Nine­teen-year old Machel Ce­de­nio was de­light­ed at his sil­ver medal in yes­ter­day's 4 x 400 me­tres re­lay at the World Cham­pi­onships here in Bei­jing. "My first se­nior World Cham­pi­onships and I got a sil­ver medal. That is re­al­ly good. I want to thank God for bring­ing me here to­day with my team­mates. We all have a good bond and we all have a team chem­istry.

"I hope that peo­ple keep sup­port­ing us. We are out here to do our best for our coun­try. We love all our fans."

Ce­de­nio, who al­so fin­ished sev­enth in the men's 400 me­tres, paid trib­ute to the par­ents who have sup­port­ed all of the T&T ath­letes. "We thank all of you for your sup­port be­cause track and field has re­al­ly im­proved in our coun­try," he added.

Ce­de­nio, to­geth­er with Ren­ny Quow, De­on Lendore and Lalonde Gor­don, fin­ished sec­ond be­hind the Unit­ed States in the event yes­ter­day.

Lendore, who has been re­cov­er­ing from in­jury this sea­son, al­so called for more sup­port go­ing for­ward. "I want to thank every­one. I am hap­py that peo­ple are able to hear what we are do­ing."

There was a poignant mo­ment dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tions when Lendore found time in the mixed zone to ad­dress young­sters from Chi­na who gath­ered to watch the re­turn­ing ath­letes. Lendore took off, not on­ly his num­ber tags, but those of oth­ers and gave them to the chil­dren. Their joy was some­thing to be­hold.

Yes­ter­day's sil­ver medal al­so fo­cused thoughts on the Rio Olympics. Gor­don stat­ed: "What hap­pened here tonight will send a mes­sage that we are se­ri­ous next year. We will take some rest, re­fo­cus and get ready for next year."

Quow was al­so aim­ing at Rio. "The plan is to be ready from Oc­to­ber to Au­gust. We are just go­ing to work hard and do what we are ac­cus­tomed do­ing. (AB)"