‘It wasn’t meant to be’

At the Olympic Stadium, the men’s 4x400-metre relay squad were disqualified for a lane violation, while the men’s 4x100m relay team suffered a similar fate in last night’s final. And the TT women’s 4x100m relay team, also in the final stage, failed in their bid to gain the first piece of silverware for the twin-island republic.

Trinidad and Tobago, who got silver medals in the men’s 4x100m relay events at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China and the 2012 Games in London, England, were never in contention after the halfway stage, which saw Japan, Jamaica and the United States build up a huge advantage over their rivals.

The quartet of Keston Bledman, Rondell Sorrillo, Emmanuel Callender and Richard Thompson completed the race in seventh position in 38.09 seconds, with Jamaica, Japan and the US initially given the top three spots.

But TT , as well as the US, were later disqualified, and Canada moved up to the bronze medal position.

The Jamaican legend Usain Bolt completed his third “triple-treble” as he anchored Jamaica to gold in 37.27 seconds, with Japan next in 37.60. Canada moved up a notch to third in 37.64.

Sorrillo, in a post-race interview, said, “we had a good run, it just wasn’t meant to be. We did what we could have and we came out with the result that we got.

There is nothing else we could have done, I’m being honest.” He continued, “I don’t know what went wrong. It’s a team effort.

I thought we had a good run.

We just have to come back a little better prepared.” Callender, who ran the penultimate leg, noted, “we came out here and gave it our all. We didn’t go in with the mindset to lose. At the end of the day, it’s God’s Will and we have to accept what was the outcome.

“It’s disappointing, we’re not really happy with our performance but we gave it our all.” The night’s proceedings, however, got off to a anti-climatic start as the men’s 4x400-metre relay team, comprising Jarrin Solomon, Lalonde Gordon, Deon Lendore and Machel Cedenio, finished third in the first preliminary round race, but were subsequently disqualified for a lane violation.

No official reason was given but the TT team, who clocked two minutes 58.84 seconds, joined Great Britain (initial winners of the second and final heat) and India, as the teams who disqualified by the race officials.

A photo on Twitter circulated afterwards with an unnamed TT athlete stepping out of his lane, but the identity was not confirmed up to press time last evening.

The national women’s 4x100m relay team were only able to finish fifth in their final.

The foursome of Semoy Hackett, Michelle-Lee Ahye, Kelly- Ann Baptiste and Khalifa St Fort were unable to get the better of the “big guns” United States and Jamaica, who took the top two spots on the medal rostrum.

The United States, who only advanced to the final after a successful protest, and a subsequent race by themselves against the clock to get among the eight fastest qualifiers, captured gold in a time of 41.01 seconds.

Jamaica were the runners-up in 41.36 while Great Britain were third in 41.77 and Germany fourth in 42.10.

The TT women clocked a season’s best time of 42.12, while the other three places were taken by Ukraine (42.36), Canada (43.15) and Nigeria (43.21).