WE have champagne but, sorry, no Dom Perignon.

So said President George Maxwell Richards as he invited guests to partake of refreshments at a mini-national awards ceremony held at Knowsley building, Port of Spain yesterday.

The ceremony was held to honour Trinidad and Tobago's two bronze medal-winning London Olympic relay teams who were out of the country during the Independence Day awards ceremony.

Members of the men's 4x100 and 4x400 relay squads were yesterday presented with Humming Bird Gold medals.

After Richards pinned the medals on the 4x400 quartet—Lalonde Gordon, Ade Alleyne-Forte, Jarrin Solomon and Deon Lendore—and the 4x100 team—Richard Thompson, Marc Burns, Keston Bledman and Emmanuel Callender—there was entertainment.

Following that Richards gave a speech which lasted just under three minutes when he spoke of the "distinct pleasure" he had of seeing T&T's athletes at the 2012 Olympics, including the "superb performance" of cyclist Njisane Phillip.

"My wife and I had the distinct pleasure of witnessing the track and field events at the Olympic Stadium and especially those where our athletes performed. We also had the pleasure of seeing the superb performance of Mr Phillip at the Velodrome, so that we were left with the impression that we have distinguished ourselves in this aspect of our lives and therefore I wish to congratulate each one of them," Richards said.

"All that remains today therefore is to invite you to join us in partaking in refreshments, light or otherwise. And while we do have some champagne to celebrate I cannot say that we can stretch to the Dom Perignon that the representative for Diego Martin East has spoken about in recent times," Richards said to laughter from the audience.

He was a referring to a comment by PNM MP Colm Imbert about a Government Minister drinking champagne in Tobago with an accused person who stood to benefit from the controversial Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act.

Also present at yesterday's ceremony were Chief Justice Ivor Archie, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, Senate vice-president Lyndira Oudit and a handful of MPs.

Imbert was not present.