T&T’s Jereem "The Dream" Richards cruised into the men’s 400 metres final set for Thursday night at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games after easily winning the second of three semifinals at the Jorge El Magico Gonzalez National Stadium, San Salvador, El Salvador on Tuesday morning.
The 2022 World Indoor Championship 400m gold medal winner, the 29-year-old coasted to victory in the second of three semifinal heats in 45.96 seconds, to qualify for the final as the fourth fastest, and well clear of Venezuelan Kelvis Padrino who was second in the heat in 46.19 and qualified sixth fastest to the final while St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) was third in 47.33 and T&T’s Ohdel Adolphus James, fourth in 47.51. The other competitor in the heat, Mexico’s Luis Aviles was disqualified.
Martinique’s Giles Biron won the first semifinal heat in 45.05 and was the top qualifier overall, ahead of Barbadian Jonathan Jones, who was second in the heat and overall, in 45.70 while Grenada’s Gamali Felix, ended in the third spot and sneaked into the final as one of the two fastest losers.
The trio of St Lucian Michael Joseph (45.90), Dominican Republic’s Lidio Feliz (46.13) and Barbadian Desean Boyce (46.29) were the three qualifiers from semifinal three to the final which runs off from 9.20 pm.
Benjamin, Bertrand, and Gittens place sixth in finals
On Monday night, running out of lane six in the eight-man final, the 22-year-old Olympian Kion Benjamin crossed the line in a slow 10.49, only ahead of St Kitts and Nevis Nadale Buntin who clocked 10.54 and Colombian, Ronald Longa, who finished in 10.63.
Taking home the gold medal was Guyana’s Emanuel Archibald who crossed the line in 10.24, closely followed by the Dominican Republic’s Jose Gonzalez in 10.26 and British Virgin Islands Rikkoi Brathwaite who got bronze in 10.26 as well.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Cejhae Greene was fourth in 10.45, while Dominican Republic's second finalist Christopher Valdez was fifth in 10.45.
National women’s sprint duo, Leah Bertrand and Akilah Lewis both lined up in the women’s 100m final, however, they failed to finish among the medals with Bertrand, sixth in 11.57 followed by Dominican Republic’s Liranyi Alonso in 11.58 and Lewis, eighth across the line in 11.64.
St Lucian Julien Alfred stormed to victory in a time of 11.14 seconds to equal the 1998 record of Bahamian legend Chandra Sturrup while Jamaican Tishana Dayle ended with the silver medal in 11.39, and Cuban Yunisleidy Garcia, bronze in 11.50 with Mexico’s Cecilia Tamayo, fourth in 11.54, and Venezuelan, Orangys Jimenez, fifth in 11.55.
USA-based Tyra Gittens was sixth in the women’s long jump final with a leap of 6.19m on her first attempt of six. Gittens also had efforts of 6.19, 6.13, 5.68, 6.13, and 5.58 metres which proved futile in her bid for a podium finish.
Colombian Natalia Linares leapt to a new Games record with her first attempt, 6.86m which shattered the 2010 record which was held by T&T’s Rhonda Watkins. Cuban Leyanis Perez earned silver with a distance of 6.65 on his fifth attempt, with Puerto Rican Alysbeth Felix, securing the bronze with 6.44, and her countrywoman Paola Fernandez, fourth with a best of 6.39, just ahead of Cuban Adriana Rodriguez’s 6.38
On Tuesday night, in the men’s long jump, Andwuelle Wright was scheduled tobe among the starters in the final at 9 pm, hoping to improve on his bronze medal from five years ago in Colombia.
On Wednesday, Devin Augustine and Carlos Hosten compete in the men’s 200m semifinals heats at 7 pm, and Frederick's twin sisters, Sanaa and Solie, line up in the women’s event 30 minutes later, and in the men’s discus throw, Christopher Crawford and Jaden James go after gold from 8.55 pm.
Richards hits eagle in golf gold medal chase
Christopher Richards shot an eagle on the par five 554 yards fourth hole to sit in the sixth position at the end of the first day of the men’s Individual Stroke Play at El Encanto Country Club on Tuesday.
Richards carded birdies on the second par four hole as well as the seventh par five hole to add to his eagle but also bogeyed the 336-yard par-four sixth hole for an overall score of three-under-par 33 on the front nine.
However, the T&T golfer faltered on the back nine with bogeys on the 11th, 12th, and 17th holes for three-over-par on the back nine to end an even-par 72, six shots behind leader Paul Chaplet of Costa Rica who ended the opening round at six under 66.
The pair of Manuel Torres of Venezuela, and Colombia’s Ricardo Celia were joint second at two under 70 while Panama’s Omar Tejeira and Guatemalan Gabriel Palacio are tied for fourth at one under 71.
Lee advances to men’s badminton round-of-16.
Will Lee moved into Wednesday’s round-of-16 of the men’s badminton Singles competition after beating Costa Rican Marco Castillo 21-15, 21-13 in 22 minutes.
However, in the women’s round-of-32 Singes, T&T’s Chequeda De Boulet was defeated by Mexico’s Haramara Gaitan 16-21, 5-21 in 21 minutes.
The T&T duo was expected to compete in the Mixed Doubles last-16 against Mexicans, Miriam Rodriguez, and Luis Montoya last night.
Kendal-Brown bows out in Recurve last-16
In the Individual Women’s Recurve, Amanda Kendal-Brown, who was 13th in the qualifiers with a score of 577.7 won her round-of-32 individual match-up with Costa Rican Judith Hernandez Blanco via 7-1 in sets.
But with a spot in the quarterfinals at stake Kendal-Brown was outclassed by Mexico’s Aida Roman 6-0.
Daniel Catariz-Ragbir was not so fortunate in the men’s competition as after he qualified in the 20th spot in the Individual Men’s Recurve qualifiers with a score of 616 points, he was defeated 7-3 by Venezuelan Ricardo Vasquez in their round-of-32 clash.
Calypso Girls trash Dom Rep 108-10
Goal-shooter Afeisha Noel was only three goals shy of the 50-goal mark as T&T "Calypso Girls" jumped off their netball campaign with an astonishing 108-10 mauling of the Dominican Republic at the Jose Adolfo Pineda National Gymnasium on Monday night.
A long-serving member of the national team, Noel finished with 47 goals from 51 attempts for T&T who was in command from the first whistle and led 29-4, 53-6 and 86-7 at the end of the first three quarters.
Substitute goal shoot Shaniya Morgan provided good support for the Calypso Girls with 22 from 24 attempts, while veteran goal-attack Joelisa Cooper, who will feature in her fourth Netball World Cup next month in South Africa added a perfect 21 goals from as many attempts, and Tiana Dillon, 14 from 16.
For the Dominican Republic, goal-shooter Veronica Reyes had six goals from nine attempts in the lopsided loss with the T&T defensive unit of captain Shaquanda Greene-Noel having five interceptions, Daystar Swift four, and Tia Bruno, three.
In Monday’s other matches, Jamaica punished Barbados 62-34, and St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) crushed Cayman Islands 78-21 while on Tuesday night, T&T came up against Barbados in its second match and will meet SVG Wednesday night from 9.30 pm.
Beach soccer suffers third straight defeat
T&T’s beach soccer men suffered their third straight defeat in as many Pool B matches, 4-2 against Venezuela at the Flor Blanca Sports Complex last night.
For the T&T men, Kevon Williams scored for a 1-0 half-time lead while Omri Baird netted in the third period, but Venezuela also netted four times in the final period with Jose Betancourt, Carlos Perez, Enderson Ramos, and Randy Rivas the scorers.
On Monday night, host El Salvador whipped T&T 7-1 with Francisco Velasquez and Emerson Cerna scoring twice each.
The trio of Melvin Gonzalez, Emerson Cerna and Elmer Robles added one for the Central Americans while goalkeeper Jabari Gray’s got T&T’s lone reply which briefly made the score 4-1.
To make matters worse, T&T ended the match with a player short after Akinola Gregory was issued a red card.
Water polo men face Venezuela for semis spot
T&T men’s water polo team will do battle with Venezuela in the third of four quarterfinals at the Merliot Aquatic Complex from 8 pm on Wednesday.
In the other matches, Mexico faces El Salvador from 5 pm followed by Cuba and Guatemala (CCS) from 6.30 pm, and in the final encounter, Puerto Rico meets Bahamas from 9.30 pm.
Also Wednesday, cyclist Alexi Costa-Ramirez will be among the starters in the women’s individual time trial from 10 am while swimmer, Nikoli Blackman will hope to add to his silver and bronze medal from in the pool when he takes to the water for the Men’s Open Water 5km swim from 11 am.
The senior women’s volleyball will return to competition today against Colombia from 3.30 pm after their opener against El Salvador last night while in taekwondo, Dorian Alexander and Daniel Dasent-Thomson are expected to make their games debut.
