media_artricles :: 2016

St Fort pulled from World U20 200

Khalifa St Fort was scheduled to be back on the track less than 15 hours after Thursday's bronze medal run in the IAAF World U20 Championship women's 100 metres final, in Bydgoszcz, Poland. But the 18-year-old sprinter was troubled by a leg injury, and her coach, Ato Boldon opted to pull her from yesterday's 200m heats.

"As the CEO of Team Khalifa St Fort, my job is to make decisions that benefit her career, at all times," Boldon explained, in a Facebook post. "Those decisions will not always be popular, or well-received.

"She and I have a 1-10 scale," the coach continued, "that we use to assess her pain. Her right hamstring, after last night's 100m final, is currently "7", with ten being worst. She indicated to me that she felt the leg grab 'pretty badly in the last 20m'.

"As a result, I have to make the decision to save whatever she has left this season for the Rio Olympics, and her 4x1 relay participation - which represents TNT's best chance to end the women's Olympic medal drought.

"She will take no further part in the World U20 Championships."

With St Fort withdrawn from the global under-20 meet, and 15-year-old sprinter Jenea Spinks battling with discomfort in her back, Trinidad and Tobago could not field a team in the qualifying round of the women's 4x100m relay. Sarah Wollaston, Akeera Esdelle and Jeminise Parris are

Parris did see action in the second of six women's 100m hurdles first round heats. She finished fifth in 13.90 seconds, and did not advance to the semi-final round.

At 5.45 this morning (TT time), T&T will compete in heat one of the men's 4x400m relay.

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