page_title: Trinidad and Tobago at the 2008 Summer Olympics
section_title: Men's 4×100 meters relay
hierarchical_section_title: Trinidad and Tobago at the 2008 Summer Olympics / Athletics / Men's competition / Men's 4×100 meters relay
caption_attribution_description: English: A picture taken at the celebration of his silver medal.
context_page_description: Trinidad and Tobago sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Its participation in the Beijing games marked its eighteenth Olympic appearance and fifteenth Summer Olympic appearance since its debut at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, excluding its joint participation with Jamaica and Barbados in 1960 as the West Indies Federation. With 28 athletes, more Trinidadians had competed at the Olympics than in any other single Olympic games in its history before Beijing. Athletes representing Trinidad and Tobago advanced past the preliminary or qualification rounds in twelve events and reached the final rounds in four of those events. Of those four events, silver medals were won in the men's 100 meters and in the men's 4x100 meters relay. The latter was upgraded to gold due to one member of the quartet that crossed the line first, Nesta Carter, testing positive for a banned substance, resulting in their disqualification. The nation's flag bearer at the opening ceremony that year was swimmer and Athens medalist George Bovell.
context_section_description: Trinidad and Tobago submitted a team to participate in the 4×100 meters relay. Although each relay consists of four people, five Trinidadians were involved between both the first and second (final) round. During the first round, Trinidad and Tobago participated in the first heat, which consisted of then 20-year-old Port-of-Spain-born Keston Bledman, who only participated in the relay; Marc Burns, who also participated in the men's 100 meters; Richard Thompson, who also medaled in the men's 100 meters; and Aaron Armstrong, who also ran in the men's 200 meters. The relay ran the collective 400 meters in 38.26 seconds, placing first in the first heat during the August 21 semifinal (and first) round. Trinidad and Tobago defeated Japan, which placed second in the heat (at 38.52 seconds) and the Netherlands, which placed third (38.87 seconds). The Trinidadian team placed first overall out of the ten relays that finished, and progressed to the August 22 final round.
  In the final round, Aaron Armstrong did not participate. He was replaced by then 24-year-old Emmanuel Callander, who was born in northern Trinidad and who did not participate in any event besides the relay. Burns, Thompson and Bledman remained. During the final round, Trinidad and Tobago finished the relay in 38.06 seconds, originally earning a silver medal behind the Jamaican team (37.10 seconds), which set an Olympic and a world record with its performance. Jamaica was subsequently stripped of their gold medal due to doping charges and Trinidad and Tobago was awarded the gold. The Japanese team (38.15 seconds) earned the bronze medal—later promoted to silver—in the event, placing immediately behind Trinidad and Tobago.
caption: Aaron Armstrong (left) holding the silver medal he was originally awarded for his participation in the 4×100 meters relay
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