Olympic double silver medallist Richard Thompson is listed in stable condition at Port-of-Spain General Hospital, after being involved in a vehicular accident yesterday morning. The 100-metre runner-up was under observation by doctors up to late yesterday. He was undergoing numerous tests, including a CT scan, to determine the extent of his injuries. Thompson was runner-up to Jamaican Usain Bolt, in the 100 metres final during the Beijing Olympics in China, last August, and was also a member of the 4 x 100 T&T relay team which placed second to Jamaica.
According to police, Thompson’s Cefiro was involved in a head-on collision with a Rav4 vehicle around 4.30 am, at the corner of Marli and Picton Streets in New Town, Port-of-Spain. The owner of the Rav4 is warded at St Clair Medical Centre. Monique Cabral, who was also a member of the T&T team in Beijing, and was a passenger in Thompson’s car, is also hospitalised and resting comfortably. Cabral, 22, of Diego Martin, suffered minor injuries, hospital officials said. Police said the vehicles were damaged extensively.
Both Health Minister Jerry Narace and Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Gary Hunte visited the athletes. Security guards blocked the entrance to Ward 21, and media personnel were not allowed inside to see Thompson. Narace said the media were not permitted any further, because they were “acting on instructions from his family.”
Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee(TTOC) president Larry Romany also visited the two Beijing Olympians .
