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Monday, February 10, 2025

T&T women's relay team sets national record

...but fin­ish­es fourth in fi­nal

by

20110905

T&T women's 4x100m re­lay team showed its qual­i­ty on the world stage with a sparkling na­tion­al record run of 42.50 in win­ning the sec­ond heat in the sprint re­lay event on the last day of the 13th IAAF World Track and Field Cham­pi­onships in South Ko­rea. The quar­tet, head­ed by 100m bronze medal­list Kel­ly-Ann Bap­tiste, along with Se­moy Hack­ett and teenagers Kai Selvon and Michelle Lee Ahye ran with the cheers of the Ko­re­an fans who packed the Daegu Sta­di­um and erased the old mark of 43.22 at the last World Cham­pi­onships in Berlin, Ger­many, two years ago.

Bap­tiste and Hack­ett were part of that team along with Re­yare Thomas and Ayan­na Hutchin­son. Start­ing in lane two Selvon ran a steady lead off leg and hand­ed off to Bap­tiste, who the opened up a gap on Poland and Great Britain on the out­side. Hack­ett ex­tend­ed the lead on the bend and gave young Lee-Ahye a com­fort­able mar­gin which she main­tained to the end. Ukraine was sec­ond (42.63) with Rus­sia in third (42.78) as both qual­i­fied for the fi­nals. The win­ning time was the third quick­est of the heats be­hind the USA, which topped heat three in a world lead­ing clock­ing of 41.94, and the Ja­maicans, who took heat one in 42.23.

Speak­ing af­ter the record run, Bap­tiste said she and her team-mates were con­fi­dent of ad­vanc­ing to the medal round. "We just be­lieved we are on a good part go­ing in­to the fi­nals. We hope to run an­oth­er na­tion­al record. We think if we do that we would get an­oth­er medal. Our fo­cus was to get the stick safe­ly around the track and you nev­er know what can hap­pen." In the fi­nals, two hours and five min­utes lat­er the quar­tet, run­ning in the same or­der, was edged out of a medal, fin­ish­ing fourth. The four­some was a shade slow­er than the heats run clock­ing 43.25 sec­onds be­hind the pow­er­hous­es USA (41.57-world lead­ing) and Ja­maica (41.70-na­tion­al record) and Ukraine (43.51).

Hack­ett said the ba­ton pass­ing could have been smoother in the fi­nal. "The chem­istry in the heat was great. In the fi­nals was great al­so but we did not get the stick around as fast and smooth as we could have. But that is okay be­cause next year we will come again."

Men's team im­ped­ed...set­tled for sixth.

T&T's men sprint re­lay squad were al­so in im­pres­sive form in the heats beat­ing the cham­pi­ons Ja­maica to take the sec­ond heat in their sec­ond best ever time of 37.91. Ja­maica, with­out Us­ain Bolt were sec­ond in 38.07. The team of Ke­ston Bled­man, Marc Burns, Aaron Arm­strong and Richard Thomp­son clocked the sec­ond quick­est time in the pre­lim­i­nar­ies be­hind the USA, which ran away with heat one in 37.79.

Thomp­son was pleased with the team's ba­ton pass­ing. "So far the ex­changes seem to be good. We need to car­ry it over to the fi­nals. Maybe have a lit­tle clean­er ex­changes. It could have been clean­er be­tween Marc and Ke­ston. But we got the stick around. That is the most im­por­tant thing." In the race for the medals two hours lat­er dra­ma un­fold­ed. The lo­cal sprint­ers lost any chance of medal when Arm­strong was im­ped­ed as he was about to make the third and fi­nal hand over to Thomp­son. The 2010 Com­mon­wealth bronze medal­list had to swerve away from Amer­i­can sprint­er Darvis Pat­ton who fell.

Arm­strong even­tu­al­ly made the ex­change but it was too late to gain a medal.

Thomp­son crossed the line in sixth (39.01) as Bolt an­chored Ja­maican to vic­to­ry in a world record of 37.04. France was sec­ond (38.20) with Caribbean min­nows St Kitts/Nevis tak­ing a sur­prise in bronze (38.45). Thomp­son was vis­ably up­set and did not com­ment while Arm­strong was said to be stunned at the out­come. "Right now I am in shock. I can't be­lieve it hap­pened. My ex­change from Marc was okay but it could have been bet­ter. We kind of stretched it a lit­tle bit. When that hap­pened it just threw off our rhythm. Go­ing in­to fi­nals our goal was to win it. It is some­thing that I can't ex­plain what hap­pened."


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