Michael Alexander bagged T&T's first medal of the Pan American Games, a bronze in the men's light welterweight (64kg) semifinal bout at the Miguel Grau Coliseum in Lima, Peru on Tuesday night.
The local boxer, fighting out of the red corner, succumbed to American Keyshawn Davis on points. The other finalist is Cuban Andy Cruz Gomez, who defeated Antigua and Barbuda's Alston Ryan on points.
T&T's chance for a second medal at the Games came to a crashing holt when boxer Aaron Prince and his opponent Lesther Espino of Nicaragua tumbled to the mat but the T&T boxer was unable to get back up ending the bout prematurely.
Prince twisted his ankle early in the third round in his men's middle weight (75 kg) quarterfinal bout and the referee stopped the contest awarding his opponent the win.
Fighting out of the blue corner, the T&T boxer was leading the affair against the Nicaraguan after the first two rounds (19-19, 20-18, 20-18, 20-18, 20-18) but the bout was stopped with some 2.50 remaining.
"Tough lost for him, we were clear ahead," said coach Reynold Cox, who confirmed that the national boxer is okay.
"The doctor said he would have to rest for four days but there is no broken bones .
"Not pleased with our overall results. Would have hoped for at leat two medals here. We would have to do much better for the Olympic Games next year."
In Hockey
T&T hockeymen dropped their heads as they walked off the field knowing fully well that they should have gotten a better result in their opening match against Cuba.
The local stickmen coached by Glenn "Fido" Francis sank to a narrow 3-2 defeat in their opening men's Pool A match after leading twice in the intense affair.
"It was all in the space of two minutes that the game changed. We were leading 2-1, they scored back 2-2 then 3-2 in two minutes time. We got back into the game and dominated but we just did not put away our chances, things that we worked on," said a disappointed Francis.
"Checking the stats just now (yesterday) it was even, even. We had more circle entry than the other team. Things that we worked on we didn't execute. In the end, I think that was the most worrying part. It has me very upset right now. Otherwise the team really performed well."
Pumped up by this year's Carnival contribution, "Brave" by Nailah Blackman, Sekon Sta and Erphaan Alves during their warm-up, T&T started off hot, getting the first of six penalty corners under the first minute. Veteran Kwandwane Browne took the shot but it was off -target.
The teams battled on and it was T&T getting another chance to score but Tariq Marcano's penalty corner was saved by Cuban keeper Leordan Hernandez.
Momemts later, T&T got an advantage as Cuba was down one player Iraidys Calderon was shown a yellow card but the local team could not convert and scores remained goalless to close the first quarter.
In the second quarter, it didn't take T&T long to gain an advantage as Brown converted a penalty corner in the 17.32 minute which inspired the DJ to play this year's Carnival hit song "Famalay" sang by Machel Montano, Bungi Galin and Skinny Fabulous.
"Kwan is Kwan, you can't take that from him. That is a gift from God," said Francis on his former national teammate. "He just won the English League as a player/coach. He is 41 now and I didn't have to give him a rest, he is keeping up with guys who is younger than him. He is a true, true professional, a true leader. He motivates, he encourages."
However, the celebration was shortlived as Manuel Consuegra (20.47) to level the score 1-1 which remained unchanged into the half.
On the resumption, T&T went up again thanks to Mickell Pierre's 48.12 item, again "Famalay" could be heard reverberating from the speakers to joy of the few T&T fans.
Again, the advantage didn't last long as Consuegra took advantage of a turnover and scored his and his team's second goal in 49.27 before his teammate Roger Aguilera sealed the deal in 50.04.
Tariq Marcano had a chance to level the score in the final minute but last try went high and wide.
"That little toughest that the Cuban team had more than us, that worked for them," said Francis. "But in all the guys really tried their best. Again that is some of the shortcomings of not playing too much international hockey.
"We will go over the video to see where we made some key turnovers I think that was the energy and the extra effort that the Cubans put in and we didn't put in and that is why they were successful."
Overall coach Francis felt his team did some good things saying: "We were really good on out high balls receiving, really good on circle entries and in build up, we hardly turnover the ball in the build-up which is in the back. We were finding our key strikers all the time .
"Again is just to do the stuff round the end product which is our issue right now, we just need to fix it."
On Thursday, the national hockey team will meet Argentina in its second match in Pool A.
Francis said, "We have the number three in the world which will be very, very tough. I'm not going to say its going to be an easy game. How the tournament is set up is first play fourth so we still want to try to avoid the Canadians so we going to go at the Argentine game. I'm not going to say that we will win. We will try to see what the best we can get from it. Get the guys' confidence up, I don't want the guys' confidence to go down at all.
"It is a pretty young team I have so its going to come eventually . Just will take some time hoping it will come pretty soon."
Shooting
There was no improvement from either shooters Robert Auerbach Jr and Anthony Maraj on the second day of the qualification round in the men's trap at the Las Palmas Range.
Auerbach, who closed the opening day in 22nd spot, ended in 29th place with an overall score of 96, with rounds of 16, 20 and 18 to add to his opening, 18 and 24.
Maraj finished with 43 (9/10/8/7/9) to remain in 31st and last spot.
on Wednesday, the 2011 Pan American Silver medallist Roger Daniel will be back at the range competing in the men's 25m air pistol event.
In Gymnastics
Joseph Fox put in a good effort with the hope of advancing to Wednesday and Thursday's final round as an automatic qualifier but it did not materialize with his 32nd place finish.
However, the T&T gymnast still remains in contention of competing as he is one of four reserve players.
He totalled 69.700 after completing the six apparatus, producing 11.800 on the floor, 11.300 (pommel horse), 11.600 (rings), 12.950 (vault), 12.600 (parallel bars) and 9.450 (horizantal bar).
Wednesday's schedule
Roger Daniel -me's 25m rapid fire pistol qualification