Jereem Richards broke his personal best and a meet record on his way to defending his men’s 200m title at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games in England, on Saturday.

Richards, who previously had a personal best of 19.83 seconds, won the event in 19.80.

He erased the previous Commonwealth Games record of 19.97, held by Frankie Fredericks of Namibia since 1994.

Zharnel Hughes of England claimed silver in 20.12 and Joseph Amoah of Ghana grabbed bronze in 20.49.

The gold medal run by Richards was TT’s fourth medal at the Commonwealth Games and one week after cyclist Nicholas Paul earned gold in the men’s keirin event.

Paul also won a silver medal and a bronze at the games.

Richards, in an interview immediately after winning the race with SportsMax, remembered his former TT team-mate Deon Lendore.

Lendore, a former top 400m athlete, died in a car accident in Texas in January. Richards and Lendore were part of the TT men’s 4x400m quartet which won gold at the 2019 World Relays.

“Boy, I know Deon is smiling right now,” Richards said.

Since Lendore’s death, Richards has dedicated some of his races to him.

Richards is hoping at the medal ceremony on Sunday, at 5 am local time, the pan version of the national anthem will be played.

“I have one request. If anybody from this meet could hear it I would love to hear the national anthem in the steelpan rendition…that will make my day. That is my favourite anthem, the steelpan one,” he said.

Former president of the TT Olympic Committee Brian Lewis said the pan version of the anthem is supposed to be played at all medal ceremonies for TT athletes. He said the International Olympic Committee has accepted the pan version of the anthem which was done by the National Steel Symphony Orchestra.

“I am advised that it was an error of the Commonwealth Games Federation and Birmingham 2022 that the pan version was not played for Nicholas Paul’s gold medal ceremony,” Lewis said.

Lewis said the TT team in Birmingham, led by chef de mission Diane Henderson, will put measures in place to ensure the pan version is played.

Richards thanked his support team following the race.

“Everybody helped me out this year. I had a big team, a big support team, my family and friends.”

After the race, Richards’s sister Brittney Richards-Nelson wrote on social media, “Forged from the love of liberty. Feeling so proud.”

Richards got out the blocks quickly and heading into the final 100m it was clear it was a two-man race between Richards and Hughes.

Richards had a strong finish as usual and with 40m left the race was over as he opened a huge lead to win comfortably.

Richards was proud of the start he got.

“In terms of the start I have been working on it for awhile now and now I have the confidence and I have the ability to do it.”

Richards controversially won the 200m gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

[caption id="attachment_968584" align="alignnone" width="1024"] TT's Jereem Richards celebrates winning gold alongside bronze medalist P