T&T senior hockey women were left without a medal at the 22nd Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games after losing 2-1 to host Mexico in their bronze medal contest at the High Performance Centre, Veracruz, Mexico, yesterday.
Gold medal winners in 2002 and 2010, both in Puerto Rico, the "Calypso Stickwomen" went ahead as early as the second minute through co-captain Alanna Lewis, to lead 1-0 at the half.
However, within a minute of the restart, the Mexican backed by their home crowd drew level thanks to Michel Navarro while Ana Juarez got the go-ahead item in the 48th which turned out to be the winner for her team.
Today, the men's national team will go after a first gold medal since 2002 when they meet Cuba in their gold medal contest from 5.30pm, in a repeat of their round-robin encounter, the Raphael Govia locals surrendered 2-3 after leading 2-0 midway through the second-half.
In the semifinals, T&T edged Mexico 1-0 on a 60th minute goal from Akim Toussaint to avenge a loss in the 2010 final while Cuba thrashed Barbados 6-0.The meeting between T&T and Cuba will be a repeat of the 2006 final which the latter won 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Included on the T&T team back then, and in the current team are Toussaint, Mickell Pierre, Kiel Murray, captain Darren Cowie and goalkeeper Andrey Rocke, who will all be out to exact revenge.
Squash
Colin Ramasra dispatched Barbadian Gavin Cumberbatch 11-5, 11-4, 11-6 in men's singles round-of-32 action. Ramasra was carded to face Guatemala's Edwin Enrique in the round-of-16 last night. Kale Wilson also made a winning start, dismissing Cumberbatch's younger brother Rhett 11-2, 11-7, 12-10 to set up a meeting with Jamaica's Lewis Walters for a quarterfinal spot.
Boxing
Saturday night at the Wold Trade Centre, Veracruz, T&T's Seanasi Charles stopped Nicaraguan Michael Rigby by Technical Knockout (TKO), two minutes and 48 seconds into their round-of-16 lightwelterweight bout.
Sailing
T&T's Kelly-Ann Arrindell made an excellent start in the women's laser radial. Among the 15 sailors, Arrindell finished third in race one of the ten-race series. Olympian Andrew Lewis ended eighth (15 sailors) in race one of the ten-race men's laser.
Badminton
In the Mixed Team Badminton competition, the T&T team which includes Alistair Espinoza, Kerian Quan Chee, Kerwyn Pantin, Nekeisha Blake, Jada Renales and Will Lee did not win any matches against Guatemala, losing 0-5.
Shooting
Roger Daniel failed to take the starting field for the Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Qualification opening round.
Cycling
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Varun Maharajh, who just missed out on a medal (fourth) in the men's omnium, dropped out at the 38.6km mark in the men's road race yesterday. Veteran rider Emile Abraham also could not complete the event opting out at the 19.3km mark.
Basketball
Patrice Edwards and Afeisha Noel tallied a 17 points each as T&T women defeated El Salvador 70-61 for fifth spot.
T&T entered the match as favourites but found itself behind 18-20 at the end of the first quarter, and then 38-31 at the half.
However, a dominant third quarter saw T&T outscored the Central Americans 28-13 to lead 59-51 before a 11-10 final quarter to seal the win.
Edwards was only four of 17 from the floor, but made up at the free-throw line sinking nine of ten while Noel was six of 15 from the floor and five of ten at the line.
Samantha Wallace added 16 inclusive of two three points and Jowan Ortega 14, with two from behind the arc for T&T which turned the ball over 23 times and made 12 steals of its own.