The farewell service celebrating the life of the beloved national athlete will take place today (Thursday) at the Santa Rosa Roman Catholic Church at 2 pm with the viewing from 1.30 pm. He will be laid to rest later at the Santa Rosa cemetery.

As there will be a limited number of people allowed at the church due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the service can be joined remotely using the link deonlendore.com via the YouTube website

Lendore’s mother Crispina Edmund, sister Leah Johnson, who will do the eulogy, brother Jovan Lendore, relatives, friends and the track and field community, locally and internationally, will finally get to bid farewell to the beloved national athlete, who died in a vehicular accident on January 10 in Texas, USA at the age of 29.

Lendore, a former athlete with the Abilene Wildcats, Texas A&M University and Queen’s Royal College (QRC), was one of T&T’s star track athletes, who specialised in the 400 metres.

He represented T&T at three Olympic Games, most recently at the virus-delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, last year. Lendore reached the semi-finals of the one-lap event and was part of the T&T team that finished eighth in the 4_400m relay event.

The Arima-native closed the 2021 season with a third-place finish in the 400m event at the 2021 Diamond League event in Zurich, Switzerland.

In his shortened but celebrated career, Lendore was part of the 4x400m quartet which won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and in 2019, helped T&T sprint to gold in the World Relays in Japan. He won bronze medals at the 2019 Pan American Games, Lima, Peru with the 4x400m team and in the 400m at the World Indoor Championships in 2018 (Birmingham, England) and in 2016 (Portland, USA). He also bagged a bronze in 4x400m at the Portland meet.

At the junior level, Lendore, who at the time of his passing was a coach for the past two seasons while training professionally under contract with Puma, also succeeded.

In just one year, 2011, he produced five medals as he was part of the gold-medal-winning 4x400m team at the Carifta Games in Montego Bay, Jamaica; two silver (400m and 4x400m) at Pan American Junior Championships in Miramar, USA and silver in the 4x400m relay at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Championships in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

And these are just some of his achievements. So much achieved in so little time and today he will finally be at peace when laid to rest close to his loved ones.

Expected to attend are his 4x400m teammates, Texas A&M coach Pat Henry, Abilene Wildcats members, residents and government officials.