MICHELLE-LEE Ahye, Reyare Thomas and Khalifa St Fort will line up today, from 7.50 am (TT time) in the women’s 100-metre final, at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, currently taking place in the Gold Coast, Australia.
This feat is historic by itself as it is the first time that a TT sprinter, far less three, will be involved in the women’s 100m final at the Commonwealth Games.
In the semi-final stage yesterday, Ahye won heat two in 11.25 seconds, while Thomas was second in heat three in 11.36. Both advanced to the final automatically. St Fort, who placed third in heat one in 11.35, booked her spot in the final as one of the two ‘fastest losers’.
St Fort will start today’s final in lane two, while Ahye will be in lane four and Thomas in lane eight. The other finalists are Halutie Hor of Ghana (lane three), Christania Williams of Jamaica (lane five), Asha Philip of England (lane six), Natasha Morrison of Jamaica (lane seven) and Gayon Evans of Jamaica (lane nine).
During the morning session in the preliminary round, Ahye won heat four in 11.27, St Fort finished second in heat two in 11.57 and Thomas was third in heat six in 11.46.
Akeem Stewart, the double Paralympic gold medallist (in javelin and discus) and World Para Athletics champ (shot put), will also be seeking a medal today, in the men’s shot put.
The 25-year-old, competing in the Qualifying Round Group B, finished fourth in the eight-man field with a season’s best effort of 19.12 metres.
He will join Australia’s Damien Birkinhead, Jamaica’s O’Dayne Richards, Canada’s Tim Nedow (also from Group B), New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh, Nigeria’s Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, Dominica’s Dillon Simon, Jamaica’s Ashinia Miller, South Africa’s Orazio Cremona and India’s Tejinder Singh (from Group A) in today’s final, carded for 6.25 am (TT time).
Unfortunately, no national athlete will be represented in the men’s 100m final, set for 8.15 am (TT time).
In the semi-final phase, national champ Emmanuel Callender was eighth and last in heat one in 10.54 while Keston Bledman was fifth in heat three in 10.30.
Earlier, in the first round, Callender was third in heat four in 10.41, Bledman was third in heat five in 10.35, and Jonathan Farinha was fifth in heat eight in 10.44 – Farinha’s placing deemed him ineligible for the semi-final stage.
There were mixed results in the men’s 400m for TT.
In the first round, national champ Machel Cedenio won heat one in 45.68, Renny Quow was victorious in heat three in 46.42, but 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Lalonde Gordon was sixth and last in heat four in 49.07.
The semi-final races will be contested today with Quow drawn in lane four in heat two at 6.04 am; Cedenio will feature in lane four in heat three at 6.12 am (both TT times).
Swimmer Dylan Carter was unable to earn himself and TT a second medal, in his final event of the 2018 Games.
Carter, who got silver in the men’s 50m butterfly on Friday, placed fifth in the men’s 100m freestyle yesterday.
The 25-year-old opted out of the men’s 100m butterfly (also on yesterday’s agenda) to focus on the 100m free. But swimming in lane one, he was only able to register a time of 48.60 seconds.
Duncan Scott of Scotland took gold in 48.02 while 50m butterfly champ Chad le Clos of South Africa was joint second with Australia’s Kyle Chalmers in 48.15, followed by another Australian, Cameron McEvoy (48.44).
TT’s participation in track cycling came to an end yesterday, with Nicholas Paul finishing ninth out of a group of 24 in the men’s 1000m time trial in a time of one minute 1.899 seconds.
Matt Glaetzer of Australia won in 59.340 seconds, ahead of New Zealand’s Edward Dawkins (59.928) and Scotland’s Callum Skinner (1:01.083).
There were contrasting results for TT in beach volleyball yesterday. The men’s pair of Daneil Williams and Daynte Stewart won their second Pool A game in as many days, courtesy a 21-9, 21-17 scoreline over Fiji’s Inia Korowale and Sairusi Cavula.
But the women’s duo of Abby Blackman and Rheeza Grant lost their second match in Pool B, by virtue of a 21-7, 21-8 result against Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan of Canada.
Both TT teams will finish their preliminary round groups today, with the men tackling Australia’s Christopher McHugh and Daniel Schumann from 5.30 am (TT time), and the women will face Fiji’s Iliseva Ratudina and Laite Nima an hour later.
TT were also in action last night (TT time) in two other events – shooting and boxing.
In shooting, the tandem of Delborn Joseph and Michael Perez featured in Day One of the queen’s prize pairs finals while lightweight boxer Michael Alexander was expected to face India’s Manish Kaushik in the second round.