An­dre E Bap­tiste

No stop­ping Je­hue Gor­don as he seeks more suc­cess af­ter his spec­tac­u­lar show­ing at the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed IAAF World Cham­pi­onships in Moscow, Rus­sia.

The 21-year-old ar­rived in Lon­don yes­ter­day to com­pete in two more meets be­fore he re­turns to T&T in Sep­tem­ber.

"I am look­ing for­ward to this. We have some com­mit­ments now in Eu­rope that have been fi­nalised and that I will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in," said the 21-year-old Gor­don.

"There is still work to do on the track. I have to re­main fo­cused and there­fore I am look­ing for­ward to this. Of course win­ning this means that peo­ple will be aware of me more but that is just part of suc­cess, the im­por­tant point is to keep fo­cused and the team around me is mak­ing cer­tain of that."

His gold medal in the Men's 400 me­tres hur­dles fi­nal, pro­pelled T&T to joint 12th place on the medal ta­ble with Colom­bia, New Zealand, Croa­t­ia, Swe­den, Ire­land and Ugan­da.

Host Rus­sia made full use of home ad­van­tage and topped the ta­ble with 17 medals–sev­en gold, four sil­ver and six bronze. USA was sec­ond with six gold medals, 14 sil­ver and five bronze, 25 in to­tal while Ja­maica was third, match­ing the Amer­i­cans six gold with two sil­ver and a bronze to tal­ly nine medals over­all.

Gor­don on Fri­day stood on the medal ros­trum, hold­ing his hand to his heart and sang along as the na­tion­al an­them of T&T was played for on­ly the sec­ond time in the his­to­ry of these Cham­pi­onships, that start­ed 30 years ago in 1983. Ato Boldon won T&T's first gold medal in 1997 with vic­to­ry in the 200m.

"It was just an un­be­liev­able feel­ing be­ing there to ex­pe­ri­ence it. It was a dream of mine and the team with me and it felt so great and made me so very proud for every­one who has sup­port­ed me," Gor­don said.

"When the na­tion­al an­them was be­ing played, I felt as if, yes, this is for my coun­try, this is for the peo­ple of T&T and this is to show that we can achieve suc­cess with the work from lo­cal coach­es, Dr Ian Hy­po­lite and Ed­win Skin­ner.

"I was a lit­tle ner­vous but just to re­ceive the medal and to ex­pe­ri­ence this makes me want to do more. This is great in­cen­tive to con­tin­ue to learn and to con­tin­ue to lis­ten, and I hope that oth­ers in T&T can use the suc­cess that we had in this event to in­spire them as well," said a fo­cused Gor­don.

"As well, I still have some course work to com­plete and I have to do that as well, as ed­u­ca­tion is equal­ly im­por­tant for me," said the for­mer Queens Roy­al Col­lege stu­dent.

Medal Ta­ble

Rank Coun­try Gold Sil­ver Bronze to­tal

1 Rus­sia 7 4 6 17

2 USA 6 14 5 25

3 Ja­maica 6 2 1 9

4 Kenya 5 4 3 12

5 Ger­many 4 2 1 7

6 Ethiopia 3 3 4 10

7 G Britain/NI 3 0 3 6

8 Czech Re­pub­lic 2 0 1 3

8 Ukraine 2 0 1 3

10 France 1 2 1 4

11 Poland 1 2 0 3

12 Colom­bia 1 0 0 1

12 Croa­t­ia 1 0 0 1

12 Ire­land 1 0 0 1

12 NewZealand 1 0 0 1

12 Swe­den 1 0 0 1

12 T&T 1 0 0 1

12 Ugan­da 1 0 0 1

19 Aus­tralia 0 2 1 3

20 Ivory Coast 0 2 0 2

21 Cana­da 0 1 4 5

22 Chi­na 0 1 3 4

23 Cu­ba 0 1 2 3

24 Nether­lands 0 1 1 2

24 Nige­ria 0 1 1 2

26 Botswana 0 1 0 1

26 Fin­land 0 1 0 1

26 Hun­gary 0 1 0 1

26 Italy 0 1 0 1

26 Qatar 0 1 0 1

31 Spain 0 0 2 2

31 Ser­bia 0 0 2 2

33 Dji­bouti 0 0 1 1

33 Dom­Re­pub­lic 0 0 1 1

33 Es­to­nia 0 0 1 1

33 Japan 0 0 1 1

33 Mex­i­co 0 0 1 1

33 South Africa 0 0 1 1