media_artricles :: 2017

T&T 4x400 golden relay team honoured

T&T's Jarrin Solomon, Jereem Richards, Machel Cedenio, Lalonde Gordon and Renny Quow yesterday graced the stage at the spectacular Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) Awards ceremony in Czech Republic, to collect the award for "Best Male Athlete for the Americas".

The local men's 4x400 metres relay team was among a number of athletes honoured at the ceremony which was held at the Forum Karlin, one of Prague's premier venues. It provided the perfect setting to recognise the hard work and dedication of the 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and their athletes.

"This is a great honour. This is why we do what we do," said Solomon, who served as the spokesman for the group. "First of all, we would like to thank God for this honour because without him none of us would be up here tonight (yesterday)."

The national quartermilers were the stars on the final night of the IAAF World Championships in London in August, when Solomon, Richards, Cedenio and Gordon made history, coming from behind to win a thrilling race, bringing home this country's very first ever gold medal in the event, denying the United States, a seventh straight gold at the Championships in the event, which traditionally brings the competition to a close.

Quow, the other member of the team, was key in getting T&T into the final with a brilliant run in the semifinals along with Gordon, Solomon and Cedenio.

The sporting audience got to relive moments of the race as it was shown on a screen on the stage during the ceremony with the announcer saying: "The historic race will remain forever a long time in our memories", before they were presented with the winning trophy.

"We would like to thank ANOC for the prestigious award," said Solomon with his fellow gold medallists teammates Cedenio, Gordon, Richards and Quow in that order, beaming alongside him on the vast stage.

"It is something that we've dreamt of. This is one of the biggest honours for T&T that we have in our history. To be recognised for it, it's wonderful."

The ANOC Awards was established by ANOC president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah and held for the first time in Bangkok in 2014. The awards presented each year vary depending on the sporting events that have taken place that year and are decided by the ANOC jury. This year the best men's and women's athletes of all five continents were honoured."We would like to thank our families, our coaches,

everybody who has supported us all the way to get to this moment because without them we wouldn't be here as well.

"With sport comes struggle and strife and sacrifice and we've all that done up here. The sacrifice, the energy that we've put into this, to be here it's just a blessing!" said Solomon before the splendidly dressed young men posed for photos with their award, cherishing the moment.

Later, Richards, posing with the award, tweeted: "Very honoured and highly favoured to receive this award at The ANOC awards...God is good all the time #TTO".

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