Track and Field athletes, Khalifa St Fort and Alena Brooks added two more silver medals to T&T’s tally when the final week of competition at the 23rd Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games began in Barranquilla, Colombia, yesterday.
Competing in the penultimate event at the Pista Athletica, the USA-based St Fort, running out of lane five, got off to slow start before getting into full stride, before crossing the finish line in 11.15 seconds, to trail Jamaican rival, Jonielle Smith who won gold in 11.04.
Venezuelan Andrea Guevara was a distant third in 11.32 seconds.
A few events earlier, the 26-year-old Brooks, running out of lane three crossed the line in two minutes, 02.26 seconds to trail Cuban, Rose Almanza Blanco who won in two minutes, 01.63 with Barbadian, Sonia Gaskin, taking bronze in a personal best of two minutes, 03.13.
On Sunday night, Brooks (2:05.29 minutes) was also second to Blanco (2:04.46) in their semifinal heat.
The two silver medals carried T&T’s overall tally won at the games to 22 medals (7 gold, 4 silver and 11 bronze).
The local duo of Ruebin Walters and Aaron Lewis will line up in the men’s 110m hurdles final tonight.
Last night in their respective semifinal heat, Walters clocked 13.64 seconds to win heat two while Lewis’ time of 14.15 was the second fastest losers time in heat one when he placed sixth.
In men’s Shot Put, Hezekiel Romeo and Akeem Stewart finished in the sixth and seventh positions respectively.
Romeo had four good throws with a best of 18.57 metres while Stewart could only muster two good attempts, with his best being 18.48m.
Ayana Alexander had a disappointing outing by her standards in the women’s Long Jump final with the best effort of 5.83m for 14th spot.
Today, national men’s Long Jump record holder Andwuelle Wright will get his CAC medal quest off to start while in the men’s 200m heats, Nigel Purcell will face the starter and the pair of Semoy Hackett and Rhealin Kayelle Clarke in the women’s event.
Khemani Roberts and Sonya Gittens will compete in the women’s heptathlon and in the women’s Discus Throw, Portious Warren and Lotoya Gilding will be T&T entrants.
Alexander goes after boxing gold
Michael Alexander will come up against Cuban Lazano Alvarez Estrada for the gold medal in the men’s boxing lightweight (60kg) class on Thursday.
This after he outclassed Panamanian, Jonathan Miniel 4-0 on points in their semifinal bout yesterday while Estrada defeated Dominican Republic’s Leonel De Los Santos, 4-1.
Stampfli misses tennis bronze
Brianna Stampfli missed out on a bronze medal in the women’s tennis Singles competition after a straight sets loss to Mexican, Giuliana Olmos. The 22-year-old who was beaten in her semifinal by the Olympic champion, Monica Puig of Puerto Rico went under to Olmos, 1-6, 3-6.
Venezuela edges Women Warriors for bronze
At the Estadio Moderno, Paolo Villamizar netted the lone goal to earn Venezuela a 1-0 win over T&T Women’s Warriors at the bronze medal. The South Americans were a dominant force throughout the match with their intricate short passing game, and had it not been for some impressive saves by T&T goalkeeper, Saundra Baron, the margin of defeat could have been wider.
Shooters struggles continue
T&T shooters hunt a medal came up zero when the trio of Clement Marshall, Rhodney Allen and Roger Daniel failed to make the podium in either of the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Individual or Team events.
Marshall had scores of 84, 77 and 52 on day one followed by 86, 83 and 81 yesterday for a combined score of 463 and 23rd overall.
Daniel tallied 95, 89, and 87 on the first day and yesterday he had scores of 94, 92 and 92 for 549 combined and tenth spot while Allen did not complete participate in yesterday’s round of shooting after posting scores of 95, 86 and 66 on Sunday for a total of 267. And in the Team event, the T&T combined score of 1,259 was good enough for the eighth position. Today the men’s trio will return to competition in the 25m Standard Pistol Individual and Team events.
Archers come up short
The quartet of Hasmath Ali, Peter Kong, Jonathan Thomas and Priyanka Dhanie were all ousted at the round-of-32 in their respective men and women Compound clashes. Ali went under to Guatemala’s Jose Del Cid, 140-146; Kong was ousted by Colombian Sebastian Arenas, 133-142 while Thomas was only beaten by a shoot-off with Martinique’s Fabien Clombe after both men posted scores of 140. And in the women’s event, Dhanie was no match for Puerto Rican, Marla Cintron, 119-143.
Today in the men’s Compound Team competition, T&T faces Mexico while Johnathan Mosca faces Guadeloupe’s Dominique Roux-Serret in the last-32 of the Recurve Individual competition, and Daniel Catariz comes up against Dominican Republic’s Eddy Hernandez.
Water polo men whip Jamaica
Daniel Alvarez scored four goals to lead men’s water polo team to an 8-6 defeat of Jamaica in their fifth to eighth place semifinal at the Aquatic Complex. The pair of Leon Daniel and Sergio Des Vignes added two goals each for T&T which broke open a 1-1 score at the end of the first quarter by outscoring the Jamaicans, 4-2 in the second period for a 6-3 lead at the half-time interval. Both teams then traded two goals each and one apiece over the next two quarters as T&T held on for the win and will face the winner of last night’s other semifinal between Costa Rica and Venezuela for the fifth spot today. Meanwhile, the women’s team was crushed 22-1 by Cuba. In the women’s quarterfinals, T&T faces Mexico with the winner to face Cuba while Venezuela tackles Colombia with Puerto Rica awaiting.
Volleyball men end winless
The men’s indoor volleyball team will play for positions fifth to eighth after finishing at the bottom of their four-team Pool B round-robin series yesterday. Beaten by host Colombia (3-2) and Puerto Rico (3-0), T&T, the three-time Caribbean champions were expected to get the better of Guatemala and contest the quarterfinals. However, it was not to be as the Central Americans came away with a 25-22, 25-17, 22-25, 25-22 win at the Humberto Perea Coliseum.
Mexicans stop Grant, Blackman
The pair of Rheeza Grant and Abby Blackman will have to settle for the ninth to 12th playoff versus Hondurans Jarisa Hynds and Marissa Brady from 4 pm today. This after the T&T duo went under to Mexicans, Martha Revuelta and Zaira Orellana, 10-21, 15-21 in their main draw quarterfinal yesterday at Avenida del Rio, Puerta de Oro. Last night in the men’s main draw quarterfinals, the unbeaten T&T team of Daneil Williams and Daynte Stewart also tasted defeat at the hands of Mexicans, Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen, 11-21, 14-21 and will meet Costa Ricans, Richard Hall and Victor Alpizar in the fifth to eighth semis today.