Field specialist Geraldine George captured her second medal and T&T’s third at the World Masters Athletics (WMA) World Masters Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Monday.
George bagged her second bronze medal after finishing third in the women’s 50-54 division discus event. The former Masters world champion also emerged as the bronze medallist in the women’s 50-54 javelin throw, last Tuesday (August 13). T&T’s other medal was also won that day, by Gwendolyn Smith, a silver in the women’s 60-64 shot put.
Monday, the T&T field athlete’s best toss measured 35.91 metres, a season’s best (SB) mark to finish behind gold medallist Germany’s Bettina Schardt (43.06 SB) and Spaniard Carmen Diaz (38.47 SB), who copped silver.
In the men’s 35-39 long jump, Dwaine Herbert just missed out on a medal after placing fourth with a season-best 6.63m. Winning gold was Kuwait’s Saleh Alhaddad with a 7.08m SB, silver went to Great Britain’s Paul Ogun (6.96m) and Robert Diez of Spain (6.77m) won bronze.
Herbert will be back in action today in the triple jump. He enters with a season-best 12.69.
Staying on the field, Rumaldo Noreiga competed in the men’s 65-69 javelin throw and placed 21st with a season-best 32.13m.
Noriega also saw action on the track in the men’s 65-69 200m along with Dave Massiah but it was only the latter advancing as Noreiga did not finish.
Massiah, running in lane seven, placed third in heat five with a season-best 28.36 seconds and progressed as a non-automatic qualifier. He will face the starter in lane eight in semifinal heat one today, hoping to race to the final later.
Murrien Mitchell also attempted to add to T&T’s medal haul but placed eighth in the men’s 45-49 200m final with a 24.05 clocking.
Earlier, Mitchell was a non-automatic qualifier to the final after crossing the line third in semifinal heat one with a season’s best time of 23.83.
Fellow men’s sprinter Rondell Paul did not make it out of the semifinals in the 35-39 division. He placed fourth in semifinal heat three and 10th overall with 22.75 (SB). Only the top eight times moved on to the final.
T&T’s other men’s sprinter Martin Prime was scheduled to race in semifinal heat two in the 65-69 category but did not start.
Lone women’s sprinter Michelle Sturge-White also improved on their season’s best time to reach the final in their respective 200m events. Sturge-White placed second in preliminary heat two with 28.35 (SB) to advance to today’s semifinals with the fifth-fastest time with the hope of reaching the final later on as well.
Also in action today are Susannah Joefield, Cheryl Andrews-Reyes, Joyce Thomas, Robert Stevenson, Oswald Rogers, Garvin Farmer and Matthew Guelmo.
Joefield will tackle her second event at the Championships after participating in her first event, the 10km final on Sunday. In cold and rainy conditions, Joefield, competing in the women’s 70 age group, completed the distance in one hour, six minutes and six seconds to finish 19th in her division.
Tuesday, she will be back in action in the 6km cross country. She has one other event at the Games, the half-marathon which is carded for Saturday (August 24). Elvis Turner (M40) is also listed to compete in the half marathon.
Andrews-Reyes will take on her third event in the women’s 65-69 category at the Masters, the weight throw. She placed 19th in the hammer throw final with a 21.34m effort on Sunday and on Tuesday, she finished ninth with 7.24m in the shot put final.
Later, Thomas will take on her second event, the women’s 75-79 discus throw. In her opening event, the shot put final, she placed 14th with a season-best 6.46m.
Both Stevenson and Rogers will race in the men’s 85-89 division in the 200m. Farmer lines up in the men’s 45-49 400m event and Guelmo is in the men’s 60-64 5,000m race walk.
