Despite the track and field contingent of Team Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) not delivering on their 2020 Olympic expectations thus far, Dexter Voisin believes all is not lost and that the individual performances must be taken in context.

Team TTO had Michelle Lee Ahye exit at the semi-final stage of the women’s 100 metres, while quarter-milers Deon Lendore, Dwight St Hillaire and Machel Cedenio also bowed out in the semi-finals of the men’s 400 metres event. However, shot putter Portious Warren, long jumper Tyra Gittens and sprinter Jereem Richards all booked spots in their respective finals, but failed to medal.

Speaking with the Express yesterday, the general secretary of the National Association of Athletics Administrations of Trinidad and Tobago (NAATT) said it was very commendable for Warren and Gittens to make the finals of their disciplines on their Olympic debut.

“If you look at how Portious qualified for the Olympics, she was the last person out of the 32 competitors to make the cut and that is because someone among the top 32 qualifiers didn’t pick up the spot to go to the Olympics, so she got a late call.”

Voisin said it is a commendable performance for any athlete to make a final on their Olympic debut especially when they’re coming in as the last ranked athlete in their field.

“I know she was very happy. I know that some people take those opportunities to make the best out of it. I think she would have done the best, she did her personal best so you can’t fault her for that but going into the final, as we would have witnessed with all the finals so far, it takes an extra type of grit and preparation to really overcome that to end up on the podium.

“But from a track and field perspective we certainly are very proud of Portious Warren’s accomplishment and we could not ask for anything better in the circumstances.”

Shifting his attention to Gittens, Voisin said he suspects the rest of the world, not just Trinidad and Tobago, is disappointed that she did not qualify for the heptathlon, which is her main event.

“If we look at the ranking, she’s number seven in the world, however the points she would have accumulated from the NCAA, it didn’t amount to the points that other athletes would have accumulated in the other competitions. Some athletes would have qualified from way back in 2019 and haven’t done anything close to what Tyra would have done in 2021, so I think that in itself is a disappointment.

Gittens amassed 6,418 points in winning the heptathlon at the South Eastern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships (SEC) in Texas in May, falling two points short of the Olympic qualification of 6,420. She also produce a personal best 6.96m effort in the long jump, which eclipsed the Olympic standard of 6.82m.

Voisin said he hopes the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) would have looked into it and even put up a case so something like that should not happen in the future.

He said having qualified for the individual long jump, Gittens progressed to the final, something they always encourage athletes to try and achieve.

“If your best brings you into the final that is an accomplishment, but going back to her 2021 performance in the long jump, she would have done 6.96 metres, which if we go by that, could have brought her a bronze medal.

“I saw a report where she said she’s disappointed in her performance and that she felt she could have done much better, but from where we sit, going in there in an individual event and making it to the final, that itself is an accomplishment and we have to congratulate her on that performance,” Voisin noted.

He said with the pedigree of being a 2017 World bronze medallist and the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist over 200 metres, Jereem Richards probably did not live up to his own expectations.But he added: “We saw in the build-up to the 200 metres, even at the US Trials and the different rounds, the other athletes were comfortably going under 20 seconds, so it would have taken an extra-ordinary performance from Jereem to climb the rostrum.

With regards to two-time medallist Walcott, who failed to make it out of the qualifying round of the men’s javelin Voisin said: “Coming into the Olympics he had some very good performances on the Diamond League circuit, throwing over 80 metres several times. Thus, you would expect coming into the Olympics, a qualifying standard of 83.50m would have been reachable for someone like Keshorn, based on his performance for the 2021 season.”