Bronze is the new gold.
This is how neighbours of Keshorn Walcott described their feelings on his third-place finish in Saturday’s javelin event at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Walcott’s 85.38 m attempt was not enough to beat Germany’s Thomas Rohler, who won gold with 90.3m and Kenya’s Julius Yego, who copped silver with 88.24 m.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian outside’s Walcott’s house in East Grove, Valsayn—a gift from the Government for copping the gold medal in the event at the 2012 Olympics in London, J-Lynn Roopnarine said that the entire community were closely monitoring the competition from their televisions on Saturday night.
“Those who were not at home were following his progress on the community’s WhatsApp group. We were very excited because we always knew that he would be our best chance of winning a medal,” Roopnarine said.
“We are so proud that he did this for our country once again. We were really hoping he would get gold again but at least he got a medal, that is good enough for us,” she said.
Roopnarine and other residents all described Walcott as friendly and humble.