media_artricles :: 2018

Just Short

Record-breaking 4x4 men miss World Indoors medal

Trinidad and Tobago missed out on the podium by the narrowest of margins in the IAAF World Indoor Championship men's 4x400 metres final in Birmingham, England, yesterday. Deon Lendore, Jereem "The Dream" Richards, Asa Guevara and Lalonde Gordon combined for fourth spot.

T&T seemed on course for bronze. Anchorman Gordon, however, was overhauled at the line by Belgium's Kevin Borlee, the European team bagging bronze in three minutes, 02.51 seconds.

Agonisingly beaten by just one-hundredth of a second, there was some minor consolation for T&T. The quartet's 3:02.52 clocking is a new national indoor record, chopping almost three seconds off the 3:05.51 standard established by Jarrin Solomon, Gordon, Ade Alleyne-Forte and Lendore in their bronze medal-winning performance in the 2016 World Indoors final.

Poland emerged victorious in yesterday's championship race, anchorman Jakub Krzewina closing a large gap on American Vernon Norwood to snatch gold for his country in a world indoor record time of 3:01.77. The Americans were forced to settle for silver in 3:01.97.

Lendore, who captured bronze in Saturday's individual 400m final, performed leadoff leg duties for T&T in the 4x4 medal race. On the second leg, Richards moved T&T from fourth to third. Guevara kept the team in podium position. And on the final leg, bronze looked likely. But a determined Borlee passed Gordon right at the end to deny T&T.

Lendore's 400 bronze was T&T's lone podium finish at the Championships. It earned T&T joint-24th spot on the medal table with Belgium, Estonia, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Kenya, Morocco and Switzerland.

United States topped the table with six gold medals, 10 silver and two bronze. Ethiopia claimed four gold medals and a single silver to finish second, with third going to Poland (two gold, two silver, one bronze). Jamaica secured two silver medals for 14th spot.

T&T accumulated 14 points to finish 17th on the placing table. The T&T points were earned by Lendore in the 400, the 4x400 team and women's 60m sixth-place finisher Michelle-Lee Ahye. The Americans topped the placing table with 208 points. Great Britain (67) and Ethiopia (57) were second and third, respectively. Jamaica and Netherlands, meanwhile, were joint-eighth with 27 points each.

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