Voisin praises 4x100 women
By ASHFORD JACKMAN Friday, September 11 2015 (T&T Newsday)
T&T’s 4x100m women’s relay team celebrate on the podium after receiving their bronze medals at the World Athletics Championships at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing. From left: Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Michelle-Lee Ahye, Reyare Thomas, Semoy Hackett. AP Photo.AS TODAY’S Van Damme Memorial IAAF Diamond League meet in Brussels virtually brings the curtain down on the international track and field season, athletes and officials alike are more focused than ever on next year’s Olympic Games in Brazil. Some, like the amazing Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt have already closed up shop to work on being at their best in Rio De Janeiro.
Trinidad and Tobago’s athletes are no different, as having enjoyed one of their better Games in London 2012, the burden of expectation will be even greater next year.
It was in London that Keshorn Walcott won the country’s second Olympic gold, in the Men’s Javelin.
Lalonde Gordon claimed bronze in the 400 metres and joined his teammates in winning 4x400m relay bronze as well, and the Men’s 4x100m squad initially won bronze which has since been upgraded to silver, following the USA’s disqualification due to a failed drug test.
One individual with a fair insight into the capabilities of the TT athletes going into Rio is Dexter Voisin, who managed that team in London and just recently was in charge again in Beijing at the World Championships. Speaking with Newsday recently, Voisin expressed his personal view that the relay medals in China should not have come as a surprise to anyone.
He cited the TT Women’s sprint relay team, recounting their progress over the past four years to drive home his point.
“The 4x100m women, I would say in 2011 they really made their mark on the world scene when they qualified for the World Championship final in Daegu, and by doing so, breaking the national record,” he began.
For the record, that team, consisting of Michelle-Lee Ahye, Kai Selvon, Kelly-Ann Baptiste and Semoy Hackett came to notice after just missing out on the bronze medals, but the following year, they failed to finish in the Olympic final. “In 2012, leg speed was good, but we had baton-passing problems,” Voisin recalled. The former athlete speculated that had Semoy Hackett and Kelly-Ann Baptiste not been absent, serving bans after failed drug tests, the sprint quartet would have been on the medal podium at the World Championships in 2013.
“So they were always up there, according to the world rankings.
Once Semoy Hackett and Kelly Ann Baptiste returned to the team with the type of form they had in 2015, there was no doubt in my mind or anybody’s mind that once they got the baton around, they would have done well enough to medal at the World Championships, and which they did.” Voisin added that one of the strengths of the current group is the unity and commitment they displayed in Beijing, something most fans at home would not have been aware of.
“The 4x100 women, they were so knitted; it’s the first time I have seen them so closely knitted in terms of how they operated off the track, in terms of taking their training seriously,” he said. “In once instance, Semoy Hackett and Reyare Thomas, immediately after the 200m semi-final, they came on to the track the following morning to do the baton passing. That is something you seldom see with the athletes, because after they do individual events, they always opt to take a rest. But they recognised how important it was to resume training with the team, because they didn’t have much time before the start of the relays. I think that augurs well for all relay teams once you could build that relationship on and off the field.” Voisin also expressed confidence in the Men’s 4x400m squad being a threat in Rio. He first explained that because Deon Lendore was injured at this year’s NCAA finals and missed the National Open Championships as a result, a decision was taken to leave him out of the individual 400m in Beijing.
“Lendore was given an opportunity to basically get back to fitness, where he had to prove his fitness by the cut-off date for the final entries,” he explained. “He didn’t prove his fitness in terms of the individual events... but he was the 5th-fastest 400 runner we had. So it would have been foolish on our part not to select him as part of (the relay team).” Voisin said that in Beijing Lendore was selected for the relay semi-final heat because the technical staff felt Machel Cedenio “deserved a rest” after running 7th in the 400m final. From that point, there was no turning back.
“He (Lendore) really showed where he was up to fitness for him to compete in the final, so he was used in the final.” The TT manager concluded by saying that once the five quarter- milers (the others were Renny Quow, Lalonde Gordon and Jarrin Solomon) were all fit, he was never in doubt that they would be among the medals.
“When it mattered most, they did turn up at the World Championships, they all ran fantastically according to the performance, and the splits will tell you that. In the final, everybody did what they set out to do and what was ahead of them.” TT fans will be hoping and praying that injuries do not factor next year, in the most important meet of all.
Meantime, Keshorn Walcott (Javelin) and Renny Quow (400m) will be competing today at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels, the final event in the 2015 IAAF Diamond League series.
