An unbelievable error by officials of the just-concluded World Athletic Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA on Sunday night during the final of the 4×400 metres men’s relays may have cost a relatively young and inexperienced T&T team, led by Jereem ‘The Dream’ Richards, from a possible better placing.

The T&T team of Richards, Asa Guevara, Dwight St Hillaire and Shakeem Mc Kay, who came in as a replacement for Kashief King for the final, produced a season’s best time of 3:00.03 for their fifth-place finish.

It was the second time in two days that the T&T team produced a season’s best time in the meet, the first being in the qualifying heat one, where a time of 3:02.75 proved to be sufficient to earn them a final berth.

However, Sunday’s final did not go according to the rules, thereby putting the team at a disadvantage, Richards said. Richards received the baton from St Hillaire and quickly accelerated into the second position on his second leg, but his search for Mc Kay in the expected second lane came up empty-handed.

“I didn’t realise this until I saw the race over and I saw the footage. Usually, according to the rules, when you run the second leg and every leg, in particular, the position your runner is in after 200 metres or at the 200-metre mark, is where they put the other leg to receive the baton.

So if you hit the 200-metre mark in the first place, then your teammate is going to be in the first place to receive and likewise for second, third and fourth right down the line. When I looked over the footage, I hit the 200 metres in second place but I had to hand over the baton in fourth place because Shakeem was all the way in fourth,” Richards explained.

He continued, “When I saw the footage and I spoke to Shakeem about it, he said that the officials put him there. Usually, the rule is wherever the official put you, you’re not supposed to move, so he did the right thing, but it really was baffling for me when I came off the turn, where I knew I was in second place, and I had to run all the way out to the fourth place. I think that was a key moment where we were put at a disadvantage and at that point, when I saw the footage it was too late to do anything, plus it was a final, so it was like, what were they going to do in any way.”

The T&T team left the World Championships without a medal. Richards failed to turn a semifinal placing in the 200-metre final last week into a medal of any kind.

Apart from Richards and the 4×400 metres relay team, there were good performances from long jumper Tyra Gittens, javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott and Portious Warren in the shot put. Richards said he was extremely proud of his young runners in the 4×400 metre relay, as well as other members of the T&T contingent, all of whom did their best at the championships.

“It was a great performance by the team, I’m very proud of the younger guys, they did a very good job in the heats and we were able to make it to the final, which was one of the biggest goals for us. Shakeem did an excellent job in the final, finishing fifth.

Asa stepped up, Dwight stepped up and I’m really proud of these guys because this is the first time we bonded together as a team and showed that we have a lot of fight.”

“This was one of our smallest teams, we definitely took a hard blow in sports, especially with COVID. We lost a lot of athletes, a lot of athletes had to struggle because they didn’t have anywhere to train, no competitions, so I think everyone did the best they could have, but in order to keep track and field alive, we need to find ways to continue to support track and field, to have meets back home because the teams will continue to get smaller.

I am not going to be here forever, Machel Cedenio is not going to be here forever, Asa is not going to be here forever. So we need to motivate the younger ones and encourage them to come out, so we can pass the baton on to them,” Richards explained.