The na­tion­al men’s 4x100 me­tres re­lay team was short of an Olympic Games qual­i­fy­ing spot when the quar­tet of Jerod El­cock, Devin Au­gus­tine, Jonathan Far­in­ha and Kyle Greaux com­bined to clock 38.46 sec­onds as they raced to gold on the fi­nal day of the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) Na­tion­al Ju­nior and Se­nior Track and Field Cham­pi­onships at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo on Sun­day (June 30).

Af­ter fail­ing to fin­ish the event in the sec­ond qual­i­fy­ing round on the sec­ond day of the World Re­lays in the Ba­hamas in May, the lo­cal 4x100m men were in the 16th and fi­nal qual­i­fy­ing po­si­tion for the Paris Olympic Games in France which will open on Ju­ly 26.

T&T and the Nether­lands post­ed the same qual­i­fy­ing time of 38.30 sec­onds. T&T achieved the time in tak­ing gold at the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Games in El Sal­vador in Ju­ly 2023.

On the Olympic qual­i­fy­ing rank­ing list, T&T was list­ed in the 16th po­si­tion with the Dutch men in 17th.

The na­tion­al sprint­ers com­pet­ed at the NACAC New Life In­vi­ta­tion­al in the Ba­hamas on June 12 in pur­suit of run­ning faster than 38.30 sec­onds and im­prov­ing their rank­ings but they clocked 39.09 sec­onds in plac­ing sec­ond. They were still then in 16th spot.

How­ev­er, on June 18, the world gov­ern­ing body for track and field, World Ath­let­ics, up­dat­ed the list and T&T moved down to 17th and the Nether­lands up to 16th. World Ath­let­ics in­di­cat­ed to the lo­cal track and field body, the NA­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ic Ad­min­is­tra­tions (NAAA) that the switch in places was made af­ter the 38.30 times were ex­am­ined down to the thou­sandth of a sec­ond which re­sult­ed in the swap.

The na­tion­al re­lay run­ners then head­ed off to the AP In­vi­ta­tion­al in Guyana on June 22 but were short with their 39.09 tim­ing.

The lo­cal lads then had their fi­nal op­por­tu­ni­ty on Sun­day (June 30), the fi­nal day of the Olympic qual­i­fy­ing pe­ri­od.

Qual­i­fi­ca­tion is now a re­mote pos­si­bil­i­ty as T&T at 17th, will have to re­ly on one of the 16 teams de­cid­ing not to com­pete at the Olympics.

Por­tious War­ren earned a spot to com­pete in the women’s shot put at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago sim­i­lar­ly.

War­ren was 33rd at the close of the Olympic qual­i­fy­ing dead­line, out by one place as on­ly 32 ath­letes were in­vit­ed. How­ev­er, one of the qual­i­fied ath­letes with­drew and opened up the door to War­ren al­low­ing her the op­por­tu­ni­ty to com­pete at her maid­en Olympic Games. She went on to qual­i­fy for the fi­nals where she placed 11th.

Mean­while, the vic­to­ri­ous Carif­ta Boys Un­der-20 4x100m team was sec­ond in 39.94. With the sub-40 clock­ing the four­some of Che Wick­ham, Mikhail By­er, Ha­keem Chi­napoo and Dy­lan Wodruffe, run­ning in the same or­der they won the Carif­ta ti­tle, now have their eyes set on win­ning a medal at the World Un­der 20 Track and Field Cham­pi­onships in Li­ma, Pe­ru from Au­gust 27-31.

Guyana was third (40.30) with an­oth­er T&T team (Danoy­on Alex­is, Cyrus Charles, Je­re­my Charles, Mar­cus Pur­cel) in fourth (41.28).

Ny­la Kerr ran a stun­ning leg to an­chor Cougars to vic­to­ry in the U-17 Mixed 4x400m ti­tle (3:41.95). The 13-year-old, ear­li­er in the meet, raced to gold in the girls’ U-17 800m and 1,500m ti­tles. Mem­phis Pi­o­neers (3:42.49) and Zenith) (3:45.17) were sec­ond and third, re­spec­tive­ly.

Zenith copped the Mixed U-17 4zx100m with Carif­ta bronze medal­list an­chor­ing the To­ba­go team to vic­to­ry in 46.34. Phoenix (46.64) and Burn­ley (46.84) had to set­tle for the mi­nor places.

Con­corde land­ed the Open Mixed 4x400m in 3:32.69 ahead of One-A-Week (3:34.18) and MV 474 of Grena­da (3:37.84).

Re­lay re­sults

4x100m In­vi­ta­tion­al

1 T&T Red (Jerod El­cock, Devin Au­gus­tine, Jonathan Far­in­ha, Kyle Greaux) 38.46

2 T&T Black (U20) (Che Wick­ham, Mikhail By­er, Ha­keem Chi­napoo, Dy­lan Woodruffe) 39.94

3 Guyana (Akeem Stew­art, Noelex Hold­er, Ravon Williams, Patrick Abel) 40.30

4 T&T White (Danoy­on Alex­is, Cyrus Charles, Je­re­my Charles, Mar­cus Pur­cel) 41.28

Mixed 4x100 Me­ter Re­lay Open

1 Sim­plex (Kha­reem Solomon, Sier­ra Joseph, Jah­fari Far­rel, Aki­ra Malaver) 43.89

2 Con­corde (Jor­dan Pope, Sym­pho­ny Patrick, Dil­lon Bernard, Ka­res­sa Kir­ton) 44.78

3 Stal­lion (Joshua Ray­mond, Jer­nes­sa Ro­driguez, Di­ara Guy, An­gel Cum­ber­batch) 46.50

Mixed U-17 4x100m

1 Zenith (Amadeus Fer­gu­son, Makay­la Cu­pid, Jquan Dou­glas, Xi­ah To­bias) 46.34

2 Phoenix (Cameron Pow­el, Kioni De­venish, Alex Seep­er­sad, Noe­mi Theodore) 46.64

3 Burn­ley (Tequan John, Jael Pe­ters, Jay­den Goodridge, Keyana Daniel) 46.86

Mixed 4x400m Re­lay Open

1 Con­corde (Nick­ili Lewis, Caliyah Wal­lace, Joshua Williams, Janae De Gannes) 3:32.69

2 +one A Week (DA Shaun Leza­ma, Shi­an Lewis, Nicholas Lan­deau, Aniqah Bai­ley) 3:34.18

3 473 Mvp Inc. (Qwanell Pierre, Egypt Reg­is-Ben­jamin, De­von­ni Fer­gu­son, Rhea Flan­ders) 3:35.51

Mixed U-17 4x400m

1 Cougars (Jew­el Guy­tan, Malana Patrick, Josi­ah Grant, Ny­la Kerr) 3:41.95

2 Mem­phis Pi­o­neers (Zach­ery Frank, Shar­lene Phillip, Kae­den Her­bert, Jen­nisa Al­lam­by) 3:42.49

3 Zenith (Aaron Baird, De­n­e­sia Fletch­er, Aaron Radg­man,Q’Jhea Stew­art) 3:45.17