TRINIDAD AND Tobago advanced to the men’s 4×400-metre relay final after finishing third in the opening round of qualification on Friday.

Running out of lane three of heat one at the Olympic Stadium, the TT quartet of Deon Lendore, Jereem “The Dream” Richards, Machel Cedenio and Dwight St Hillaire clocked a season’s-best time of two minutes 58.33 seconds.

Topping the field were USA’s Trevor Stewart, Randolph Ross, Bryce Deadmon and Vernon Norwood, who also clocked a season’s best time of 2:57.77.

Botswana’s Isaac Makwala, Baboloki Thebe, Zibane Ngozi and Bayapo Ndori placed second in an African record of 2:58.33.

The 28-year-old Lendore ran the opening leg for TT and set a good pace for the first baton handover to Richards. Richards maintained third position, with USA and Botswana in front.

Over the final two laps, the three nations held their positions as Netherlands tried valiantly to get within the three automatic qualifying spots.

Cedenio and St Hillaire kept pace in their respective laps and were able to book TT a cherished spot in Saturday’s final, which runs off at 8.50 am (TT time).

Additionally, Poland (2:58.55), Jamaica (2:59.29) and Belgium (2:59.37) were heat two’s automatic qualifiers.

Rounding off the final two spots for Saturday’s medal race were the next two fastest finishers – Italy (2:58.91) and Netherlands (2:59.06) – who both set national records competing out of heat one.