Multiple Olympic medalist, Ato Boldon, believes Trinidad and Tobago will be competitive during this weekend’s IAAF/BTC World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas from April 22-23.
Boldon, who coaches Carifta Under-20 sprint double champion, Khalifa St Fort, believes the 22-member team should give a good account of themselves.
“I think we’ll do okay,” Boldon said during an interview on Morning Edition in T&T Wednesday.
“I’m a little concerned that we haven’t had a single relay pass for the entire year but I think we’ll get there early enough to get something done in the days leading up and I think we should be very competitive.”
In addition to St Fort, the T&T contingent also includes Michelle Lee Ahye, Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Semoy Hackett and Kamara Durant among the leading names for the women. Among the men, Keston Bledman leads a contingent that also includes Emmanuel Callender, Lalone Gordon, Renny Quow, Machel Cedeno and Deon Lendore.
“The men’s 4x4s should have medalled last year (2015). They had an unfortunate incident where they were disqualified. Khalifa’s team, the women’s 4x1s were fifth in the world so they are going to be very competitive and the men’s 4x1s are perennial medallists, so I think we will do very well.”
His concerns about the lack of relay practice, he said, have been allayed somewhat based on a recent meeting in Florida between the sport’s administrators and athletes likely to be in London for the World Championships later this year.
“I was very impressed with the meeting. I came away feeling, ‘okay, maybe everybody sort of learned the lessons of Rio, and we are going to proceed a little differently than before’ so I will expect to see things turned around even though they haven’t just yet. I am pretty optimistic about how things will be handled in the future,” Boldon said.
