Trinidad and Tobago junior athletes earn experience at Olympic trial event

SEVERAL TT junior athletes got valuable experience at an Olympic trial event, on Sunday.

The National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAA) held its second and final Olympic trial event for local-based athletes at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain. The deadline to qualify for the Olympics is Tuesday.

The first NAAA Olympic trial meet was held on June 21 at the same venue.

Many of the athletes who competed were juniors which would have given them a gauge for what times they need to run in order to transition to senior level.

In the men’s 100-metre event, athletes ran in two races in an effort to achieve the Olympic qualification standard of 10.05 seconds.

In section one, Revell Webster of Concorde won in a time of 10.80 and Ayodele Taffe of Abilene Wildcats claimed top spot in section two in 10.87.

In the women’s 100m finals, Leah Bertrand of Simplex won in a time of 11.58. She was followed by Shaniqua Bascombe of Cougars in 11.75 and Kamaria Durant of Simplex in 12.32. The participants were aiming for the qualification standard of 11.15.

Shernica Sargeant of RSS Phoenix won the women’s 400m event in 58.16, short of the 0lympic standard of 51.35. Caliyah Wallace of Cougars finished second in 58.86 and Shanika Belfon of Tobago Select copped third place in 1:02.62.

Kirdell McIntosh, running unattached, copped first place in the men’s 400m event in 48.82. Joshua Mascall of Fyzabad was second in 49.26 and Elijah Joseph of Mounting Eagles took third spot in 50.12. The standard for the event is 44.90.

Athletes also competed in the 200m events. Bertrand came out on top again with a time of 23.88, followed by Bascombe in 24.15 and Khadija Pickering of Abilene Wildcats had to settle for third place in 25.29. The Olympic standard is 22.80.

In the final event of the day athletes aimed to achieve the standard of 20.24 in the men’s 200m event. Devin Augustine of Pt Fortin New Jets won in 21.51, Shakeem McKay of Abilene Wildcats finished second in 21.71 and Webster was third in 22.20.