Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | [1] San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago [1] | 8 March 1988 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 88 kg (194 lb) [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Track and field | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Sprinting | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal best(s) | 100m: 9.86 (Trinidad 2012) 200m: 20.73 (Lappeenranta 2008) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Keston Bledman, HBM (born 8 March 1988) is a track and field sprint athlete, who competes internationally for Trinidad and Tobago. [2]
On 7 July 2007, at the 2007 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in São Paulo, Brazil, he upset the Jamaican Yohan Blake in the 100 meters, finishing in 10.32 seconds (−1.1 m/s wind).
Bledman represented Trinidad and Tobago at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He competed at the 4 × 100 m relay together with Marc Burns, Aaron Armstrong and Richard Thompson. He was the lead off man. [3] In their qualification heat they placed first in front of Japan, the Netherlands and Brazil. Their time of 38.26 was the fastest of all sixteen teams participating in the first round and they qualified for the final. Armstrong was replaced by Emmanuel Callender for the final race and they sprinted to a time of 38.06 seconds, the second time after the Jamaican team, winning the silver medal. [2] In 2022, Bledman and his teammates received the gold medal due to Jamaica's Nesta Carter testing positive for the prohibited substance methylhexaneamine. [4]
He ran in the first round, but not the final of the men's 4 × 100 m at the 2009 World Championships where Trinidad and Tobago won silver. [3]
On 4 June 2011, Bledman ran 9.93 over 100 m in Clermont, Florida, to become the 78th athlete to cross the 10-second barrier. [5] He won his first national title in June 2012 by beating Richard Thompson over 100 m and ran a personal best time of 9.86 seconds, [6] which is currently tied for the 27th fastest ever. At the 2011 World Championships, he qualified for the 100 m final as one of the fastest losers in the semi-final. [3]
He was also a member of the relay team that won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. [7] He was part of the Trinidad and Tobago team 4 × 100 m team that won the bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. [8] He ran in the 100 m and the 4 × 100 m at the 2016 Summer Olympics. [9]
His mother lived in the US, and Bledman attributes his athletic success to wanting to do well enough to qualify for the national team and earn a visa. [3] He was recruited by Gunness Persad, who became his coach, at Pleasantville Senior Comprehensive sportsday. [3] His first international competition was the 2005 World Youth Championships, where he won an individual bronze. [3] His athletics idol is Hasely Crawford who won the 100 m at the 1976 Olympics for Trinidad and Tobago. [3]
Distance | Time | venue |
---|---|---|
100 m | 9.86 s (+1.4 m/s) | Port-of-Spain, Trinidad (23 June 2012) |
200 m | 20.73 s | Lappeenranta, Finland (3 August 2008) |
1 Disqualified in the final.
As of 9 September 2024, Bledman holds the following track records for 100 metres.
Location | Time | Windspeed m/s | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Arima | 10.08 | 0.0 | 10/05/2014 |
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico | 10.05 | – 0.5 | 15/07/2011 |
Orlando | 9.89 | + 0.9 | 26/05/2012 |
Sotteville-lès-Rouen | 10.02 | + 0.6 | 06/07/2015 |
Toronto | 9.95 | + 2.8 | 21/07/2015 |
Ato Jabari Boldon is a Trinidadian former track and field athlete, politician, and four-time Olympic medal winner. He holds the Trinidad and Tobago national record in the 50, 60 and 200 metres events with times of 5.64, 6.49 and 19.77 seconds respectively, and also the Commonwealth Games record in the 100 m. He also held the 100m national record at 9.86s, having run it four times until Richard Thompson ran 9.85s on 13 August 2011.
Veronica Campbell Brown CD, OLY is a retired Jamaican track and field sprinter, who specialized in the 100 and 200 meters. An eight-time Olympic medalist, she is the second of three women in history to win two consecutive Olympic 200 m events, after Bärbel Wöckel of Germany at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics and before fellow countrywoman Elaine Thompson-Herah at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. Campbell-Brown is one of only eleven athletes to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.
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