Sprinters Jereem 'The Dream' Richards and Leah Bertrand were named Sportsman and Sportswoman of the year 2024 by the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) during their 30th Annual Award Ceremony at the Government Plaza Auditorium, Richmond Street, Port-of-Spain on Sunday.
Richards, 30, was T&T’s top performer at the Paris Olympic Games back in July/August, with his fourth-place finish in the Men’s 400 metres final.
Richards missed out on the bronze by four hundredths of a second to Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga after running a blistering race from the outside lane nine and clocking a 43.78 seconds.
The Point Fortin native effort earned him a new national record over the distance. The performance also propelled the T&T sprinter into 16th spot on the all-time Men’s 400m performance list.
Meanwhile, T&T sprinter Leah Bertrand finished 9th in the Women’s 100m semi-final three, ultimately missing out on a spot in the final.
She clocked 11.37 seconds. The race was won by Jamaica’s Tia Clayton, who clocked 10.89 seconds, while Great Britain’s Daryll Neita was the second automatic qualifier in 10.97 seconds.
Bertrand, the T&T reigning national 100 meters sprint champion, ran from heat six in lane four when she claimed third in a time of 11.27 seconds to automatically progress to the semifinal.
Bertrand took aim at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 Outdoor sprint title but had to settle for seventh place in the women’s 100 meters final on the fourth and final day of the Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA, in June. Bertrand, a junior at Ohio State University, got to the line in a wind-aided 11.05 seconds.
