T&T’s Nicholas Paul officially stamped his name as the future of local cycling when he sped to his third gold medal at the 23rd Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Barranquilla, Colombia, last night.
Paul’s gold medal, the third for cycling carried T&T’s overall medal haul so far to 16 medals, six gold, two silver and eight bronze.
He also joined swimmer Dylan Carter with three gold medals at the games. Carter, who returned home yesterday, also got silver in the men’s 50 metres freestyle test and a relay bronze in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay contest to end with five.
The 19-year-old Paul, who was a member of the gold medal-winning T&T Match Sprint Team along with Olympian Njisane Phillip and Kwesi Browne and then won his second gold on Wednesday in the Men’s Sprint, proved a class above the rest in the men’s 1km Time Trial in record-setting time at the Velodromo Alcides Nieto Patino.
Paul was on his A-Game from the start and posted the fastest time over the opening 250m of 18.816 seconds, while he crossed the 500m mark in 31.871 followed by a 13.682 third quarter ride (45.553 seconds) before crossing the finish line in one minute, 00.171 seconds, a new games record to smash the 2010 time in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico of Colombian, Fabian Puerta (1:04.375)
Kevin Quintero of Colombia got silver in 1:00.729, and Guatemala’s Luis Cordon, bronze in 1:02.023, while T&T’s other entrant, Quincy Alexander was ninth in 1:03.789.
Teneil Campbell failed to add to her three bronze medals won when she ended in the fifth spot in the women’s Point Race.
The 20-year-old Campbell tallied 17 points to finish well behind gold medal winner, Venezuelan Lilibeth Chacon (37) and silver medallist, Yeny Colmenares of Colombia who tallied, 35 points.
Cuban Arlenis Sierra got bronze with 25, while Barbadian Amber Joseph was fourth with 18, and T&T’s other competitor, Alexi Costa, 11th.
And in the men’s Madison, T&T’s Akil Campbell and Kemp Orosco were sixth best.
Hockey women play for bronze
T&T women’s hockey players will play neighbours Barbados for the bronze medal on Saturday from 2.45pm at Unidad Deportivo Pibe Valderrama.
This after the “Calypso Stickmen”, who ended round-robin pool play with a perfect 3-0 record, suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Cuba in their semifinal yesterday.
The trio of Yuraina Vera Rojas (19th), Yunia Milanes Marcos (29th) and Brizaida Ramos Perez (59th) got a goal each for the Cubans who will face Mexico, 1-0 winners over Barbados in the first semifinal for gold on Saturday from 5 pm.
The meeting between Barbados and T&T women will be the second of this year’s competition after T&T won 2-1 in their round-robin match thanks to a double from Shaniah De Freitas while Mexico blanked Cuba 3-0 in a pool match as well.
Today, in the men’s semifinals, T&T will meet Pool B winner, Mexico from 5 pm while Cuba battles Pool B, runner-up, Guyana at 2.45 pm.
Women Warriors in semis
T&T senior women footballers will come up against Costa Rica from 8 pm tonight in one of two semifinals at Estadio Moderno.
On Tuesday, the Women Warriors needed Mexico to defeat Nicaragua by four clear goals to have a chance at advancing to the semifinals, and that was the scoreline the Mexicans eventually registered to give T&T second spot by virtue of scoring more goals than the Nicaraguans, after both teams ended with the same goal difference.
The trio of T&T, Mexico and Nicaragua all got 3-0 wins over Haiti who defaulted.
Mexico also defeated T&T 5-1, and against Nicaragua, T&T battled to a 2-2 draw.
The Mexicans meet Venezuela in the other women’s semifinal from 5 pm with the bronze medal and gold matches carded for Monday, July 30.
Moses fifth in 50m Rifle Prone
Debutant, Marlon Jones had a creditable fifth place finish from 29 competitors in the men’s 50m Rifle Prone with a final tally of 607.8, comprised from rounds of 100.2; 99.6; 102.8; 102.4; 102.6, and 100.2, respectively.
Mexican Jose Sanchez won gold with 616.2 points while Colombian Ivan Lopez (614.8) and Martinique’s Alain Girard (608.1), second, and third, respectively.
Mexican, Alfonso Monrique was fourth with 607.8.
In shooting, today Marsha Bullen-Jones will compete in the women’s 10m Air Pistol.
Water polo women beaten
T&T water polo women’s team got its campaign off to a less than impressive start, losing 22-3 to Venezuela at the Complejo Acuatico.
The trio of Megan Stafford, Jamila Noguera-Devers and Shemiyah Ross got a goal each for T&T in the loss ahead of another encounter today vs Mexico from 2 pm. Mexico outplayed Colombia 18-10 in their opener and Puerto Rico edged Cuba 13-12.
The men’s water polo team will face Venezuela from 7.35 pm.
T&T squash women 6th
T&T women’s squash team had to settle for the sixth spot in their team competition after a 3-0. This after Charlotte Knaggs went under to Mary Fong-AF-Fat 5-11, 5-11, 11-8, 6-11; Alexandria Yearwood fell to Taylor Fernandes 11-8, 11-4, 10-12, 2-11, 2-11, and Marie-Claire Barcant retired against Ashley Khalil trailing, 8-11, 5-11, 0-2.
Boxer Guy beaten on points
T&T’s first boxer in action, Tianna Guy was overwhelmed by Dominican Republic’s Estefani Almanzar, 5-0 on points in their bantamweight (57kg) quarterfinal bout.
Today, in the men’s middleweight (75kg) quarterfinal, T&T’s Aaron Prince faces Evin Cedeno of Dominican Republic.