JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Crawford urges local athletes to dig deep at Paris Olympics

by

Clayton Clarke
227 days ago
20240801
T&T's first Olympic champion Hasely Crawford at the Piarco International on Wednesday bound for Paris to support the 13 national athletes in track and field at the Olympics Games which got underway on Friday. Track and field events start today, and will continue until August 11,  the final day of the Games. Crawford won the men's 100m title at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

T&T's first Olympic champion Hasely Crawford at the Piarco International on Wednesday bound for Paris to support the 13 national athletes in track and field at the Olympics Games which got underway on Friday. Track and field events start today, and will continue until August 11, the final day of the Games. Crawford won the men's 100m title at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Clayton Clarke

T&T's first Olympic gold medal­list Hase­ly Craw­ford is en­cour­ag­ing this coun­try's 17 ath­letes com­pet­ing at the Paris Olympic Games in France, to per­se­vere in their quest to rep­re­sent T&T at the biggest sport­ing event in the world.

Craw­ford told Gua­di­an Me­dia, as he de­part­ed for Paris yes­ter­day (Wednes­day), that this coun­try's sport­ing am­bas­sadors must be will­ing to go be­yond the pain bar­ri­er.

"No­body put a medal there for you. You have to earn it, first and fore­most and I be­lieve once you qual­i­fy for the Olympics you have a chance. The ques­tion is if you have 'bel­ly' to go down in­side of you to man­age that stress. It is how bad­ly you want it. If you are pre­pared to take that jam­ming, that pain, to win it," said Craw­ford.

Five days since the 2024 Olympic Games opened on the Riv­er Seine in the French cap­i­tal, T&T has yet to win a medal. How­ev­er, Craw­ford is back­ing cy­clist Nicholas Paul and sprint­er Jereem Richards to get on the medal podi­um.

"The cy­clist should win a medal. I feel that he has a good chance. I think he could go down in that 'cham­ber'," said the 1976 men's 100m Olympic cham­pi­on.

Paul is set to com­pete in the men's sprint and keirin and Richards in the men's 400-me­tre event.

Craw­ford, the for­mer na­tion­al 100m and 200m record hold­er, is cau­tion­ing Richards to run in­tel­li­gent­ly in the ear­ly rounds of the one-lap sprint.

"If he runs smart. (How­ev­er), if he goes out there in the first round and runs 44 he is wast­ing time. He should just run to qual­i­fy. He has three times (rounds). Clear­ly, he would have to run a lit­tle faster in the semi­fi­nals to run for a (good) lane (in the fi­nals) which is so im­por­tant. I think if he gets (lane) four, five, or six (in the fi­nals), he could cause some trou­ble."

Craw­ford, who was al­so a fi­nal­ist in the 200m at the 1976 Olympics and the 100m four years ear­li­er in Mu­nich, Ger­many, said Richards is grow­ing in the quar­ter­mil­er event.

"He is still learn­ing to run the 400m. (He should have been run­ning the 400m) a long time (now). He can not af­ford to give those guys (his com­peti­tors) a step (a lead) in the 200m. Two years ago, I told him to run the 400m or work on his start. He can't be run­ning back on the field at this lev­el."

Richards sped in­to the glob­al spot­light af­ter tak­ing bronze in the 200m at the 2017 World Out­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships and 200m gold at the 2018 and 2022 Com­mon­wealth Games. How­ev­er, he de­buted at the 400m in 2022 and struck gold when he cap­tured the World In­door ti­tle in Ser­bia the same year. One year lat­er he land­ed the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) Games top spot and reached the se­mi-fi­nal round at the World Out­door Cham­pi­onships in Hun­gary last year. He achieved the Paris Olympics qual­i­fy­ing stan­dards for both the 200m and 400m and was un­sure which event he will con­test. How­ev­er, he made his de­ci­sion to vie for gold in the 400m af­ter low­er­ing his per­son­al best in the event to a sparkling time of 44.18 at the Lon­don Di­a­mond League less than one week be­fore the start of the Paris Olympics. He fin­ished in third spot.

Craw­ford re­viewed Richards' im­pres­sive Lon­don run.

"He is still young run­ning the 400m. We saw what hap­pened when he got lane eight (at the Lon­don Di­a­mond League on Ju­ly 19). If he was a sea­soned quar­ter­mil­er (in that race from lane eight) but he is now learn­ing the event and he was against the top men in the world."

Craw­ford was in­vit­ed to Paris by the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) and said he would spur on the first-timers on the team.

"I am go­ing to sup­port the ath­letes, es­pe­cial­ly the 4x100m girls. It will be hard for them (to win a medal) but I like what the NAAA did. They pick young peo­ple who re­al­ly look en­cour­ag­ing."

The track and field con­tin­gent in­cludes three 18-year-old twin sis­ters Sole and Sanaa Fred­er­ick and Jaden Marchan. The Fred­er­ick are part of T&T's women's 4x100m team along with 21-year-old Leah Bertrand. Marchan is among five in the men's 4x400m pool with 21-year-old Sha­keem Mc Kay.

Devin Au­gus­tine, who is al­so 21, will be hop­ing to em­u­late Craw­ford's gold­en feat in Paris when he lined in the men's 100m. Au­gus­tine, the 2019 Carif­ta Boys Un­der-17 gold medal­list, will be mak­ing his Olympic de­but and Craw­ford is ad­vis­ing him to dig deep.

"The key is that he is young. This will serve him well for ex­pe­ri­ence. Once you are there it is up to him. Once you want to go down in that cham­ber and fight."

Craw­ford al­so won medals at the 1975 Pam Amer­i­can Games (sil­ver-100m) and the 1970 (bronze-100m) and 1978 (sil­ver-4x100m, bronze-100) Com­mon­wealth Games.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored