THE MEN’S 4×400-metre (mile) relay team, as well as national cyclists Nicholas Paul and Kwesi Browne, remain Trinidad and Tobago’s final medal hopes at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

After a topsy-turvy Olympic campaign, TT is yet to attain a podium spot. All hopes now lie within these three remaining events and six athletes who climax their Olympic stint on the final two days of the Games.

If these athletes are unable to produce a medal performance for TT, it would be the first time in 29 years (seven editions) that the nation returns home from an Olympic Games without precious metal.

The last time TT concluded an Olympic campaign without medalling was at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain. At the previous editions in Moscow, Russia (1980), Los Angeles, United States (1984) and Seoul, Korea (1988), TT also did not medal.

At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, US, sprinter Ato Boldon ended TT’s 20-year medal drought by claiming a pair of bronze, in the men’s 100m and 200m events.

TT’s men’s 4x400m team will be looking to bag a precious Olympic medal on the penultimate day of competition on Saturday from 8.50 am (TT time).

The quarter-milers conclude their Olympic showing running out of lane eight alongside Botswana and Belgium. They enter the medal race with the fourth fastest qualification time.

On Friday, TT’s quartet of Deon Lendore, Jereem Richards, Machel Cedenio and Dwight St Hillaire booked a spot in the final after placing third in heat one of two. They clocked a season’s best of two minutes 58.33 and finished behind winners USA (2:57.77) and second placed Botswana (2:58.33).

Poland (2:58.55), Jamaica (2:59.29) and Belgium (2:59.37) were heat two’s automatic qualifiers. Italy (2:58.91) and Netherlands (2:59.06) completed the list of eight finalists as they clocked the next two fastest times, both in national records.

Browne returns to the Izu Velodrome for the first round of keirin competition on Saturday from 2.48 am (TT time). He races out of heat one of five and faces a challenging field for a quarter-final spot.

Eight-time Olympic medallist Jason Kenny (Great Britain) and three-time medallist Maximilian Levy (Germany) lead the group of six cyclists in heat one.

Also among them are multiple World Championships medallist Sam Webster (New Zealand), European Championships and Nations Cup Team Sprint winner Ivan Gladyshev (Russian Olympic Committee), and European Games Team Sprint silver medallist Rayan Helal (France).

Browne also took part in the men’s sprint qualifying round on Wednesday where he clocked a personal best of 9.966 seconds. Although he was unable to advance, the keirin is Browne’s pet event and just one of two of last TT’s chances of an Olympic medal this year.

Similarly, Paul, who placed sixth in the men’s sprint on Thursday, vies for a spot in the next round riding out of heat three from 2.58 am (TT time).

He will be hoping to make amends after a lane violation in the sprint quarter-finals against Russian Denis Dmitriev forced a third ride, which he lost, and missed out on a semi-final spot.

Paul however, has a less decorated cast of riders in his keirin heat with Malaysian Mohd Azizsulhansi Awang, the lone Olympic medallist (2016 keirin bronze) among his five opponents. Awang, however, was beaten by Paul in the sprint 1/16 finals two days prior.

Also vying for a quarter-final place in this heat are Stefan Boetticher (Germany), Patryk Rajkowski (Poland), Sebastien Vigier (France) and Jean Spies (South Africa).

The top two riders of each heat automatically advances to the quarter-final ride. The remaining athletes move on to the repechage round where they have one final chance of securing a spot in the quarter-final.

The repechage rounds pedal off at 3.19 am on Saturday (TT time) and the first quarter-final race gets under way from 9.29 pm (TT time).

The Summer Games kicked off on July 23 and concludes on Sunday. The Tokyo Games were initially scheduled to begin on the same dates last year but owing to the pandemic, it was pushed back one year.

TT’s Olympic delegation comprised of 33 athletes and is the biggest local squad to represent at the Games. TT participated in seven disciplines; athletics, boxing, cycling, judo, sailing, swimming and rowing.