"They tried." This is what Ian Morris, a former national 400 metres runner had to say about the efforts of the T&T contingent at the just concluded Tokyo, Japan Olympic Games.
For the first time in more than 20 years, the T&T team returned home medal-less. At Sunday's closing ceremony athletes were seen waving to the cameras, showing off the medals they won.
Morris, who missed out on a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain when he slowed down and allowed Samson Kitur of Kenya to pip him on the tape for the bronze medal, is no stranger to the Olympics. The race was won by American Quincy Watts in 43.50 seconds.
The resident of Siparia is calling on the public to be understanding toward the efforts of the athletes and the team, saying: "Of course, it's heart-wrenching to me that Trinidad and Tobago will not be bringing back any medals. I feel that, but everybody tried. We can't say anybody did not try. They did what they could have done at the particular time and on that particular day. I don't think anybody would go out there and not try. I mean, we saw some lacklustre performances, but that's what they could have done at that point in time."
The T&T team got quarterfinal appearances from cyclist Nicholas Paul in the match-sprint event, as well as semifinal performances from Paul and his teammate Kwesi Browne in the keirin. Rower Aisha Chow also paddled to the semifinal in the Women's Rowing- Single Sculls, while sprinter Michelle Lee Ahye missed out on a berth in the 100 metres Women's final by one-thousandth of a second.
Meanwhile, the country also saw sprinter Jereem Richards finished eighth in the men's 200 metres medal race, as well as the 4x400 metres relay team which was hampered by an injury to third-leg runner Dwight St Hillaire during the race.
Morris, a former national champion over the one-lap sprint told Guardian Media Sports on Sunday that: "Our performances were not that bad. It could have been much better than that and that's the most I can say. I will not go into depths with that."
While Morris dismissed concerns that Ahye should have been in the final after the women's 100 metres semifinals after being edged out for a place among the final eight after the officials gave Great Britain's Daryll Neita the nod over her because she posted the same time in the semifinals at 11.00 flat but camera replays showed that the Englishwoman was faster by one-thousandths of a second (Neita 992 and Ahye 993).
Morris whose national record of 44.25 seconds stood for 24 years before it was broken at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by countryman Machel Cedenio, who finished fourth in the final in 44.01 seconds, came out in total defence of Dwight St Hillaire, the injured 4x400 metre third-leg runner, whose injury led to T&T's last-place finish for the quartet of Deon Lendore, Jereem Richards, St Hillaire and Machel Cedenio in the final on Saturday.
St Hillaire has been the subject of much criticism on social media, by many questioning if he went into the final with the injury. However, Morris said: " Nobody was expecting anything like that to happen, nobody. It's a young man and this is his first Olympic Games. I am looking at how he ran. Maybe he felt something, but I am giving him kudos for at least carrying the baton to Cedenio."
Guardian Media Sports was reliably informed on Sunday by a person with knowledge of the injury to the athlete from within the T&T camp in Tokyo Japan that St Hillaire, 23, pulled his right hamstring muscle inside the first 100 metres of his run after his spike got mashed off by the runner who was just behind him but decided to finish the race as fast as he could in an effort not to let down his teammates, he ran a 46.8 split on the leg.
St Hillaire's teammate Cedenio, who ran the final leg of the race said on Twitter: "It takes heart to finish a 400m leg of a relay while sustaining an injury during the race. Dwight has heart and determination. An injury is unpredictable. We applaud you Dwight." Richards wrote: "Dwight is a real fighter. He got hurt in the middle of the relay and could’ve stopped but didn’t. That is Heart Red heart, A true fighter."
And sprinter Jonathan Farinha, a member of the T&T 4x100 metres relay team also wrote on his Twitter account: "Footballers does drop down on the field and get substituted, athletes can’t do the same but instead we try to sacrifice our entire career to complete that one race for our team and we still get criticized…smh sport is unpredictable track is unforgiving anything can happen."