Lalonde Gordon

Lalonde Gordon

Gordon in the 2012 Olympic final
Personal information
Born (1988-11-25) 25 November 1988
Lowlands, Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago
Education Mohawk Valley Community College
Morgan State University
Height 1.79 m (5 ft 10 1⁄2 in)
Weight 83 kg (183 lb)
Sport
Country  Trinidad and Tobago
Sport Track and field
Event(s) 400 metres
Club Zenith Velocity AC[1]
Coached by Trevor Green
Medal record
Olympic Games
2012 London 400  m
2012 London 4×400 m relay
World Championships
2015 Beijing 4×400 m relay
World Indoor Championships
2012 Istanbul 4×400 m relay
2016 Portland 4×400 m relay
CAC Championships
2013 Morelia 200 m

Lalonde Gordon, HBM (born 25 November 1988) is a Tobagonian male track and field sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. He won the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics with a personal best of 44.52 seconds. He is the second fastest 400 m runner from his country after Ian Morris.[2]

He took a second Olympic bronze with the 4 × 400 metres relay team in London, setting a national record in the process. He was also part of the Trinidad and Tobago relay teams that won bronze 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships, silver at the 2011 CAC Championships, and bronze at the 2010 CAC Games.

Career

Born in Lowlands on the island of Tobago,[3] he competed in track and field from an early age. He moved to New York City in the United States at the age of seven,[4] but gave up running as a teenager around 2003. While studying at Mohawk Valley Community College he returned to training in 2009 with the hope of representing the school. He competed in the 200 metres and 400 metres, later choosing to focus on the longer event, despite the fact that he took an initial dislike to it. After leaving Mohawk Valley, Gordon ran for, and graduated from Morgan State University.[5][6]

Gordon ran at the 2010 national championships and broke 21 seconds for the 200 m (running 20.96 seconds) and went under 47 seconds in the 400 m, taking second place behind Zwede Hewitt.[7] He teamed up with Hewitt for the 4×400 metres relay at the Central American and Caribbean Games a month later and won a bronze medal.[8] Gordon was chosen to run individually at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and he was a semifinalist with a personal best run of 46.33 seconds.[9] The next season, he had his first win abroad at the Rabat Meeting where he edged William Collazo in a new best of 45.51 seconds.[10] At the 2011 Central American and Caribbean Championships he reached the 400 m final and was a silver medallist in the relay.[11] He focused on the shorter sprints at the 2011 Trinidad and Tobago Championships and finished the contest with third place in the 200 m and a win in the 4×100 metres relay.[12]

He started the 2012 season indoors and ran a world-leading time of 46.43 to win the 400 m at the New Balance Games in New York.[13] He was second in his heat at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships, but was disqualified for a lane infraction.[14] He led off a relay team of Renny Quow, Jereem Richards and Jarrin Solomon which went on to break the national indoor record for the event and take the bronze medal behind the United States and Great Britain.[15] Outdoors, he set three personal bests on New York's Road to London meet series, setting times of 10.45 for the 100 metres and 20.62 for the 200 m in May, before winning the 400 m event in 45.33 seconds in June.[16] At that year's national championships he beat defending champion Quow in the 400 m and helped set a new national record (3:00.45 minutes) in the 4 × 400 m relay.[17]

He was chosen for the relay for the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic team, but did not have an individual place because he had not achieved the Olympic "A" qualifying standard. His mother paid for a flight to the US National Club Championship in Omaha in July and he improved his best with a winning run of 45.02 seconds. Having achieved the "A" standard, he headed to England in preparation for the 2012 London Olympics.[5][6] He marked himself out as a medal contender by winning his semi-final with the fastest qualifying time – an unexpectedly quick best of 44.58 seconds.[18] He bettered that time again to take the bronze medal in 44.52 seconds in the 400 m Olympic final, becoming only the second man from his nation to take an Olympic medal in the event (after Wendell Mottley's silver in 1964).[19] Boosted by his performance, he encouraged the relay team to perform just as well and a team of Gordon, Jarrin Solomon, Ade Alleyne-Forte and Deon Lendore ran a national record of 3:00.38 minutes to win their qualifier.[20] The quartet went even faster in the final and pipped Britain to the bronze medal position with a time of 2:59.40 minutes, becoming the country's second medalling team in the event (again achieved by Mottley at the 1964 Olympics).[21]

Personal bests

References

  1. ↑ NBC Rio 2016 bio
  2. ↑ 400 Metres All Time. IAAF (2012-08-23). Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  3. ↑ Lalonde Gordon. London2012. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  4. ↑ Kwame, Laurence (2012-08-07). KING OF QUEENS. Trinidad Express. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  5. 1 2 Clarke, Clayton (2012-08-19). Gordon: This is what I wanted all my life. Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  6. 1 2 De Freitas, Kern (2012-08-18). Few knew Lalonde Gordon. Trinidad Express. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  7. ↑ Kwame, Laurence (2010-06-28). Thompson scores double at Trinidad & Tobago champs. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  8. ↑ Atletismo Calendario de Deporte (Spanish). Mayaguez 2010. Retrieved on 2010-07-29.
  9. ↑ 400 metres semifinal 3. 2010Delhi. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  10. ↑ Ramsak, Bob (2011-06-05). Three world leads in Rabat, Powell pulls up in 100m – IAAF World Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  11. ↑ 2011 Central American and Caribbean Championships. Fundacion2010. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  12. ↑ Kwame, Laurence (2011-08-14). Thompson clocks 9.85 national record in Port-of-Spain – Trinidad and Tobago Champs - UPDATED: Daegu squad. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  13. ↑ Gordon favourite for 400 at World Indoor Championships. USportt (2012-01-29). Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  14. ↑ Johnson, Len (2012-03-09). EVENT REPORT - Men's 400 Metres - Heats . IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  15. ↑ Ramsak, Bob (2012-03-11). EVENT REPORT - Men's 4x400 Metres Relay - Final. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  16. ↑ Lalonde Gordon. Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  17. ↑ Kwame, Laurence (2012-06-25). Bledman wins Trinidad and Tobago title in 9.86. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  18. ↑ Ramsak, Bob (2012-08-05). London 2012 - Event Report - Men's 400m Semi-Final. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
  19. ↑ Ramsak, Bob (2012-08-06). London 2012 - Event Report - Men's 400m Final. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-24.
  20. ↑ Arcoleo, Laura (2012-08-09). London 2012 - Event Report - Men's 4x400m Relay Round One. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-24.
  21. ↑ Arcoleo, Laura (2012-08-10). London 2012 - Event Report - Men's 4x400m Final. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-08-25.
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