AS GOOD AS GOLD »

AS GOOD AS GOLD

The silver that will be draped around the necks of Keston Bledman, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender and Richard Thompson at the men's 4x100 metres medal ceremony is worth even more to the Trinidad and Tobago sprinters than the colour suggests.

"Gold, it feels like gold," an exultant Burns declared, following the country's second-place finish in the sprint relay final, at the Bird's Nest stadium,in Beijing, China, yesterday.

The T&T quartet stopped the clock at 38.06 seconds to secure the country's first ever Olympic Games 4x100m medal. T&T's only other relay medal was earned in 1964, in Tokyo, Japan, in the men's 4x400m, Edwin Skinner, Kent Bernard, Edwin Roberts and Wendell Mottley combining for bronze in the mile relay final.

Usain Bolt captured his third gold in Beijing. Already the 100m and 200m champion, with world record runs in each final, the phenomenal Jamaican teamed up with Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and anchorman Asafa Powell for the sprint relay title. And for good measure, the Jamaicans grabbed the gold with a jaw-dropping 37.10 seconds world record clocking, chopping three-tenths of a second off the old standard. Bronze went to Japan, in 38.15.

Bledman gave T&T a fair start, handing the baton to Burns, who produced a strong run on the backstraight. Though up against Lightning Bolt on the third leg, Callender held his own. The final handover, however, caused great anxiety, Thompson reaching for the baton more than once.

With Jamaica enjoying an incident-free journey round the track, the real race was for silver. The scrappy exchange, between Callender and Thompson, allowed both Brazil and Japan to gain an edge on T&T. But once he got a proper grip on the stick, Torpedo Thompson gave a timely reminder of the speed that earned him silver in last Saturday's 100m final.

Thompson's superb run completed a rewarding Olympic Games for Team T&T, the two silver medals making Beijing 2008 the country's second most successful Olympic campaign. The only haul of greater quality came at the 1976 Games in Montreal, Canada. Though he was the country's lone top-three finisher in Montreal, Hasely Crawford's medal earned in the blue riband men's 100m dash--was gold, an unprecedented and as yet unmatched feat for a T&T athlete.

But for Callender, who came into the team as a replacement for the injured Aaron Armstrong, sprint relay silver glittered just as much as the most precious of the metals on offer here in Beijing.

"Trust me," Callender said, "it feeling like gold. This is my first big meet and this is my second year running track and field, so I'm really proud of myself and the rest of guys. Right now it feels like gold."  

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