MPSC 2022 Prelims Paper-I · Question 80 of 100

Correct — option (2), statements (a) and (b). Three statements are printed here, (a) to (c), not four. Statement (a) is correct: Deon Lendore of Trinidad and Tobago died on 10 January 2022 in a car crash in Milam County, Texas, at the age of twenty-nine; according to the authorities his vehicle crossed the centre line on a road there and struck another car head-on. Statement (b) is correct as well: he won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, in the men's four by four hundred metres relay. The detail is worth having exactly, because relay questions are often set on it. Trinidad and Tobago finished third in the final in two minutes fifty-nine point four zero seconds, a national record, behind the Bahamas, who won in two minutes fifty-six point seven two, and the United States, who took silver in two minutes fifty-seven point zero five; the Trinidadian quartet was Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon, Ade Alleyne-Forte and Deon Lendore, who ran the anchor leg. It is worth adding, because the misunderstanding is common, that this was a medal won on the day rather than one reallocated years later: the Russian team, which finished fifth in that final, was disqualified after two of its members were banned following the retesting of samples in 2017, but since Russia had not been on the podium no medal changed hands. Statement (c) is false, and it is the statement the whole question turns on. Deon Lendore was not a chess player but a sprinter, a specialist over four hundred metres who competed professionally from 2009 until his death. His record beyond the London relay bronze is substantial: he won The Bowerman, the highest individual honour in American collegiate track and field, in 2014; he took a silver medal in the four by four hundred metres relay at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing; he won bronze medals at the World Indoor Championships in 2016 and 2018; he took relay bronze at the 2019 Pan American Games; and he competed at three Olympic Games, in 2012, 2016 and 2020. Since statements (a) and (b) are correct and statement (c) is not, the answer is option (2).

• (1)Only (a) is correct — This option accepts statement (a) alone and therefore rejects statement (b), which asserts that Lendore won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. He did. Trinidad and Tobago finished third in the final of the men's four by four hundred metres relay in a national record of two minutes fifty-nine point four zero seconds, behind the Bahamas and the United States, and Lendore ran the anchor leg for a quartet completed by Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon and Ade Alleyne-Forte. A candidate hesitating over this statement is most likely thinking of the reallocations of medals that followed the retesting of samples from those Games, and there was indeed a disqualification in this event — the Russian team, which finished fifth, lost its result after two of its members were banned in 2017 — but a team outside the medals loses nothing that could be passed down, so the Trinidadian bronze was neither created nor altered by it. When a statement about an Olympic medal is in doubt, the useful question is whether the medal was won on the day or awarded afterwards, because the two produce different answers to questions about who stood on the podium.
• (3)(a) and (c) are correct — This option accepts statements (a) and (c), and statement (c) is the one falsehood in the list: Deon Lendore was not a chess player. He was a track athlete, a sprinter over four hundred metres, who competed professionally from 2009 until his death in January 2022 and represented Trinidad and Tobago at three Olympic Games, in 2012, 2016 and 2020. The option also has the effect of rejecting statement (b), the Olympic bronze, which compounds the error, and a candidate who takes it has in substance decided that a chess player won a medal in an athletics relay. That is worth noticing as a matter of technique: in a three-statement list the statements often constrain one another, and testing them for internal consistency is a cheap check. If statement (b) says a person won a relay medal at the Olympics and statement (c) says he was a chess player, at most one of them can be true, so the candidate's task narrows immediately to deciding which. Here the medal is a matter of record and the chess claim is simply invented.
• (4)All the three statements are correct — This option accepts all three statements and therefore accepts statement (c), the claim that Lendore was a chess player, which is false; he was a sprinter over four hundred metres. The option is a good example of why an all of the above choice should be treated as a claim about every statement at once rather than as a safe harbour. This paper offers such an option ten times among its four hundred options, so it is a routine part of the printing rather than a signal, and it is disproved by any single false statement in the list. There is a further reason to be alert here. The three statements form a natural narrative — a death, a medal, a sport — and a candidate who has verified the first two may accept the third because it completes the picture rather than because it has been tested. Narrative coherence is not evidence. The correct procedure is to evaluate each statement against what is actually known about the person, and what is known about Lendore is a career in track and field: The Bowerman award in 2014, relay silver at the 2015 World Championships, World Indoor bronzes in 2016 and 2018, and Pan American Games bronze in 2019.

Deon Lendore was a sprinter from Trinidad and Tobago who specialised in the four hundred metres and competed professionally from 2009 until his death. His international breakthrough came at the 2012 London Olympics, where he ran the anchor leg for the Trinidadian four by four hundred metres relay team that finished third in a national record of two minutes fifty-nine point four zero seconds, behind the Bahamas and the United States; his team-mates were Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon and Ade Alleyne-Forte. He went on to win The Bowerman in 2014, the highest individual award in American collegiate track and field, a silver medal in the relay at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, bronze medals at the World Indoor Championships of 2016 and 2018, and a relay bronze at the 2019 Pan American Games, and he competed at the Olympic Games of 2012, 2016 and 2020. He died on 10 January 2022, aged twenty-nine, when his car crossed the centre line of a road in Milam County, Texas, and collided head-on with another vehicle. One point of Olympic housekeeping attaches to his best-known result and is worth keeping straight, because it is a standing source of confusion in questions about the London Games: many medals from 2012 were reallocated years afterwards when stored samples were retested and athletes disqualified, but the Trinidadian bronze in this relay was not one of them. The Russian team disqualified in this event had finished fifth, outside the medals, so no place on the podium moved.

Obituaries of sportspeople are a regular item in the current affairs section, and they are asked in exactly the form used here — a short list of claims about the person, with one of them false — or in the simpler form of naming the sport. The construction of this item is worth studying because it is unusually transparent once seen. Two statements are matters of record that a well-prepared candidate may know; the third contradicts them, since a chess player does not run in an Olympic athletics relay. In any statement list it is worth spending a moment on whether the statements are mutually consistent, because an examiner building a false statement often builds one that cannot stand alongside a true one in the same list, and spotting the contradiction resolves the question without any outside knowledge at all. The wider preparation point concerns proportion. Notable deaths are unbounded and no candidate can cover them all, so the right investment is a short monthly list — the name, the field, the country and the single achievement the person is remembered for — kept through the year. Sportspeople are among the easiest entries to maintain because the achievement is usually a medal at a named Games or Championship, which is a single line, and because a name that appears in the sports pages will also appear in the awards and records questions that the same paper sets elsewhere.

• Deon Lendore, a sprinter from Trinidad and Tobago specialising in the four hundred metres, died on 10 January 2022 aged twenty-nine in a car crash in Milam County, Texas, after his vehicle crossed the centre line and struck another car head-on.
• He won a bronze medal in the men's four by four hundred metres relay at the 2012 London Olympics, running the anchor leg for a team completed by Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon and Ade Alleyne-Forte, in a national record of 2:59.40 behind the Bahamas and the United States.
• The bronze was won on the day and was not a later reallocation: the Russian team disqualified in that event after the 2017 retests had finished fifth, outside the medals, so no podium place changed.
• He was not a chess player; his career was in track and field, and he competed at three Olympic Games, in 2012, 2016 and 2020.
• His other honours include The Bowerman in 2014, the highest individual award in American collegiate track and field, relay silver at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, World Indoor bronzes in 2016 and 2018, and relay bronze at the 2019 Pan American Games.

• Accepting the third statement of a list because the first two have checked out; narrative coherence is not evidence, and each statement must be tested on its own
• Failing to test statements for mutual consistency; a person cannot both win an Olympic athletics relay medal and be a chess player, so at most one of those statements can be true
• Assuming an Olympic medal from 2012 was a later reallocation because so many were; the Trinidadian relay bronze was won on the day, and the Russian team disqualified in that event had finished fifth
• Treating an all of the above option as a safe choice; it is a claim about every statement at once and is disproved by any one false statement

Sportspeople who died in the year before the examination are asked in two shapes: name the sport, or judge a short list of claims about the person, as here. Neither requires depth, and the preparation that covers them is a monthly list with four columns — name, country, sport, best-known achievement — kept through the year. What repays a little more attention is the statement-list form itself, because it is used across the whole current affairs section and the technique for it is the same wherever it appears. Mark each statement true or false independently before looking at the options; check whether any two statements contradict each other, since a contradiction resolves the question without outside knowledge; count the true statements; and only then find the option that matches the count. Candidates who work in the reverse order, scanning the options first and then reading the statements to justify a preferred option, are the ones this format is designed to catch, and it catches them most often on the third statement of a three-statement list.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In which event did Deon Lendore of Trinidad and Tobago win his Olympic medal at the 2012 London Games ?

  • (a)400 metres individual
  • (b)4 x 400 metres relay
  • (c)4 x 100 metres relay
  • (d)800 metres individual

  Answer(b) 4 x 400 metres relay. Lendore ran the anchor leg for the Trinidad and Tobago quartet — Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon, Ade Alleyne-Forte and Lendore — which finished third in the final in a national record of 2:59.40, behind the Bahamas and the United States. He was a specialist over four hundred metres and went on to win relay silver at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing and relay bronze at the 2019 Pan American Games.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  A medal is described as having been reallocated after an Olympic Games. What does this most commonly mean ?

  • (a)The athlete transferred it to a team-mate who did not compete in the final
  • (b)A higher-placed competitor was disqualified, usually after doping samples were retested, so those below moved up
  • (c)The host nation awarded an additional medal at the closing ceremony
  • (d)The result of a photo finish was reversed by the referee during the Games

  Answer(b) A higher-placed competitor was disqualified, usually after doping samples were retested, so those below moved up. Stored samples from the Olympic Games are retained and re-analysed as detection methods improve, and disqualifications years later shift the finishing order. The point matters for questions about who won a medal, because a medal reallocated in, say, 2017 was not on the podium in 2012. In the men's 4 x 400 metres relay at London, the disqualified Russian team had finished fifth, so no medal changed hands.