Jereem goes for golden repeat in 200m final

JEREEM RICHARDS will seek to defend his 200-metre crown when he lines up in the final of the event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, in Birmingham, England on Saturday.

Richards will run in lane seven in the final at 4.18 pm (TT time).

Richards sealed a place in the final after winning semifinal three in 20.40 seconds, on Friday.

He was out the blocks quickly and had the lead at the 100m mark. At the 150m mark, Richards took his foot of the gas as he knew he would easily progress as one of the two automatic qualifiers.

Joseph Amoah of Ghana finished second in 20.51.

The other TT athletes in the men’s 200m semifinals did not advance to the finals.

In semifinal one, Kyle Greaux was fourth in 20.91 in a race won by Zharnel Hughes of England in 20.32.

In semifinal two, Dwight St Hillaire was third in 20.95 and missed out on a spot in the final. Nigerian Udodi Onwuzurike won the race in 20.59.

In the women’s 200m semifinals, Mauricia Prieto represented TT. She came fourth in semifinal three in 23.58, but it was not enough to progress to the finals. That race was won by Jamaican star Elaine Thompson-Herah in 22.63.

The TT men’s 4x400m team and long jumper Tyra Gittens both advanced to finals.

The quartet of St Hillaire, Che Lara, Machel Cedenio and Kashief King clocked three minutes, 07.12 seconds (3:07.12) to finish third in heat two of round one. TT should field a stronger team for the final with Richards and Asa Guevara expected to be available.

The final will be held at 3.30 pm (TT time), on Sunday.

Kenya won heat two in a season’s best time of 3:06.76 and India were second in 3:06.97 to earn spots in the final.

Barbados faded in the final leg of the race, but finished fourth in 3:07.23 to book a place in the final.

Four teams also qualified for the final from heat one including Botswana (3:05.11), Jamaica (3:05.20), Zambia (3:06.02) and Nigeria (3:06.36).

Gittens finished sixth in Group A in the women’s long jump qualifying round to advance to the final.

She jumped 6.18m on her first attempt, fouled her second effort and leaped 6.28m on her third, which was enough to qualify. Australian Brooke Buschkuehl won Group A with a 6.84m performance.

A total of 13 athletes qualified for the final on Sunday at 2.05 pm (TT time).

In men’s shot put final, TT’s Akeem Stewart finished eighth with a best effort of 18.56 metres, which he threw on his third attempt.

Stewart threw 18.01m on his first throw and 18.03m on his second. He fouled in the fourth and fifth round and passed in the sixth and final round.

Tom Walsh of New Zealand won gold when he threw the shot put 22.86m.

In the men’s 400m semifinals, Guevara was fifth in 46.46 in semifinal three. He was in position to finish in the top two heading into the final 100m of the race, but began to struggle in the closing stages and missed out on qualification.

In netball, TT defeated Barbados 63-31 in the 11th place playoff.

The table tennis pair of Rheann Chung and Catherine Spicer fell in the women’s doubles round of 32. The India team of Manika Batra and Diya Chitale won 11-5, 11-7, 11-2.

Chayse McQuan and Charlotte Knaggs of TT lost their mixed doubles plate quarterfinal squash match against Jake Kelly and Jade Pitcairn of Cayman Islands 11-5, 11-8. McQuan and Knaggs were knocked out of the main draw earlier in the tournament.

Also competing on Saturday will be the TT 4x100m relay teams.

The women’s quartet will run in heat two of round one from 7.27 am (TT time) and the men’s team will compete in heat one of round one at 7.47 am (TT time).