BERLIN, Germany, CMC – Trinidadian sprinter Richard Thompson says he is elated to have rebounded with a medal at the World Championships, after being sidelined with injuries sustained in a car crash last December.
The 24-year old anchored the Trinidad & Tobago men’s sprint relay team to silver on Saturday, finishing in a new national record of 37.62 seconds behind winners Jamaica.
Thompson said he had been forced to overcome several challenges just to turn out for T&T at the track & field showpiece.
“The truth is I was out for the entire January and some of February as well and I was unable to really do the strength work and [build the] foundation that I needed to set,” Thompson said
“Up until June, I had some back pains and net pains and so on and it’s only after that I started feeling good again so I wasn’t able to do the strength work I wanted to do in the weight work. Hopefully, next year it will be a bit difference once I’m able to do that.”
Thompson, along with Darrel Brown, Emmanuel Callender and Marc Burns, produced a clinical performance to clock the third fastest time ever in a sprint relay.
The performance mirrored their outing at last year’s Beijing Olympics where they also copped silver in establishing a then national record of 38.06 seconds.
Thompson was one of the stars in Beijing, racing to silver in the 100 metres behind Jamaican Usain Bolt.
He missed out on a podium finish here, however, finishing fourth in a season’s best 9.93 seconds as Bolt again sprinted to a world record win in 9.58 seconds.
