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Two-time Olympic medal­list Keshorn Wal­cott, dou­ble World In­door cham­pi­on Jereem Richards and Com­mon­wealth Games women’s 200 me­tres cham­pi­on Michelle-Lee Ahye will lead the T&T team at the World Ath­let­ics Cham­pi­onships in Bu­dapest, Hun­gary from Au­gust 19-27.

They are among a 25-mem­ber team which fea­tures 16 ath­letes—11 men and five women—named by the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics Ad­min­is­tra­tion of T&T (NAAATT) yes­ter­day.

Wal­cott, who won gold at the 2012 Lon­don Olympic Games, re­cent­ly re­peat­ed as na­tion­al men’s javelin cham­pi­on at the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC/NAAATT) Na­tion­al Open Cham­pi­onships at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain, last month.

Wal­cott (Un­at­tached) tossed the spear 80.41 me­tres to win gold and will rep­re­sent T&T at the event.

Richards, the reign­ing two-time Com­mon­wealth Games 200m and World In­door 400m cham­pi­on, will face the starter in the 400m. At the re­cent Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships, Richards ran in the men’s 200m pre­lim­i­nar­ies and ad­vanced to the medal race but opt­ed out fi­nal the fol­low­ing day.

The Abi­lene Wild­cats sprint­er had achieved the stan­dards for both events - 200m (20.16 sec­onds) and 400m (45.00) with times of 20.08 and 44.54, re­spec­tive­ly. His 20.08 clock­ing was achieved when he fin­ished sec­ond at the LA Grand Prix in Los An­ge­les, USA on May 27 while his 44.54 time was set as he raced to gold at the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) Games in El Sal­vador on Ju­ly 6. The mark is a new per­son­al best for him, im­prov­ing on the 44.68-sec­ond run in Flori­da on April 15.

Richards is al­so on the men’s 4x400m re­lay with Asa Gue­vara (Abi­lene Wild­cats), Sha­keem Mc Kay (Abi­lene Wild­cats), Ren­ny Quow (Zenith Ath­let­ic Club) and Joshua St Clair (Abi­lene Wild­cats).

Ahye re­claimed her sprint ti­tle at the Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships. The (Un­at­tached) sprint­er sped to vic­to­ry in the women’s 100m with 11.31 ahead of sil­ver medal­list Re­yare Thomas of Abi­lene Wild­cats (11.43) and bronze medal­list Ak­i­lah Lewis of Con­corde (11.52), who are al­so named on the na­tion­al team for Bu­dapest 23.

Ahye along with Leah Bertrand will com­pete in the women’s 100m dash. The duo along with Thomas, Lewis and Tae­jha Badal (Mem­phis Pi­o­neers) make up the women’s 4x100m re­lay team.

Al­so in­clud­ed on the team is reign­ing 100m na­tion­al cham­pi­on Devin Au­gus­tine of Point Fortin New Jets (PFNJ), who is part of the sprint re­lay team. The oth­er mem­bers of the 4x100m team are the top three fin­ish­ers in the 100m fi­nal, sil­ver medal­list Jerod El­cock (Abi­lene Wild­cats), Rev­ell Web­ster (Con­corde), the bronze medal­list and fourth-placed Omari Lewis (Con­corde) as well as Ju­dah Tay­lor (Abi­lene Wild­cats).

Team

Men

Javelin: Keshorn Wal­cott (Un­at­tached)

400m: Jereem Richards (Abi­lene Wild­cats)

4x100m re­lay: Devin Au­gus­tine (PFNJ), Jerod El­cock (Abi­lene Wild­cats), Rev­ell Web­ster Con­corde, Omari Lewis (Con­corde), Ju­dah Tay­lor (Abi­lene Wild­cats)

Men 4x400m re­lay: Jereem Richards, Asa Gue­vara (Abi­lene Wild­cats), Sha­keem Mc Kay (Abi­lene Wild­cats), Ren­ny Quow (Zenith Ath­let­ic Club), Joshua St Clair (Abi­lene Wild­cats)

Women

100m: Leah Bertrand (Sim­plex), Michelle-Lee Ahye (Un­at­tached)

4x100m re­lay: Leah Bertrand, Michelle-Lee Ahye, Re­yare Thomas (Abi­lene Wild­cats), Ak­i­lah Lewis (Con­corde), Tae­jha Badal (Mem­phis Pi­o­neers)

OF­FI­CIALS

Dex­ter Voisin (man­ag­er), Ke­ston Bled­man (coach), An­to­nia Bur­ton (coach), Charles Joseph (coach), Mas­tra­pa Lopez (coach), Anyl Gopeesingh (Doc­tor), Dr Al­ban Merepeza (phys­io­ther­a­pist), Nicole Fuentes-Charles (sports ther­a­pist), An­tho­ny Wal­cott (sports ther­a­pist).