Tobago Chief Secretary Orville London has congratulated 19-year-old Keshorn Walcott for his golden achievement in the Men’s Javelin event at the 2012 London Olympics on Saturday.

London said Keshorn’s 84.58 metres throw was an historic one not only for Trinidad and Tobago but for the entire Western Hemisphere. He noted that Keshorn’s victory should signal to the youths of the country that talent, commitment and self-belief could propel them to success, regardless of the circumstances and challenges of everyday life.

London reiterated that the entire national squad must be congratulated for this country’s best ever performance at the Olympics while Tobagonians must take pride in the fact that all three Tobago athletes participating in the Games made it to the finals.

He said it was significant that an island of just under 60,000 could have had 100 per cent of its athletes accomplishing such a feat in the Olympics and speculated that had Josanne Lucas and Renny Quow not suffered injuries, the medal haul by Tobagonians might have been more than those won by Lalonde Gordon in the Men’s 400 metres race and the Men’s 4×400 metres relay.

Baptiste became the first national sprinter to make it to make an Olympic final of the women’s 100 metres. The third Tobagonian athlete to make it to an Olympic final was Semoy Hackett who placed third in the women’s 400 metres semi-final on Tuesday.

Recalling that both Quow and Lucas had won medals at the last World Championship, London said the performance of the Tobago athletes in recent years showed that something right was being done on the island and hoped that Tobago’s young athletes would continue to be inspired to even greater achievement.

London said he was awaiting confirmation on the availability of the Tobago athletes before making an announcement of the Assembly’s arrangement for honouring all the athletes who were selected for the Olympics.