T&T's quest for medals at the World Ath­let­ics Out­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships, at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Tokyo, Japan, got off to a rocky start as long jumper Tyra Git­tens-Spotsville and Leah Bertrand were elim­i­nat­ed in the first round of their re­spec­tive events.

Git­tens-Spotsville was the first lo­cal ath­lete in ac­tion on Sat­ur­day (Sep­tem­ber 13) morn­ing in the qual­i­fy­ing round of the women's long jump. In search of the au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fy­ing dis­tance of 6.75 me­tres to ad­vance to the fi­nals, the na­tion­al in­door and out­door long record-hold­er pro­duced a best of 6.05m to fin­ish 15th in Group A and 32nd over­all.

Paris Olympic cham­pi­on Tara Davis-Wood­hall of the USA was the top qual­i­fi­er with 6.88m to fin­ish first in Group A ahead of France's Hi­lary Kpatcha (6.85). Agate De Sousa of Por­tu­gal (6.81) was third-best on the day with Bu­run­di com­peti­tor Marte Koala (6.76), who had the best mark in Group B, as the top four were the on­ly ath­letes to go over the au­to­mat­ic dis­tance to qual­i­fy for the fi­nal set for to­day (Sep­tem­ber 14).

Git­tens-Spotsville reg­is­tered a foul jump on her first at­tempt but got out to 6.05m to lie in 14th. In her third and fi­nal at­tempt, the 2025 North Amer­i­can, Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (NACAC) Se­nior Cham­pi­onships bronze medal­list need­ed a her­culean ef­fort to en­sure a place in the fi­nal but could on­ly muster 5.93 and fell one place to 15th. With on­ly four ath­letes sur­pass­ing the stan­dard, the next best eight were added to com­plete the field of 12 for the medal round.

She en­tered the com­pe­ti­tion with a sea­son best leap of 6.73m and holds the na­tion­al out­door record with a dis­tance of 6.96m. The 27-year-old was hop­ing to im­prove on her 14th-place plac­ing in the qual­i­fy­ing round at her maid­en World Out­door Cham­pi­onships in 2022 in Eu­gene, Ore­gon, USA. The 2007 Pan Amer­i­can Un­der-20 bronze medal­list was 10th at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.

Less than an hour lat­er, Bertrand was next on the track for the women's 100m heats, where she fin­ished in fourth in heat six in 11.29 sec­onds. Beat­ing her to the line were Za­ynab Dos­so of Italy (11.10), Great Britain's Amy Hunt (11.13) and Amer­i­can Kay­la White (11.16).

Bertrand then had to wait to see if her time was among the top three qual­i­fiers. How­ev­er, Ba­hama­ian An­thaya Charl­ton was third-best, ad­vanc­ing with a time of 11.18, with the three-time T&T na­tion­al 100m cham­pi­on sixth on the list.

Bertrand was not hap­py with not qual­i­fy­ing for the semi­fi­nals.

She told Guardian Me­dia Sports via text on In­sta­gram: "I am dis­ap­point­ed with (my run) in the 100m (heats) be­cause I know I am ca­pa­ble of much more but that is the na­ture of sports. You have to take the highs with the lows."

The 23-year-old is look­ing to re­bound in the 200m, say­ing: "I am choos­ing to use it (the ear­ly ex­it in the 100m) as mo­ti­va­tion as I have an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty to per­form in the 200m. That is where my mind is right now."

Paris Olympic gold medal­list Julien Al­fred of St Lu­cia was the fastest in win­ning heat four with 10.93 ahead of the heat five win­ner Great Britain's Daryll Nei­ta (10.94), world leader USA's Melis­sa Jef­fer­son-Wood­en (10.99), Ja­maican cham­pi­on Tina Clay­ton (11.01) and the de­fend­ing world cham­pi­on Sha-Car­ri Richard­son of the USA (11.03). Bertrand bowed out in the heats for a sec­ond straight World event. The Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent will now fo­cus her at­ten­tion on the 200m heats, which get un­der­way on Wednes­day (Sep­tem­ber 17).

Jereem Richards will be look­ing to bring some cheer to the four-mem­ber T&T squad in Tokyo when he com­petes in the men's 400m heats to­day. Richards will start in lane sev­en in the first of six races and will be aim­ing to fin­ish in the top three to qual­i­fy for Tues­day's semi­fi­nal round. The 2022 World In­door 400m gold medal­list is the quick­est of the eight ath­letes in the race with his 43.78 na­tion­al record set in 2024. His 2025 top time of 44.14 match­es the per­son­al best time by Great Britain's Charles Dob­son.

Keshorn Wal­cott will make his medal bid in the men's javelin with the qual­i­fy­ing round al­so sched­uled for Wednes­day (Sep­tem­ber 17), and the fi­nal, one day lat­er. Wal­cott, who won the 2012 Olympic gold in Lon­don, Eng­land, al­so won Olympic bronze four years lat­er in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is aim­ing for his first World Se­nior Out­door ti­tle.