T&T's Martin Prime made a positive start to the World Masters Indoor Athletics Championships, advancing to the semifinals in the men's 55-59 60 metres dash yesterday in Poland.
He opened his campaign for gold in style winning heat six of six in the preliminary round, clocking 7.82 seconds to finish ahead of Pat Logan of Great Britain (7.88) to advance with the seventh fastest overall.
T&T is also being represented by Gwendolyn Smith and US-based Dwayne Caines in the Championships which started on Sunday and runs until Saturday in the city of Torun.
Prime and Smith are hoping to win gold again as they did five years ago. Prime won the men's 50-54 60m sprint in Budapest, Hungary at the 2014 edition while Smith won the women's 45-49 javelin crown. Prime is also entered in the 200m. He won bronze in the half-lap event two years ago in South Korea and gold in Budapest.
In the semifinals set for 5.45 am (TT time) this morning, Prime run in lane three of the first semifinal heat. The San Fernando resident will be seeking to finish in first two positions (or be among the four fastest times) to be guaranteed a place in the final set for tomorrow at 7.35 pm (TT time)
Smith competed in her first event yesterday, the shot put but after three throws, she fouled out. She has two more upcoming events, the discus and the javelin throws. She won gold in the javelin event at the World Outdoors in Spain last year.
Caines is entered in one event in the 200m in the men's 35-39 division.
In a release yesterday, the T&T Association of Masters Athletes (TTAMA) had encouraging words for its athletes saying: "TTAMA wishes our team all the best and hope that their participation can bring joy and pride to the people of T&T."