Janeil Bellille, Kai Selvon Sparkle McKnight and Domonique Williams combined for a national record in the women's 4x400 metres event, at the Blue Marlin Track & Field Classic in Nassau, Bahamas, late on Sunday. The Trinidad and Tobago quartet produced a three minutes, 30.37 seconds run to claim silver, finishing just behind Bahamas, the winners in 3:30.34.
The moment was a bitter-sweet one, however, for Bellille, Selvon, McKnight and Williams, the clocking unable to secure T&T an Olympic berth as one of the top 16 teams. The aggregate time of T&T's two best performances in 2015 and 2016, 7:01.58, placed the country 17th, just outside the qualification net.
The old T&T record of 3:30.64 was set at the 2013 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Track and Field Championships in Morelia, Mexico by Shawna Fermin, McKnight, Romona Modeste and Alena Brooks in their gold medal run.
Meanwhile, Emanuel Mayers topped the men's 400m hurdles in a season's best 50.05 seconds. Another T&T athlete, Ruebin Walters was second in 53.43. Mayers joined Deon Lendore and Emmanuel Callender in winners' row (See yesterday's Express).
Ayanna Alexander picked up silver for T&T in the women's triple jump with a 13.59 metres effort. Bahamian Tamara Myers struck gold with a wind-assisted 13.62m jump.
In the men's 4x100m final, the T&T combination of Marcus Duncan, Rondel Sorrillo, Callender and Shermund Allsop finished second in 39.41 seconds. Bahamas won in 39.26. The same T&T quartet had clocked 39.70 in the qualifying round.
T&T's Semoy Hackett, Michelle-Lee Ahye, Reyare Thomas and Selvon topped the women's 4x100m preliminary round in 43.16 seconds. The final, however, was not contested.
And T&T's Nicholas Landeau finished fourth in the men's 800m in one minute, 50.62 seconds. Allsop was sixth overall in the men's 200m in 21.05 seconds.