T&T ended the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan without a medal.
It is the first time since the Barcelona Games in Spain in 1992 that this country had no athletes taking the podium. It was the same situation in 1980 (Moscow, Russia), 1984 (Los Angeles, USA) and 1988 (Seoul, South Korea) editions, T&T did not appear on the medal table.
It wasn't until the 1996 Atlanta Games (USA), did T&T have medal success thanks to Ato Boldon, competing at his second Olympic Games. The sprinter won two medals, bronze in the men's 100 and 200 metres sprints. T&T got three medals at the 1964 Tokyo Games but went without a medal in 1968 (Mexico City) and 1972 (Munich, Germany) before Hasely Crawford strike gold in Montreal, Canada in 1976 in the 100 metres event.
The premier sporting event closed on Sunday and though debutant Olympic long-jumper Andwuelle Wright had the honour of carrying the T&T flag at the closing ceremony it was still a sombre moment for this country and its athletes.
Cyclists Nicholas Paul, the World record-holder in the Flying Start, and Kwesi Browne were T&T's last hope for a medal but that dream ended when both athletes exited in the semifinals of the men's keirin event at the Izu Velodrome on Saturday night (T&T time).
Browne was up first and missed out on a berth in the championship race after finishing fifth in the first semifinal, which was won by eventual gold medallist Great Britain's Jason Kenny, who defended his title on Saturday.
Paul, sixth place in the men's sprint event, rode in the second semifinal soon after and he suffered a similar fate, just missing out on a spot in the final after placing fourth and was initially slated to ride for places seventh to 12th along with Browne, but was later disqualified.
Browne competed and crossed third in the placement ride to be ninth overall closing off T&T's medal-less run at Tokyo Games which was delayed by a year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The virus caused a rocky start to T&T's participation at the Olympics with two athletes and official testing positive for COVID-19 including Wright, his coach Wendell Williams, a former Olympian and hurdler Sparkle McKnight.
They were immediately put into quarantine which meant Wright, who was making his Olympic debut, did not start in the men's long jump event and McKnight, a two-time Olympian was unable to line up in the women's 400m hurdles event, a huge damper for the trio affected and the rest of the 33-athlete contingent.
They were led to Tokyo by celebrated javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott, a two-time Olympic medallist.
This, his third consecutive Olympic Games, did not go as planned and unfortunately, his third Olympic medal did materialise as the Toco-born athlete did not advance out of the qualification round to the final in the men's javelin event.
Walcott, the 2012 London champion and 2016 Rio bronze medallist was T&T's best prospect for a medal. However, on August 3, Walcott could not send the spear past the 83.50m automatic mark and was not among the best 12 performers for the final. His best throw came on his third and final throw and it measured 79.33 to finish seventh in Group B and 16th overall among the 30 participants.
Long jumper Tyra Gittens and shot putter Portious Warren and were bright spots in athletics for T&T reaching the final round in their respective events.
Gittens, competing at her first Olympic Games, placed 10th with her best leap measuring 6.60m in the women's long jump. This after progressing from the qualification round, fifth in Group A with 6.72m to among the best performers.
Similarly Warren, a late addition to the national team, also reach the finals in her Olympic debut. Competing in group A in the qualification round in the women's shot put event, she finished fifth with a personal best 18.75m to advance to the final where she placed 11th with an 18.32m-toss.
Jereem "The dream" Richards was the lone athlete on track to advance to a medal race in the men's 200m dash but the 2018 Commonwealth Games 200m champion placed eighth in a time of 20.39 seconds.
Sprinter Michelle-Lee Ahye, just missed out on making the championship race in the women's 100m dash after she placed third in the second semifinal, clocking a season's best (sb) time of 11.00 seconds.
Cyclist Teniel Campbell, although she was unable to complete the women's road race at her first Olympic Games, stopping some 16km from completing the event, along with fellow cyclists Paul and Browne have proven that T&T has a great future in cycling. So look out for them come Paris 2024, the host city for the next Olympic Games.
Results
Athletics
Michelle-Lee Ahye 100m - Semifinals 2 - 3rd (11.00-sb)
Kelly-Ann Baptiste 100m - Round 1 (heat 2) - 6th (11.48)
4x100m Relay (Baptiste, Ahye, Semoy Hackett, Khalifa St Fort, Ayla Stanisclaus, Kai Selvon) - Round one 1 (heat 2) - 8th (43.62-sb)
Kyle Greaux 200m - Round 1 - 4th (20.77)
Jereem Richards 200m - Final - 8th (20.39)
Machel Cedenio 400m - Semifinal 1 - 4th (44.93)
Deon Lendore 400m - Semifinal 2 - 6th (45.86)
Dwight St Hillaire 400m - Semifinal 3 - 7th (45.58)
4X400m Relay (Cedenio, Lendore, St Hillaire, Jereem Richards, Asa Guevara, Che Lara) - Final 8th (3:00.85)
4X100m Relay (Richard Thompson, Kion Benjamin, Adell Colthrust, Eric Harrison, Akanni Hislop, Jonathan Farinha) - Round 1 (heat 1) 6th (38.63 - sb)
Tyra Gittens Long jump - Final 10th (6.60m)
Portious Warren - shot put - Final - 11th (18.32m)
Keshorn Walcott Javelin - Qualification round (Group B)- 7th /16th overall (79.83m)
Andwuelle Wright Long jump - Did not start
Sparkle McKnight 400m hurdles - Did not start
Boxing
Aaron Prince Middle (69-75kg) - Preliminary round 32 - Loss 4-0
Cycling
Teniel Campbell: Road Race - Did not finish
Kwesi Browne
Sprint - 30th (Flying Start)
Keirin - 9th
Nicholas Paul
Sprint -6th
Keirin - Disqualified
Judo
Gabriella Wood +78kgs - Elimination round of 32 - Loss 10-0
Rowing
Felice Aisha Chow Single sculls - Final D 1st (7:48.06) - 19th overall
Sailing
Athlete Andrew Lewis Laser Men - 29th
Swimming
Dylan Carter
100m backstroke - heat 2 - 4th (54.82)
100m freestyle -heat 6 -3rd (48.66)
100m butterfly - heat 3 - 2nd (53.36)
50m freestyle - heat 6 -2nd (22.46)
Cherelle Thompson
50 Freestyle -heat 7 - 8th (26.19)