Former men’s 200-metre World champion Ato Boldon says the success of Keshorn Walcott and Jereem Richards at the 2025 World Athletics Championship in Tokyo, Japan, ranks high on Trinidad and Tobago’s greatest-ever accomplishments in the sport.
Speaking from the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan, on Saturday, where he has been working on NBC’s commentary team, Boldon told Guardian Media, “I think to have the two gentlemen winning gold and silver on the same day is probably the second-best day in our country’s track and field history – the biggest day, of course, being that day in 1976 in Montreal.”
Last Thursday, Walcott landed the javelin 88.16 metres to snatch the gold medal in that event, his first global medal since the 2016 Olympic Games and his first global title since winning the men’s javelin as a 19-year-old in London 2012. Less than four hours after Walcott’s triumph, Richards clocked a sizzling 43.72 seconds in the men’s 400m to earn silver in a new national record.
Both accomplishments broke a medal drought for T&T at global athletics meets, which spanned two Olympic Games and three World Championships.
“It's not just what they did,” Boldon said. “Keshorn has had such a layoff in between, obviously winning his Olympic gold in 2012 and then having to wait 13 years, although he did get that bronze in Rio. And for Jereem, so many athletes would have been despondent and discouraged by the fact that he just missed that medal last year in the Olympic Games, and to do that from the inside lane – it's one of the best days in our country’s history in terms of track and field.”
New wind in Walcott’s sails
Boldon, who represented T&T from the age of 18 and for over a decade, was stirred by Walcott’s achievements in Tokyo, which he witnessed. Boldon suggested that winning global medals 13 years apart might have ignited a new wave of confidence in the 32-year-old Toco-born thrower.
“I think there is (life in Keshorn), and if there is going to be life, the impetus for it is going to be winning this gold,” Boldon declared. “Because he’s going to look up and say to himself, ‘I am not going to necessarily win every meet on the Diamond League circuit, but as long as I time my seasons the way I timed my 2025 season, I am always going to have a chance at that podium.’ Realistically, he has at least another World Championship and another Olympics where he can consider himself competitive. No matter what has happened before 2025, the result this year is going to give him tonnes of motivation.”
Boldon, the 1997 200m World champion from Athens, Greece, and double-silver medallist in the individual 100m and 4x100m relay in 2001 in Edmonton, Canada, said, “Quite significantly, it's his very first medal at Worlds, and it's gold. Of course, he has the (Olympic) bronze from 2016, and he is the champion from 2012, but what he has done this year is very significant, and that’s because there were so many people in the world throwing over 90 metres.
“I’ve been watching the Diamond League, and I’ve been following him, and he has been very consistent this year. In my mind, he was going to have to have the kind of Herculean effort that got him the gold in 2012 if he was going to medal here.
"When I saw the first throw, and then the weather changed just like it did in London, I thought that he was going to have a really good chance to medal, and as it turned out, the medal was gold because nobody was able to respond.”
Boldon, who won his first senior medal for T&T at the age of 21, said that if Walcott goes on to be victorious at the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles, 2028, it would be a milestone that sets him further apart.
“No man has had the amount of time he is going to be trying to have between Olympic golds or Olympic medals. So, from 2012 to 2028 is a wide span, but he has already shown that he is capable.”
Richards’ work is second to none
Focusing his analysis on Richards, T&T’s new national record holder in the men’s 400 metres and World Championship silver medallist, Boldon lauded the athlete’s consistency. He said the Point Fortin native deserves to be recognised among the best T&T has ever produced.
Boldon said emphatically, “I think Jereem Richards has gotten more out of his athletic ability than any other track and field athlete I have ever seen in the history of our country. Because if we’re comparing it to the NFL Draft, Jereem is not what would be called a first-round draft pick. He’s humble, but he is also focused, and one thing is for sure – every single time he lines up, he is going to give you his very best effort.”
Boldon, one of T&T’s most decorated athletes with four Olympic (one silver, three bronze) and four World Championship medals (one gold, one silver, two bronze), explained that Richards’ accomplishments since bursting onto the scene as part of T&T’s bronze-medalling World Indoor Championship 4x400 metres relay team are second to none.
“There have been many guys who have come to meets like these, and they underperform. Jereem just does not have that bone in his body. And I start to look at his body of work, and I go, 'He has a collection of medals that nobody else in our country’s history has.' He has a World Indoor gold (men’s 400 metres, 2022); he has a 200-metre World Championship medal (bronze, 2017); he has a 400m World Championship medal; and, of course, he was part of that brilliant relay (men’s 4x400m gold, 2017) and all of the other stuff that he has done.' If this is his last medal, and I hope it's not, it has been an amazing career for Jereem, and I will stand as I did here in this stadium and salute his efforts because it's not easy, and he ran a race for the ages. His reward is the national record, and he gets his first 400m global medal.”
Who is next?
While Boldon saluted T&T’s medal-winning heroes in Tokyo 2025, he could not help but issue a warning about a glaring and obvious issue facing the local track and field community.
Boldon stressed that Walcott and Richards’ successes should not distract from the urgent need for T&T to develop more globally competitive athletes.
“It is a little disheartening when the old guard is still having to hold the fort. Where is the new blood? And what are we doing so that we are not at the World Championships with a team of four people, which includes absolutely no relays? That should never happen again.”
Among T&T’s four athletes in Tokyo, long jumper Tyra Gittens-Spotsville, 27, was only able to manage a leap of 6.05m in the qualifying round of that event, placing 32nd overall and well outside of the top 12 athletes who advanced to the final.
Leah Bertrand, 23, was just three places short of a semifinal spot in the women’s individual 100m. She clocked 11.29 in the preliminary heats, placing 29th out of 60 first-round athletes. She also did not move past the first round in the 200m, as her time of 23.33 in the heats meant she was 38th in the round and well outside of the 24 athletes who advanced to the semifinals.
“We are celebrating Jereem and Keshorn as we should, but we always have to be looking at the bigger picture. We have the habit of (saying) we won a medal. That’s great, but what about the next time? What are we doing to ensure that our relays never miss another World Championships and never miss another Olympics? We are here relay-less. Why? Because we are falling asleep at the wheel, and the car is just meandering across the road.”
Boldon, who became the first man to ever win the 100m and 200m sprint double at the IAAF World Junior Championships by doing so in 1995 in Seoul, Korea, said it is a matter of urgency that the new generation of T&T athletes step forward soon.
“We continue to slide further back. This was a nice surprise, and I don’t think we should celebrate those two gentlemen any less, but the truth is that them having a good World Championship is one thing, but Keshorn and Jereem are a part of the old guard, and it's a question of who is coming to replace them. We don’t have a World Championships next year, and then we begin another cycle of Worlds and Olympics, getting ready for the 2027 Worlds and the 2028 Olympics,” he explained.
Asked about whether he thought that T&T’s conveyor belt of world-quality athletes had gone completely empty, Boldon continued, “There are some possibilities, but the one thing is that at a certain age, you are supposed to show an inkling that you are ready for the next stage. I don’t know how many of them there are, maybe one or two, but what I am saying is, it is time for our young stars to step up because it is an emergency where TTO track and field is concerned. So it's not a question of giving it two, three, or four years and we’ll get there. Your country needs you now.
“We still have to keep our eyes on the prize, as all the other countries do. Let’s just try to make this thing better by everybody doing what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it.”
