Cedenio goes for World 400m gold

NARISSA FRASER

MACHEL Cedenio will be aiming for TT’s first medal today at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar. The TT athlete will compete in the men’s 400-metre final at 3.20 pm (TT time).

He won his preliminary and semi-final heats, respectively, to book his spot in today’s race. He achieved a season’s best of 44.41 seconds in the semis.

He will be going up against Akeem Bloomfield and Demish Gaye of Jamaica, Bahamas’ Steven Gardiner, Grenada’s Kirani James, Emmanuel Korir of Kenya, Anthony Zambrano of Colombia and Fred Kerley of the US.

The US are currently leading in the Championships’ 2019 rankings. TT are ranked 55th with one point and zero medals, tied with Algeria, the Bahamas and the Democratic Republic of Korea.

At the 2017 Championships in London, TT ended in 17th place overall, along with Venezuela, Croatia, Norway, Portugal and this year’s hosts – Qatar.

The TT women’s 4x100m relay team will also be competing today in their qualifying heats at 1.40 pm.

The team will be selected from Reyare Thomas, Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Mauricia Prieto, Kamaria Durant, Semoy Hackett.

The Championships began on September 27 and end on Sunday.