No medals for Trinidad and Tobago at U-20 World Championships

TRINIDAD AND Tobago had a premature end to its World Athletics Under-20 Championships campaign on Friday as sprinter Shakeem McKay was unable to advance to men’s 200-metre semi-finals.

Running out of lane five in heat two, McKay finished sixth in 21.42 seconds. Winning the event was Bahamian Wendell Miller (20.72) while South Africa’s Benjamin Richardson (20.87) and Italian Filippo Cappelletti (21.13) rounded off the top three finishers respectively.

Only the top four finishers of each heat and the next four fastest times gained automatic qualification for the next round.

McKay’s performance climaxed TT’s participation at the Under-20 Championships. TT will return home without a medal to show as national teammates Dillon Leacock and Leah Bertrand were also unable to secure a podium place.

On Wednesday, Bertrand competed in the women’s 100m and booked a place in the semi-finals after finishing second in heat five in 11.88. However, she placed fourth in semi-final three in 11.80 and finished 15th overall.

Leacock was scheduled to compete in the men’s 400m hurdles but pulled out after feeling discomfort in training on Thursday. He was carded to run in heat three.

According to the team manager, who responded to Newsday via WhatsApp, he said, “After consulting with a physiotherapist, his (Leacock) parents and management, it was decided that he should withdraw from the race as a preventative measure to prevent the injury from escalating.”

This will be the second consecutive World Athletics Under-20 Championships that team TT returns home without a medal as they were also unable to do so at the 2018 edition in Tampere, Finland.