Kyle Greaux, on the anchor leg, had just enough in him to help T&T edge Jamaica at the line for second place in the final of the men’s 4x100 metres relay at the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Track and Field Senior Championships, on Sunday at the Freeport Stadium in Grand Bahama in the Bahamas.
On the third and final day of the senior meet, Greaux led in a team that included Jerod Elcock, Eric Harrison Jr and Asa Guevara to seal T&T’s second medal, a silver. All were successful at the recent Commonwealth Games, Guevara was part of the golden 4x400m relay quartet while the trio of Greaux, Elcock and Harrison Jr were members of the silver-medal winning 4x100m relay team.
The silver medal won means that T&T end the fourth edition of the Championships with two medals.
The other, also a silver, was won by two-time Olympic medallist Keshorn Walcott in the men’s javelin event, on Saturday night. The gold medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games and bronze medal-winner in Rio 2016, launched the spear 83.94 metres to finish behind USA’s Curtis Thompson (84.23m) and ahead of another American Ethan Dabbs (81.43m).
In the sprint men's relay finale, the eventual third-placed Jamaica team of Ackeem Blake, Andrew Hudson, Kadrian Goldson and Jahzeel Murphy clocked the same time (38.94) as the T&T quartet. However, the local team’s time (38.931) was two-thousandth of a second faster than the finishing time of the Jamaicans (38.933).
The Caribbean teams finished behind the American foursome of Lawrence Johnson, Brandon Carnes, Isiah Young and Kyree King, who sprinted to gold in a time of 38.29.
Minutes earlier, the T&T sprint women’s team of Khalifa St Fort, Mauricia Prieto, Reyare Thomas and Shaniqua Bascombe, running in that order, missed out on a medal after placing fourth with 43.81.
Winning the gold medal was the dominant USA team of Javianne Oliver, Teahna Daniels, Morolake Akinosun and Celera Barnes in 42.35 ahead of the Bahamas quartet of Printasia Johnson, Antonique Strachan, Devin Charlton and Tynia Gaither, who won the silver with 43.34 and bronze medallists, Jamaica team of Nataliah Whyte, Natasha Morrison, Ashley Williams and Megan Tapper with 43.39. Cuba placed fifth with a 44.46-clocking.
Earlier in the final session, no T&T sprinter - Prieto, Thomas and Greaux - and had success in their respective 200m medal races.
In fact, Prieto was the lone athlete to complete the half-lap final. Running out of lane seven, she placed fifth with a 23.49-timing while Thomas came out the blocks but did not finish.
Winning the event was Brittany Brown of the USA with 22.35, followed by Gaither in second with 22.41 and American A’keyla Mitchell with 22.53. Also ahead of Prieto was Whyte in 22.65.
Just like Thomas in the men’s final, Greaux came out the blocks but did not finish the race which was won by Hudson with 19.87 ahead of the American pair of King (20.00) and Josephus Lyles (20.18), respectively.
