T&T first participated in the Commonwealth Games in 1934 in London, England. The name of the Games was then called the British Empire Games before it was changed to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954. It was further amended to the British Commonwealth Games (1970, Edinburgh, Scotland) and was further adjusted to present title of Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, in 1978. T&T athletes won its first medals in 1954 when Michael Agostini (Track and Field: gold-men's 100m), Rodney Wilkes (weightlifting: gold-men's 60 kg combined), Lionel De Freitas (weightlifting: silver-men's 75kg combined) and Lennox Kilgour (weightlifting: silver-Men's 90kg combined) all mounted the rostrum in the Canadian city of Vancouver. Double Olympic medal winner Wilkes went on to capture his second Commonwealth medal four years later in Cardiff, Wales, when he was third.
National athletes enjoyed success at the Games of former British Colonies, medalling at 11 of the 15 times, they've competed. The best performance to date was at the 1966 Games in Jamaica when sprinter Wendell Mottley and cyclist Roger Gibbon both struck double gold. Mottley led the men's 4 x400 yard relay team to triumph in a world record time of three minutes, 02.8 seconds and captured the men's 400 yard race in a Games-record of 45.2 seconds, while Gibbon was victorious in the men's 1000m matching sprint and kilometre time trial races. Edwin Roberts was also a multiple medal winner taking the silver in the men's 220 yard and bronze in the 100 yard sprints.
The first woman to medal was national shot put record holder Cleopatra Borel-Brown, who finished third in Melbourne, Australia, four years ago with a throw of 17.87m.
Borel-Brown will seek a second medal at this year's Games when she takes to the field on Friday. T&T has won 38 medals in five sporting disciplines. The tally of eight gold, 13 silver and 17 bronze was gathered from track and field, weightlifting, cycling, boxing and shooting. Track and field has won half of the total with 1976 100m Olympic champion Hasely Crawford is a three-time Commonwealth Games medallist. Crawford was third in the men's 100m at the Edinburgh, Scotland Games in 1970. Eight years in Edmonton, Canada, the Montreal Olympic victor was beaten into third again and led T&T 4 x 100m relay team to silver. Quadruple Olympic medallist Ato Boldon sped to glory in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, taking the men's 100m title in a Games record of 9.88 seconds.
T&T's most successful event has been the men's 100m/yard taking six medals (Agostini, Edwin Roberts, Crawford, Boldon and Marc Burns). Weightlifting has yielded nine medals (two gold, three silver and four bronze), cycling six (two gold, one silver and three bronze) and boxing (one silver and one bronze) and shooting (one bronze) two each. The last edition of the Commonwealth Games was in Melbourne where T&T won three medals (all bronze-Burns, Borel-Browne and Roger Daniel-Men's 50m free pistol). At the 2010 Games set to begin in Delhi, India, tomorrow, T&T will be represented by 83 athletes competing in ten sporting disciplines–archery, boxing, cycling, netball, field hockey, gymnastics, squash, shooting, swimming and track and field.
T&T'S Medal tally
Year Host City Total Gold Silver Bronze
1934 London, England 0 0 0 0
1938 Sydney, Australia 0 0 0 0
1950 Auckland, New Zealand Did not attend
1954 Vancouver, Canada 4 2 2 0
1958 Cardiff, Wales 1 0 0 1
1962 Perth, Australia 2 0 0 2
1966 Kingston, Jamaica 9 5 2 2
1970 Edinburgh, Scotland 7 0 4 3
1974 Christchurch, New Zealand 2 0 1 1
1978 Edmonton, Canada 4 0 2 2
1982 Brisbane, Australia 0 0 0 0
1986 Edinburgh, Scotland Did not attend
1990 Auckland, New Zealand 0 0 0 0
1994 Victoria, Canada 2 0 0 2
1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3 1 1 1
2002 Manchester, England 1 0 1 0
2006 Melbourne, Australia 3 0 0 3
