It was so close as T&T cyclist Teniel Campell was edged out of climbing the podium when the 23rd Central American and Caribbean Sporting Organisation (CACSO) Games continued in Barranquilla, Colombia, yesterday.
Competing over a distance of 21.2 kilometres in the Women’s Time Trial, Campbell, the reigning Caribbean Road Race and Time Trial champion crossed the finish line in 29 minutes and 13.17 seconds.
The top three finishers were Cuban Arlenis Sierra (28:08.97); followed by Colombian duo, Ana Sanabria (28:41.51), and Serika Guluma (29:06.28) while Alexi Costa, T&T’s other entrant, was tenth of the 14 competitors to complete the event in 32:05.73.
This was the first time T&T was being represented by women’s cyclists at the CACSO Games.
Last night, Olympic swimmer, USA-based Dylan Carter went after a podium finish in the men’s 100m freestyle in the A-Final. This after Carter won heat six of the morning heats in 49.24 seconds ahead of Venezuelan Alberto Mestre (49.69) and Jhonny-Rose Perez of Dominican Republic (51.19) while T&T’s Joshua Romany was fourth in 51.26 but did not make the final cut.|
Kael Yorke also contested the B-final of the 200m butterfly after he was fifth in his first heat in 2:06.07.
Honduras blanks Under-20 footballers
Honduras scored two first-half goals to hand T&T a 2-0 defeat in their opening match.
Denil Maldonado opened the scoring in the 31st minute and Eduardo Cruz doubled the advantage in the 41st for a 2-0 lead at the break.
There were no more goals in the second-half but T&T ended the match with ten men after Jerrin Jackie picked up yellow cards in the 63rd and 86th minutes.
Calypso Stickwomen clobber Guatemala 12-0
Dana-Lee De Gannes scored a beaver-trick to lead this country’s senior women’s hockey to a resounding 12-0 defeat of Guatemala in their Pool B opener.
De Gannes netted as early as the first, third, 33rd and 60th minutes for the “Calypso Stickwomen” while Brianna Govia (sixth and 32nd), Gabrielle Thompson (37th & 55th) and Shaniah De Freitas (41st pen & 54th) added two each in the lopsided win.
The pair of Kimberly Young (17th) and Felicia King (32nd) were also among the goals for T&T who will next face Barbados tomorrow from 12 noon and Jamaica to end round-robin play on Tuesday from 2 pm to end pool play.
Barbados beat Jamaica 1-0 in the other Pool B match while in Pool A, Dominican Republic defeated Guyana 4-0 and Mexico thumped Cuba 3-0.
Puerto Rico outplays Calypso Spikers
This country’s senior women volleyballers began their campaign with a 25-19, 17-25, 16-25, 20-25 loss to Puerto Rico in Pool B.
The duo of Channon Thompson and Sinead Jack both tallied 15 points for the “Calypso Spikers” in the loss while Krystle Esdelle added 12, and Darlene Ramdin six.
Overall it was a very even contest between both teams with T&T enjoying a 40-37 edge on spikes while Puerto Rico outscored T&T, 9-8 on blocks, and 5-4 on aces.
The Puerto Ricans cause was also helped by a whopping 43 unforced errors from T&T as compared to their 26 made.
Today, T&T meets Colombia in its second match.
Squash quartet fall at first hurdle
The local squash quartet of Kale Wilson, Patrick Nku, Alexandria Yearwood and Charlotte Knaggs were all beaten in the opening singles matches.
In the men’s round-of-32, Wilson fell to St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Jason Doyle, 6-11, 9-11, 11-8, 8-11 and Nku went under to Guyana’s Jason-Ray Khalil, 9-11, 5-11, 6-11.
The women’s tournament served off with round-of-16 matches but still, Yearwood was ousted by Colombian Laura Perez 3-11, 1-11, 1-11 and Knaggs was beaten by Guyana’s Mary Fung-A-Fat, 3-11, 5-11, 3-11.
Today, they will be back on the floor to compete in the mixed doubles competition.
Ping-pong women end winless
France-based Rheann Chung was again the lone T&T player to taste victory as the national women’s table tennis team ended with a 0-3 pool record after a 1-3 loss to Colombia.
Two-time national champion Brittany Joseph was beaten by Paula Medina 7-11, 6-11, 10-12 but Chung overcame Louisa Zuluaga 7-11, 11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 14-12 to even the best-of-five series at 1-1.
Reigning T&T women’s champion, Catherine Spicer and Joseph then suffered a 5-11, 5-11, 8-11 doubles defeat to Zuluaga and Manuela Echeverry before Spicer was beaten again, 3-11, 7-11, 5-11 by Medina.
The Colombians won the four-team pool with a 3-0 mark ahead of Dominican Republic (2-1) which edged Mexico (1-2), 3-2 in their virtual battle for second place.
T&T was beaten by Dominican Republic 3-1 and Mexico, 3-2 on Thursday. Today the local players are back on court for the singles competition.
In action today also are sailor Kelly-Ann Arrindell, who is currently in eighth place, takes on her next three races in the laser series, rower Felicia Chow while the national hockey men face Cuba.