Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 20/Sep 07:18

Jehue Gordon: Keshorn stands alone as the greatest

KESHORN WALCOTT’S triumph in this year’s World Athletics Championships men’s javelin event, added to his historic Olympic gold in 2012, has prompted one former Trinidad and Tobago world champion to weigh his legacy against the standards of GOAT (greatest of all time) status. Jehue Gordon, men’s 400-metre hurdles winner at the 2013 World Champs, believes Walcott’s heroic capture of the world javelin title on September 18 in Japan puts him a clear cut above the rest of this nation’s most accomplished track and field athletes, in history. Walcott’s season best throw of 88.16m in the final saw him best a star-studded field of the globe’s most prolific throwers to claim the coveted crown. The Toco-born talent is the only TT track and field athlete to achieve a gold medal at the Olympic and world level – a feat Gordon describes as unprecedented. Walcott also earned back-to-back Olympic podium spots when he threw to bronze at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. And despite former sprinter turned commentator/analyst Ato Boldon still the nation’s leading Olympic medallist, with four – one silver (100m) and three bronze (100m, two 200m) – and four World Champs medals – one gold (200m), one silver (4x100m relay) and two bronze (200m) – Gordon believes Walcott’s most recent accolade, eclipses them all. In his capacity as a National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAATT) director, Gordon travelled with the four-member TT team to Japan for the World Champs. Speaking to Newsday after Walcott’s meteoric achievement, the former hurdler said the javelin ace is now in a class of his own, and beyond the multiple accolades of those who went before him, on all levels. “To be honest, I think Keshorn would epitomise himself now as the greatest. He has two Olympic medals, gold and bronze, and now he’s a world champion. I believe Keshorn has probably cemented himself as probably the greatest track and field athlete in TT’s history,” Gordon said from his Japan base. [caption id="attachment_1119777" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Jehue Gordon. - File photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption] For Gordon, it’s the fact that 13 years after Walcott’s golden Olympic showing, that he still had the strength, determination and skill, to still reaffirm that he continues to be a top-tier athlete on the international stage. The World Champs are considered the second highest-ranked track and field competition in the world, just below the Olympic Games. “Ato Boldon has many medals but the span of years that Keshorn has taken to achieve this, it speaks a lot,” Gordon added. Boldon’s first medal at a major meet on the international senior level was 100m bronze at the World Champs in 1995. His medal-filled senior career spanned to 2004, and also included the four Olympic medals, four at Worlds, 4x100m relay silver at the 2003 Pan Am Games, 100m gold at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and 100m and 200m gold at the 1998 Goodwill Games. As a junior, Boldon also won double-gold (100m, 200m) at the 1992 World Junior Champs and another double-victory at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games (Under-20) in 1992. Walcott, however, has Olympic gold and bronze, Worlds gold, North American Central American and Caribbean silver in 2022, Pan Am silver in 2019, CAC gold in 2018, Pan Am gold in 2015 and Commonwealth silver in 2014, as a senior athlete. In his junior days, Walcott also impressed just ahead of the 2012 Summer Games. He won TT’s first ever javelin gold at the World Junior Champs, CAC gold and Carifta Under-20 gold, all in 2012, before spearing to gold at the Olympics mid-year. In 2011, he was crowned Carifta Under-20 champion, Carifta Under-20 and CAC junior champion in 2010 and Carifta Under-17 champion in 2009. Gordon drove home his point by saying, “Gold trumps any colour. But two golds, two separate major titles. Keshorn is the man and I really hope that those in power will see it and will celebrate him as others who’ve been there in the past have been celebrating him.” Richard Thompson, Jereem Richards, Michelle-Lee Ahye and Hasely Crawford, TT's first Olympic gold medallist, are among those who have also had memorable track and field careers. (With reporting by JELANI BECKLES)   The post Jehue Gordon: Keshorn stands alone as the greatest appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.