T&T's Dwight St Hillaire and Cherisse Murray emerged with gold medals in their respective events at the Florida Relays at the Percy Beard Track at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida in the United States on Saturday.
St Hillaire of the University of Kentucky (UK)earned a win for the second-straight week by covering the 400 metres in 44.74 seconds, currently the second-best time in the nation for the early part of the outdoor season.
The UK junior finished ahead of Virginia Tech junior Jacory Patterson (44.81) and Florida freshman Ryan Willie (45.12) in the fastest of the three sections in the timed finals.
UK head coach Lonnie Greene praised the T&T athlete on the school's website saying: "Dwight was a highlight. As I said last week at South Carolina, when Dwight starts to believe in Dwight, he will do great things. He ran 44.74 on the third day of April. When he felt the challenge (in the 400), he didn't back off. He trusted his training and executed very well."
T&T had another athlete compete in the one-lap event, Joshua St Clair and the University of Alabama (UAB) junior's time of 47.35 placed him 14th overall after placing fourth in section two.
Both St Hillaire and St Clair then met in the 4x400m relay final. Again, it was St Hillaire getting success with his UK teammates, copping a silver medal. St Hillaire ran the second leg in the 4x400m final and his team crossed second in 3:04.98 behind the University of Southern California (USC) with 3:04.05. Third was the Florida squad with 3:06.29.
St Clair also ran the second leg for his UAB team and they placed eighth (3:10.57).
St Hillaire also featured in the 4x100m final. He made the second handover in his unit's second-place finish in a time of 39.59.
Last week, he was part of three victories at the Weems Baskin meet, breaking the school record in the 200m dash and being part of the winning 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Prior to that, he concluded the indoor season with silver medals at both the NCAA and Southeastern Conference championships in the 4x400 relay.
Murray dominated the women's shot put, topping the event with a 16.41 throw. This was on her third try. She also had marks of 15.10m in the first throw, then 15.35m. She fouled the fourth attempt but returned with a 16.04-throw and finished up with her second-best attempt of the day, 16.16m.
Mississippi State sophomore Tyriq Horsford bagged a bronze in the men's javlin with his best toss measuring 72.43m. It was his fourth throw while his other marks were respectively, 68.58m 66.55m, 69.68m and 63.41m. He fouled his third attempt.
Another T&T athlete competed at the Relays, USC freshman Rae-Anne Serville and she placed 12th in the women's 400m dash with a 53.67-clocking.