument overall for being the best performance by a Trinidad and Tobago team period," Boldon ended, "including the '64 (Olympic) team."
