T&T men’s Team Sprint trio of teenager, Nicholas Paul, Kwesi Browne and two-time Olympian Njisane Phillip doubled this country’s gold medal tally to two at the 23rd Central American and Caribbean Sporting Organisation (CACSO) Games continued in Barranquilla, Colombia, yesterday.
Overall it was a very productive day for T&T as fellow cyclists, Teneil Campbell (bronze) and rower Felice Chow (silver) also captured the first-ever medals for T&T in their respective events to push T&T’s medal haul to four, adding to the swimmer, Dylan Carter 100m freestyle gold on Friday night.
Competing in the final event at the Velodromo Alcides Nieto Patina, the trio of 19-year-old Paul, Browne, 24, and 27-year-old Phillip, riding in that order combined for a time of 43.873 seconds, a new games record, well ahead of Venezuela (44.578 secs) and Colombia (44.172 secs) which got silver and bronze respectively. Mexico was fourth in 45.774.
T&T had earlier finished with the fastest qualifying time of 44.096 ahead of the Venezuelans (45.154).
One event earlier, fellow cyclist and reigning Caribbean Road Race and Time Trial champion, Campbell finally got her historic medal on her second attempt.
Campbell, who was fourth in the women’s Road Time Trial on Friday got bronze this time out in the Women’s Scratch Race (10,000 metres/40 laps) behind Marlies Mejias of Cuba and silver medallist Lizbeth Salazar of Mexico.
The medal for 20-year-old Campbell is the first ever at the CACSO Games by a women’s cyclist for this country in their first ever appearance as well.
She will also compete in the Points Race and Omnium.
Earlier on the same track, the duo of Costa sisters, Alexi and Jessica as well as Christian Farah and Alex Bovell missed out on qualification to the Women’s Team Pursuit (4,000m) medal round.
The T&T women combined for a time of 4:51.022, a new national record, for the fifth spot.
The duo of Cuba (4:33.516) and Colombia (4:34.772) ended in the top two places and will contest the gold medal event today while Mexico (4:34.890) and Venezuela (4:43.060) will battle for the bronze medal.
In the Men’s Team Pursuit (4,000m), T&T’s Kemp Orosco, Tyler Cole, veteran Adam Alexander and Jovian Gomez could only finish sixth in their qualifying event in 4:26.561, ahead of Dominican Republic (4:40.693).
Venezuela (4:06.621) and Mexico (4:08.746) will contest the gold medal while Colombia (4:09.036) and Guatemala (4:16.314) will face off for bronze.
Today, Browne and Paul will compete in heat two of the men’s Keirin event while Akil Campbell lines up in the men’s Scratch Race (15,000m)
Chow rows to historic silver
Over at Lago, Calima, in Cali, 41-year-old Olympian, Felice Chow secured T&T’s first ever women’s medal in rowing, competing in the Women’s Singles Scull contested over a distance of 2000 metres.
Chow, who competed at the Rio Olympics in 2016 crossed the finish line in nine minutes, 26.24 seconds for silver behind Cuban, Yariulvis Cobas (9:13.05 mins) while Mexico’s Naiara Arrillaga took bronze in (9:41.22 mins)
Calypso Stickwomen improve to 2-0
Teenager Shaniah De Freitas netted two goals, as T&T women’s hockey team battled past Barbados 2-1 to improve to a perfect 2-0 round-robin record at the Unidad Deportivo Pibe Valderrama.
However, it was the Barbadians who struck first in the 17th minute through Keisha Boyce after a 0-0 first quarter.
De Freitas, 18, playing in her sixth international match for the ‘Calypso Stickwomen” drew T&T level five minutes later from the penalty spot and with two minutes left in the match she was on spot to score again to earn her team a deserved win.
The win lifted the Anthony Marcano-coached team who clobbered Guatemala 12-0 on Friday to six points in Pool B, three ahead of Jamaica whom they face tomorrow. Barbados is also on three points and meets winless Guatemala in its final match.
The Jamaicans defeated Guatemala 5-0 in the other pool match yesterday.
Today, the senior men’s hockey team, coming off a 2-1 win over Cuba on Saturday meet Barbados from 5 pm. Barbados edged Jamaica 1-0 in its opener.
Carter, Romany in 50m butterfly medal hunt
USA-duo, Dylan Carter and Joshua Romany were expected to add to T&T’s medal tally last night when they contested the men’s 50 metres butterfly final at the Complejo Acautico.
The 22-year-old Carter who won the men’s 100m freestyle in a CACSO Games record of 48.95 seconds on Friday night, was in record-breaking again yesterday when he won heat five of the 50m butterfly in 23.50 seconds, to erase Guatemalan Luis Martinez’s time of 23.53 set the heat before.
Romany, also 22, had earlier won the first heat in 23.73 to have the third fastest time ahead of last night’s gold medal swim.
Two other T&T swimmers who were in action, Jabari Baptiste and David Mc Leod did not advance to their respective final.
Baptiste was fifth in heat two of the men’s 100m backstroke in 58.02 seconds and was due to swim the B-Final, while Mc Leod was seventh in heat three in 59.25.
Ping pong women make doubles exit
The T&T teams of France-based Rheann Chung and Brittany Joseph, and Linda Partap-Boodhan and Catherine Spicer were beaten in the quarterfinal round of the Women’s Table Tennis Doubles at the Centro Eventos Puerta de Oro.
Chung and Joseph first defeated Barbadians Kenday King and Janae Lewis in the last-16, 11-5, 11-6, 11-9 while Partap-Boodhan and Spicer battled past Guyana’s Chelsea Edghill and Trenace Lowe, 14-12, 10-12, 12-10, 14-12.
However, in the last-eight, Chung and Joseph went under to Guatemalans, Mabelyn Enriquez and Andrea Estrada 10-12, 11-4, 5-11, 8-11; and Partap-Boodhan and Spicer were ousted by El Salvadoreans, Emme Arias and Estefania Ramirios, 7-11, 5-11, 11-9, 7-11.
Both Spicer and Chung will now focus their attention on the knockout stage of the Women’s Singles after advancing from the round-robin group stages as second-place finishers in their three players groups with 1-1 records while Partap-Boodhan and Joseph were winless, 0-2.
T&T hopes for a squash doubles medals were dashed as the local teams in the women’s, men’s and mixed doubles were all beaten in their quarterfinals.
The T&T duo of Alexandria Yearwood and Marie-Claire Barcant were booted by Colombians Laura Perez and Maria Perez 4-11; 6-11; men’s doubles duo, Chayse Mc Quan and Nku Patrick were stopped by Bermudans, Micah Franklin and Noah Browne, 8-11, 4-11, and the mixed doubles team of Kale Wilson and Charlotte Knaggs fell to Colombians, Catalina Pelaez and Miguel Rodriguez, 6-11, 7-11.
Calypso Spikers secure quarterfinals spot
T&T women volleyballers will come up against Mexico from 8 pm tonight in the first of two quarterfinals at the Humberto Perea Coliseum. This after the Renele Forde-captain ‘Calypso Spikers’ defeated Costa Rica 25-18, 25-23, 25-16 to end with a 1-2 round-robin Pool B record.
On Saturday night, the T&T women were beaten 22-25, 19-25, 20-25 by host Colombia who got a tournament-high 27 points from Amanda Coneo. Middle blocker Sinead Jack led T&T with 14 points, while wing spiker Channon Thompson added 12, and the pair of Darlene Ramdin and Krystle Esdelle, eight apiece.
Costa Rica hands Under-20s second loss
T&T chances of advancing to the men’s football medal round competition were all but ended after a 3-2 loss to Costa Rica at the Estadio Romelio Martinez, yesterday.
Randall Leal scored twice for the Central Americans in the ninth and 23rd minute while Andres Gomez was also on target in the 15th.
For T&T, John-Paul Rochford got a 60th-minute goal to give his team some hope before Nickel Orr made it 3-2 seven minutes later.
That was as close as T&T would get as Costa Rica held on for the important three points. Last night the T&T women, beaten 5-1 by Mexico in their opener came up against Nicaragua, which defeated Haiti 3-0 on Friday. A win for T&T will keep them in the contest for a medal.
Olympian Andrew Lewis had a mixed day on Saturday as he placed second in the fourth of his Laser Radial races before a 16th placed in race five while Kelly-Ann Arrindell was fifth and ninth in race four and five respectively prior to yesterday’s events.