TT in 4x100m relay final

ATHENS: Trinidad and Tobago sprint quartet of Niconnor Alexander, Marc Burns, Ato Boldon and Darrel Brown has made it to the 4x100 metres relay final here. The quartet yesterday produced a season best 38.53 seconds which equalled the national record in finishing fourth in the first of two heats, but scrambled into the final today as one of the two fastest losers. Heat one was won  by the Nigerian foursome in 38.27, with Poland second and Australia fourth. After the race, chef-de-mission Brian Lewis said: “It was important for us to get the baton around.  There is room for improvement. “It is an Olympic final so it is important for them to keep their focus and concentrate on executing. “I was confident before and during the race as I felt that we were due for some good luck with our track campaign at these Games. “The guys showed character and determination to equal a national record and make it to the final, given all that they have been through.” Trinidad and Tobago will be up against the highly favoured United States, Poland, Australia, Nigeria, Britain, Brazil and Japan in today’s final timed for 2.45 pm.

RESULTS: Men’s 4x100m relay —  Heat 1 - 1. NIGERIA (Olusoji Adetokunbo Fasuba, Uchenna Emedolu, Aaron Egbele, Aliu Deji) 38.27; 2. POLAND (Zbigniew Tulin, Lukasz Chyla, Marcin Jedrusinski, Marcin Urbas) 38.47; 3. AUSTRALIA (Adam Basil, Paul di Bella, Patrick Johnson, Joshua Ross) 38.49; 4. TRINIDAD & TOBAGO (Nicconnor Alexander, Marc Burns, Ato Boldon, Darrel Brown) 38.53; 5. JAPAN (Hiroyasu Tsuchie, Shingo Suetsugu, Shinji Takahira, Nobuharu Asahara) 38.53; 6. GERMANY (Ronny Oswald, Tobias Unger, Alexander Kosenkow, Till Helmke) 38.64; 7. CANADA (Nicolas Macrozonaris,  Anson Henry, Charles Allen, Pierre Browne) 38.64; 8. RUSSIA (Aleksandr Ryabov, Oleg Sergeyev, Sergey Bychkov, Andrey Yepishin) 39.19.

Men’s 4x100m relay —  Heat 2 - 1. UNITED STATES (Shawn Crawford, Raleigh,  Darvis Patton, Coby Miller, Maurice Greene) 38.02;  2. BRITAIN (Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell Marlon Devonish, Mark Lewis Francis) 38.53; 3. BRAZIL (Claudio Sousa, Edson Luciano Ribeiro, Andre Silva, Vicente Lima) 38.64; 4. JAMAICA (Dwight Thomas, Patrick Jarrett, Winston Smith, Michael Frater) 38.71; 5. ITALY (Marco Torrieri, Simone Collio, Massimiliano Donati, Maurizio Checcucci) 38.79; 6. GHANA (Christian Nsiah, Tanko Braimah, Aziz Zakari, Leonard Myles Mills) 38.88; 7. FRANCE (Aime Nthepe, Ronald Pognon, Frederic Krantz,  David Alerte) 38.93; NR. NETHERLANDS (Timothy Beck, Troy Douglas, Patrick van Balkom, Caimin Douglas) DNF.