Trinidad and Tobago will be on show in today’s World Athletics Championship Men’s 4×400 metres final, here in Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Dwight St Hillaire, Jereem “The Dream” Richards, Asa Guevara and Kashief King combined for a three minutes, 02.75 seconds run, late yesterday, the clocking earning the T&T quartet fourth spot in the opening qualifying heat. T&T booked their spot on time. The championship race is scheduled for 10.35 p.m. (TT time).

United States emerged victorious in heat one in 2:58.96, while top spot in heat two went to Belgium in 3:01.96.

Meanwhile, Tyra Gittens was very disappointed with her performance in the Women’s long jump qualifying event, yesterday. The T&T athlete disturbed the sand at 6.44 metres to finish tenth in Group “B” and 19th overall. The top 12 jumpers progressed to the final.

“Absolutely gutted,” Gittens told the Sunday Express. “But that’s part of the game. That’s part of the event.”

Gittens opened the competition with a 6.22 metres leap, well short of her 6.69 season’s best, the 6.75 automatic qualifying mark, and her 6.96 national record. The 24-year-old was 13th at the end of round one, and in need of a big jump to challenge for a berth in the final.

Gittens improved to 6.44m in the second round, temporarily moving into the 12th qualifying spot. By the end of the round, however, she was 14th. Any hopes of getting back into the top 12 were dashed when Gittens fouled on her third and final attempt.

“Just this trip, I made a lot of changes to my mindset going in to training and my mindset overall. And I was very excited to come in. My approach was a lot better than it has been all season. It wasn’t so chaotic, but it just was not it today. I hate saying that because I’m not happy with my season either. And it’s like ‘it wasn’t it this time, next time…’

“I would never doubt myself,” she continued, “because I believe in myself so much and I have an amazing support system. So it’s frustrating whenever I wear our colours and our flag and I don’t step up to the plate. I don’t put pressure on myself. I just have very high standards. I know what I can do, and my country knows what I can do. It sucks when I don’t get there, or even close.”

Six of the 12 qualifiers for today’s 8.50pm (TT time) final, landed past the 6.75m automatic qualifying mark. American Quanesha Burks led the way with a 6.86m leap. Germany’s reigning Olympic and world champion Malaika Mihambo was next best at 6.84, followed by Nigeria’s Ese Brume (6.82), Ukraine’s Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (6.81), Sweden’s Khaddi Sagnia (6.78) and Australian Brooke Bu schkuehl (6.76). Gittens, who finished tenth at the Tokyo Olympics last year, said the automatic qualifying distance here in Eugene was well within her reach.

“Oh my gosh, yeah, which is what has been frustrating. From my short approaches I’m jumping further than 6.75. So it was a lot of just not clicking. That’s really all it was. I know what I can do based off of practice, and this is very realistic. It’s not me lying to myself. I don’t like to do that because then it will show on the runway.”