media_artricles :: 2015

Machel Cedenio stands alone

MACHEL CEDENIO will have had a full day’s rest before facing the starter tomorrow morning (TT time) in the final of the Men’s 400 metres at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing. He will need every bit of it. A lot is resting on the shoulders of the lanky 19-year-old, as team TT will be looking to the World Junior Champion to ease the pain of what can easily be described as a disastrous campaign for the red, white and black in China thus far.

Following a generally successful Pan Am Games in Toronto just weeks ago, there was a lot of optimism about TT ’s chances of producing their best World Championships performance ever- optimism that has been brought crashing down to earth in the first four days of competition at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing.

Instead, the scorecard for TT thus far makes for depressing reading: eight athletes have competed in six completed events, three of them reaching their finals; not a medal to show.

Closer examination does nothing to lift the spirits of the men and women in Beijing or their suffering fans at home — both an Olympic and a World champion “passed in the rush,” neither being able to get out of the first round, never mind contest their respective finals.

Yesterday was, at best, bittersweet.

Cedenio forced his way into the 400 final with a third-place finish, his time of 44.64 being the 7th-fastest time in the semi-finals, enough to earn him a shot at a place on the podium tomorrow. However, Renny Quow and Olympic Bronze medallist Lalonde Gordon both bowed out despite going under 45 seconds, Sparkle Mc Knight was eliminated in the Women’s 400m Hurdles semis, Kelly- Ann Baptiste and Michelle-Lee Ahye finished outside the medals in the Women’s 100m final and Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott failed to qualify for the final of the Men’s Javelin.

Cedenio had been placed in lane five of the third and final semi-final, alongside American La Shawn Merritt, the defending champion. South African Wayde Van Niekerk won the heat in 44.31 seconds; Merritt (44.34) was second, while Cedenio’s 44.64 was enough to get him into the final.

Earlier, Grenada’s Olympic champ Kirani James ran the second- fastest time of the round, winning heat one of the semis in 44.16; Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic, the athlete who beat Cedenio to the Pan Am gold medal was 2nd (44.26), while American David Verburg (44.71) ran 3rd; Quow was 5th in 44.98. Botswana’s Isaac Makwala produced the fastest time (44.11) to win heat two; Gordon was 4th in 44.70.

Tomorrow, Cedenio will contest the final out of lane two; James will be in five, Van Niekerk in six, Santos in seven and Merritt in lane eight.

An hour-and-ahalf after the 400 semi-finals, Ahye (lane 3) and Baptiste (lane 8) were left behind in the Women’s sprint final. Jamaica’s World and Olympic champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce raced to victory in 10.76 seconds; the Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers finished strongly to take silver (10.81) while American Tori Bowie (10.86) got the bronze.

Ahye trailed Jamaican Veronica Campbell- Brown to finish fifth (10.98) while Baptiste was sixth in 11.01.

Mc Knight finished fifth in the second of the Women’s 400m Hurdles semi-finals, clocking 56.21. But perhaps the toughest blow to TT pride yesterday was struck when Walcott struggled in vain to produce a javelin throw of 80m or thereabouts, which would have taken him into the final. He started with a foul and followed with throws of 75.16 and 76.83, way below the standards he set this year in the Diamond League and Pan Am Games, finishing 13th of the 16 men in his qualifying group, and 26th of all 33.

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