RACHAEL THOMP­SON-KING

rachael.king@guardian.co.tt

De­on Lendore’s death has left T&T stunned.

The 29-year-old Olympic and World 4x400 me­tres bronze medal­list died in a car ac­ci­dent in Texas in the Unit­ed States on Mon­day night.

The shock­ing news spread quick­ly across so­cial me­dia with many us­ing sev­er­al plat­forms, most of yes­ter­day, to ex­press their con­do­lences on the trag­ic pass­ing of the quar­ter-mil­er in­clud­ing Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Min­is­ter of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Sham­fa Cud­joe, for­mer Prime Min­is­ter and Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) pres­i­dent Bri­an Lewis.

Pres­i­dent Weekes stat­ed that as pa­tron of the TTOC, she ex­tends con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly, friends and fel­low ath­letes of Lendore, con­tin­u­ing in the post, say­ing: “It can be said that Mr Lendore has fought the good fight and fin­ished the race. It is up to us now to keep the faith by ho­n­our­ing and em­u­lat­ing his ster­ling achieve­ments. De­on, a grate­ful, griev­ing na­tion wish­es you eter­nal peace.”

Prime Min­is­ter shared that he was “shocked and sad­dened to hear of the un­time­ly pass­ing of Olympic and World medal­list sprint­er”.

“Mr Lendore rep­re­sent­ed T&T at the Olympic Games on three oc­ca­sions, Tokyo 2020, Rio 2016 and Lon­don 2012 where he earned a bronze medal for the 4x400m. He was al­so a 2015 World Cham­pi­onships Sil­ver medal­list (4x400m), a three-time World In­door Cham­pi­onships bronze medal­list and a Pan-Am Games bronze medal­list.

T&T’s bronze medalist Deon Lendore, left, with Czech Republic’s gold medalist Pavel Maslak and United States’ silver medalist Michael Cherry, right, during the medal ceremony for the men’s 400-meter final at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Britain on March 3, 2018.

AP

“I ex­tend heart­felt con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and join the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty in mourn­ing.”

Ac­cord­ing to an on­line news re­port on ABC13 about the ac­ci­dent, Lendore, lat­er iden­ti­fied, was one of two peo­ple who died fol­low­ing a head-on crash in­volv­ing mul­ti­ple ve­hi­cles in north Hous­ton.

It said: “Po­lice said the crash hap­pened Mon­day at 7.10 pm in the 11600 block of Ban­nis­ter Lane. A Dodge truck was head­ing west­bound on Lit­tle York, when the dri­ver lost con­trol, crossed the me­di­an and struck a Kia, which hit a tow truck that was tow­ing an­oth­er car.

“A neigh­bour told ABC13 he heard four crash­es right out­side his house. He said he ran out­side and called 911.

“Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, a woman that was eject­ed from the Dodge truck was pro­nounced dead at the scene. Mean­while, the dri­ver of the truck suf­fered mi­nor in­juries and was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal.

“The sec­ond per­son killed (Lendore) was the dri­ver of the Kia. No oth­er in­juries were re­port­ed.

“Po­lice be­lieve speed played a fac­tor in the crash, but are still in­ves­ti­gat­ing.”

Lendore was a three-time Olympian, who an­chored T&T to a bronze in the men’s 4x400 me­tres re­lay at the 2012 Lon­don Games in Eng­land. He al­so claimed two World In­door 400m bronze medals in Birm­ing­ham, Eng­land in 2018 and 2016 in Port­land, USA, al­so bag­ging a bronze in the 4x400m.

Sports Min­is­ter Cud­joe stat­ed that “on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of T&T, we salute Lendore for his tremen­dous con­tri­bu­tions to the de­vel­op­ment and pro­mo­tion of ath­let­ics. Lendore was tru­ly an in­spi­ra­tion to all of us and has proud­ly rep­re­sent­ed this coun­try. He epit­o­mised hope and joy each time his feet land­ed on the track. He was in­deed a trail­blaz­er, a life gone too soon. We thank him for every­thing he has done and for giv­ing dis­tin­guished and dili­gent ser­vice to T&T. May his soul rest in eter­nal peace.”

FILE - Texas A&M’s Deon Lendore celebrates after running the anchor leg of the 1,600 relay during the NCAA indoor track and field championships on March 14, 2015, in Fayetteville, Ark. Lendore, 29, a former Olympic sprinter and bronze medalist for Trinidad & Tobago and NCAA champion at Texas A&M, was killed in a head-on collision in Texas, state police said, Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022.

AP

On Face­book, Per­sad-Bisses­sar post­ed: “The news that Olympic hero De­on Lendore has trag­i­cal­ly passed away has met me with tremen­dous sad­ness. A three-time Olympian De­on made every cit­i­zen of our na­tion proud when he brought home the bronze medal in the 4x400m in Lon­don 2012.

“T&T has sad­ly lost an out­stand­ing ath­lete and a true na­tion­al hero. I ex­tend my deep­est con­do­lences to De­on’s fam­i­ly and friends as well as to all those in the track and field fra­ter­ni­ty.”

Of the three-time Olympian - rep­re­sent­ing at the 2012 Lon­don Olympic Games, the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil and the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan last year - Lewis in a video trib­ute said: “There are no words to de­scribe this loss. De­on Lendore has been an in­spi­ra­tion to many young peo­ple, not on­ly in track and field, but in T&T. His com­mit­ment to coun­try to his team, to his friend, to his fam­i­ly and to his col­league and to his sport has been enor­mous. He has been some­one who re­gard­less of ad­ver­si­ty and ob­sta­cles, he has per­se­vered. He has been very com­mit­ted to Team TTO.”

“I ex­tend sin­cer­est and deep­est con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly, to his friends, to his col­leagues, to his club in T&T Abi­lene (Wild­cats), we at the TTOC has had a very close re­la­tion­ship with De­on over the years and for me to sim­ply say the words, may he rest in peace, is sur­re­al. De­on Lendore gone too soon, rest in eter­nal peace young man, on­ly God knows.”

Lendore of Ari­ma, who at­tend­ed Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege (QRC) and the Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty, leaves to mourn his moth­er and sis­ter.

File May 2019: Deon Lendore hugs Machel Cedeno as they celebrate with Asa Guevara, left, after T&T 4x400 metres team copped goal at the IAAF World Relay in Yokohama, Japan, Sunday. The team won the event in a world-leading time of 3:00.81.

Trib­utes from around the world on so­cial me­dia

World Ath­let­ics - “World Ath­let­ics is deeply sad­dened to hear that T&T’s Olympic and world 4x400m medal­list De­on Lendore has died at the age of 29.”

Dwight St Hillaire - “I ex­press my ab­solute con­do­lences to his loved ones and fam­i­ly. He was one of my great­est mo­ti­va­tor, friend and sup­port­er, be­liev­ing in things I couldn’t see my­self. His lega­cy will live on through us, the track and field com­mu­ni­ty of the coun­try.”

Jasper Gray - “I was JUST with you YES­TER­DAY! To think I would nev­er get to see U again, nev­er get to warm me up with your nat­ur­al body heat, nev­er get to watch U run around a track again or cheer U on at the Olympics/World Champs again breaks me to pieces. I will al­ways love U.”

Shelly-Ann Fras­er-Pryce - “Our sport has lost a tal­ent­ed and great ath­lete. My sin­cere con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and friends. Shelly-Ann Fras­er-Pryce - “Our sport has lost a tal­ent­ed and great ath­lete. My sin­cere con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and friends.

Alex Caru­so (Chica­go Bulls point guard, Texas A&M alum) - “Tru­ly trag­ic.. Damn man.”