Sailor Kelly-Ann Arrindell earned herself a silver medal while sprinter Aaron Charles got bronze as Trinidad and Tobago won two more medals when the 2026 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games continued in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Thursday.
The two medals carried T&T’s haul to 19–five gold, five silver, and nine bronze.
At Salinas Beach, 28-year-old Arrindell sailed to a silver medal in the women’s One Person Dinghy final.
In the final two races yesterday, she twice garnered fourth-place finishes to add to her 17 points from the first ten events for a final today of 25 net points, and 30 points overall, seven adrift of gold medal winner, Venezuelan Daniela Rivera who was first and fifth to add six points to her overnight tally of 13 net points and a total of 23 points with Colombian Ana sofia Bermudez securing the bronze medal after a second and first place finish saw her overtaking Guatemalan Jossepyn Echeverria to end with 27 net points, one less than her rival.
Overall, Arrindell was very consistent throughout the event and won races one, three and seven while she was the runner-up in races six and eight and had third place finishers in the fourth, fifth, ninth and tenth races before her final two events, yesterday.
At the Felix Sanchez Olympic Athletics Stadium, 21-year-old Charles produced a strong finish over the final 100m of the men's 200 metres final from lane seven in 20.63 seconds to hold off Jamaican Tracey Tyquendo, who was to his right in lane eight, and finished in 20.66 with another Jamaican, Kadrian Goldson, fifth from lane one on 20.73.
The winner of the gold medal was Puerto Rican Jose Figueroa from lane six in 19.98, the lone man under the 20-second barrier in the final, with home town entrant Alexander Ogando taking the silver in 20.47 from lane five.
On Wednesday, Charles won his semifinal heat two of three, in 20.51 while Figueroa qualified from heat one as the winner in 19.76, and in heat three, Ogando won in 20.31.
Walcott draws blank in men's javelin
Two-time Olympic medallist and 2023 CAC champion Keshorn Walcott surprisingly missed out on a medal when he ended in the fourth spot in the nine-man final.
The 33-year-old Walcott who won the World Championship title last year and was sixth at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland with a best throw of 82.55m, had a best attempt of 80.92m on his second of six attempts in Santo Domingo, as he relinquished hold of the title he won last time out in San Salvador, El Salvador, with a best of 83.60m.
The other efforts for Walcott were 77.51m, 79.25m, 80.02m, 80.89m and 78.47m on his final attempt.
Taking the bronze medal ahead of Walcott was 30-year-old Colombian Billy Julio with an attempt of 81.02m. This was after Julio had earlier attempts of 74.04m, 75.37m, 75.30m, 79.78m, and 77.32m, while T&T's other finalist, Lebron James, was sixth with a best attempt of 75.61m on his fifth attempt.
The 21-year-old James' first attempt landed 72.35m, followed by two fouled attempts, 72.93m on his fourth throw, before he fouled his sixth and final effort.
Grenada's Anderson Peters, 28, won gold with a distance of 83.95m, his fifth effort on the day, while his five other throws were all above 80m as well: 82.93m, 80.79m, 83.62m, 81.94m and 80.61m. Costa Rican Ivan Sibaja, 26, got silver via his best effort of 82.15m, on his first attempt.
Friday, Nicholas Landeau, 31, will look to add to T&T's medal tally when he competes in the men's 800m final after he qualified as the second-fastest loser from semifinal heat two in one minute, 49.58 seconds to the final.
Calypso Girls set up Jamaica gold medal clash
Goal-shooter Maikea Bramble had another stellar display scoring 50-plus goals for the second straight match to lead the T&T "Calypso Girls" to a lopsided 76-28 thumping of Bermuda in their penultimate round-robin match of the six-team round-robin Group A competition at the Juan Bosch Sports Complex.
The win was the fourth in as many outings for the Liselle Johnson-coached T&T women who assured themselves of a silver medal at least ahead of their gold medal clash with Jamaica Friday (August 7) from 6 pm.
Bramble ended with 62 goals from 65 attempts at 95 percent shooting for the T&T women who led 15-7 at the end of the first 15-minute period before they extended the margin to 36-12 at the half-time interval.
The third period produced another 21 goals for T&T compared to nine for Bermuda as the lead for the "Calypso Girls" ballooned to 57-21 before they coasted through the final period 19-7 to cap off another coomanding win, ahead of their highly anticipated meeting with the Jamaicans, who won their third straight match on Wednesday night, 46-37 over Barbados, ahead of their penultimate match last night versus St Lucia.
Goal-attack Kalifa McCollin added 12 goals from 12 attempts, and England-born shooter Kira Rothwell two from three attempts, in another cameo appearance for T&T, while Inshan-nae Smith led Bermuda with 13 goals from 25 attempts, with Jahtuere Trott adding ten from 13 attempts, and Selah Tuzo, five from seven attempts.
In Thursday's other matches, Barbados crushed Dominican Republic 78-17 and Jamaica eased past St Lucia, 40-25.
In table tennis, T&T’s Rheann Chung was stopped in the women's singles round-of-16 by Mexican Clio Barcenas 5-11, 11-9, 7-11, 4-11, 8-11.
T&T also saw their hopes of a medal in the women's squash team end at the quarterfinal stage by Guatemala via a 0-2 result in their best-of-three encounter.
This was after T&T's Faith Gillezeau was beaten by Tabita Gaitan 1-11, 6-11, 7-11 and Kimberly Farah went under to Darlyn Sandoval 4-11, 2-11, 2-11, making the third encounter between T&T's Marie-Claire Barcant and Winifer Bonilla irrelevant.
At the Palmarejo Equestrian Centre, former CAC Games medallist Roger Daniel was joint 16th in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol stage two with 264-5x points to add to his first stage score of 275-3x, which placed him 13th overall while compatriot Rhodney Allen had a second stage of 196-3x to add to his first stage mark of 258-3x for the 25th spot overall.
Calypso Spikers to face Costa Rica for seventh spot
T&T senior women’s volleyballers will do battle with Costa Rica in the seventh-place playoff in the women's volleyball at the Ricardo Gioriver Arias Volleyball Palace Friday from 1 pm.
This was after both teams were beaten in their respective fifth-to-eighth-place semifinal at the same venue yesterday.
In the first semifinal, nine-time Caribbean champions T&T went under to Mexico 10-25, 12-25, 17-25 for a fourth defeat in as many matches after ending Pool A round-robin play without a win in three matches.
For T&T, Kiune Fletcher had a match-high 16 points while the next best scorers for T&T were L'fe Roberts with four points, and the trio of captain Renele Forde, Desiree Donald and Ruth St Louis with two points each.
Mexico dominated T&T 31-19 on attacks, 12 -2 on service aces and also enjoyed a slim edge in blocks, 6-5, while they benefited from 26 errors from T&T as compared to 13 of their own.
The loss against Mexico was the second in as many meetings in the tournament for T&T after a 10-25, 14-25, 12-25 defeat in the opening match on August 2.
Mexico, meanwhile, was led by Uxue Guereca with 11 points and Maria Solar with ten, while Aime Topete added nine, and Karina Gamez eight, to set up a sixth-place battle with Venezuela, who defeated Costa Rica 23-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-9 in the other fifth-to-eighth semifinal.
In the main draw semifinals contested last night, Colombia faced Cuba and Dominican Republic met Puerto Rico ahead of today's bronze and gold medal matches.
T&T CAC Games medal winners
GOLD (5):
Nikoli Blackman (swimming) - men’s 50m freestyle
Nikoli Blackman (swimming) - men’s 100m freestyle
Liam Carrington, Dylan Carter, Zarek Wilson, Nikoli Blackman (swimming) - men’s 4x100m freestyle relay,
Kwesi Browne (track cycling) - men’s keirin
Dylan Carter (swimming) - men's 50m butterfly
SILVER (5)
Liam Carrington (swimming) - men’s 50m backstroke
Teniel Campbell (road cycling) - women's road race
Rinaldo Moore (athletics) - men's 110m hurdles
T&T men's hockey team
Kelly-Ann Arrindell (sailing) - 1 person women's dinghy
BRONZE (9)
Kwesi Browne (track cycling) - men’s individual sprint
Teniel Campbell (road cycling) - women’s time trial
Akil Campbell (track cycling) - men’s omnium
Kwesi Browne, Danell James, Ryan D’Abreau - (track cycling) - men’s team sprint
Teniel Campbell, Kyra Williams, Phoebe Sandy - (track cycling) - women’s team sprint
Teniel Campbell, Alexi Costa-Ramirez - (track cycling) - women’s madison
Dylan Carter (swimming) - men’s 100m butterfly
Nikoli Blackman (swimming) - men's 200m freestyle
Aaron Charles (athletics) - men's 200m
