NIGEL SI­MON

nigel.si­mon@guardian.co.tt

And­wuelle Wright failed in his at­tempt to se­cure an ear­ly birth­day gift (Au­gust 8) when he end­ed in the tenth spot in the men’s long jump fi­nal at the 22nd Com­mon­wealth Games (CG) in Birm­ing­ham, Eng­land, yes­ter­day (Thurs­day).

Com­pet­ing in the 12-man fi­nal, To­bag­on­ian Wright, the na­tion­al cham­pi­on and record-hold­er, had a leap of 7.57 me­tres on his first at­tempt, be­fore foul­ing his sec­ond at­tempt, then leap­ing 6.86 on his third at­tempt to be out­side of the top six com­peti­tors af­ter his first three ef­forts, thus fail­ing to ad­vance to the fi­nal round.

Ba­hami­an, Laquan Nairn won gold with a best leap of 8.08, his sec­ond at­tempt of six while In­dia’s Sree­shankar Sree­shankar al­so leapt 8.08m but on his fifth at­tempt for the sil­ver, and South African, Jo­van Van Vu­uren, third with a best of 8.06m, on his sec­ond at­tempt as well.

Ja­maican Shawn-D Thomp­son end­ed in the fourth spot with a best of 8.05m, a sea­son-best while In­dia’s Muhammed Aness Yahiya (7.97), Aus­tralian Hen­ry Frayne (7.94m), Do­mini­ca’s Tris­tan James (7.85m), Turks and Caicos Is­lands’ Ifeanyichuk­wu Otuonye (7.80m), a sea­son-best, and Aus­tralian Christo­pher Mitrevs­ki (7.70m) all fin­ished ahead of Wright.

Guyana’s Emanuel Archibald (7.54m) and Thape­lo Mon­ai­wa (7.37m) were 11th and 12th, re­spec­tive­ly.

On Tues­day in the qual­i­fy­ing round, Wright qual­i­fied with a leap of 7.58m on his first at­tempt which was good enough for the eighth spot in the Qual­i­fy­ing Round Group A of ten com­peti­tors and the 12th and fi­nal qual­i­fi­er over­all ahead of coun­try­man Kelsey Daniel.

The top qual­i­fi­er and lone ath­lete to go above 8.00 me­tres was Sree­shankar with 8.05 fol­lowed by Nairn (7.90m), Van Vu­uren (7.87m), Thomp­son (7.85m), Frayne (7.85m), Archibald (7.83m), Mitrevs­ki (7.76m), Yahiya (7.68m), James (7.65m), Otuonye (7.65m) and Mon­ai­wa (7.65m).

T&T sprinter Jereem Richards advances to the semifinals in the men’s 200m.

Courtesy SporTT

Richards, St Hillaire, Greaux breeze in­to men’s 200m semis

T&T trio of for­mer world in­door 400m cham­pi­on Jereem Richards, Dwight St Hillaire, and Kyle Greaux all ad­vanced to the semi­fi­nal round of the men’s 200m.

The 28-year-old Richards stormed to vic­to­ry in heat four in 20.68 sec­onds fol­lowed by fel­low au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fi­er Swazi­land’s Sibu­siso Mat­sen­jwa who clocked 20.79 while St Kitts and Nevis’ War­ren Hazel (21.17), and Sier­ra Leone’s Ibrahim Karim Ban­gu­ra (21.28) qual­i­fied as fastest losers.

Com­pet­ing in heat one, St Hillaire clocked 20.85 to join the win­ner of the heat Cameroon’s Em­manuel Es­eme (20.44) as au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fiers to the semi­fi­nals while Niger­ian Ifeanyi Em­manuel Ojeli (21.12) and An­tigua and Bar­bu­da’s Dar­i­on Sker­ritt (21.24) ad­vanced as two fastest losers.

In heat five, Ghana’s Joseph Paul Amoah won in 20.58 with Greaux sec­ond in 21.01 for the oth­er au­to­mat­ic spot in the heat while St Lu­cian Lenyn Kish Leonce (21.22) and Kenya’s Hes­born Ochieng (21.30) qual­i­fied among the fastest losers.

To­day in the semi­fi­nals, Greaux will be first on the track from 12.09 pm from lane four against Niger­ian Al­a­ba Oluku­nie Ak­in­to­la, Ochieng, Pak­istan’s Sha­jar Ab­bas, Eng­land’s Zhar­nel Hugh­es, Cana­da’s Bren­don Rod­ney, Mada­gas­car’s Rus­sel Alexan­der Nasir Taib and Hazel.

St Hillaire lines up in semi­fi­nal heat two and 12.17 in lane sev­en against Sker­ritt, Leonce, Es­eme, Kenya’s Dan Kivi­asi Asam­ba, Eng­land’s Adam Gemili, Niger­ian Udo­di Chu­di On­wuzurike and Ja­maican Kadri­an Gold­son.

In semi­fi­nal three from 12.25 pm, Richards runs out of lane five with St Kitts and Nevis’ Nadale Buntin, Ban­gu­ra, Mat­sen­jwa, Kenya’s Mike Mokam­ba Nyang’au, Am­moah, St Lu­cia’s De­lan Ed­win, and Ojeli.

The top two fin­ish­ers in each semi­fi­nal and the two fastest losers over­all will qual­i­fy for to­mor­row’s (Sat­ur­day’s) fi­nal from 4.18 pm.

Pri­eto ad­vances to women’s 200 semis

In the women’s 200m heat five, T&T’s Mauri­cia Pri­eto, 26, crossed the line in the fifth spot in 23.69 sec­onds to ad­vance to the semi­fi­nals as one of the fastest losers and 13th over­all, be­hind heat win­ner, Ja­maican Elaine Thomp­son-Her­ah (22.80), Scot­land’s Beth Dob­bin (23.10) and Aus­tralian Jac­in­ta Beech­er (23.13) who all qual­i­fied from the heat au­to­mat­i­cal­ly.

To­day (Fri­day), Pri­eto will go af­ter a spot in the fi­nal when she com­petes in the third and fi­nal semi­fi­nal heat from lane one against Cameroon’s Lin­da An­gounou, Dob­bin, Thomp­son-Her­ah, British Vir­gin Is­lands’ Be­y­once De Fre­itas, Cana­da’s Natasha Mc Don­ald, Malawi’s Asim­eye Simwa­ka, and Papua New Guinea’s Toea Wisil with the fi­nal set for to­mor­row (Sat­ur­day) from 4.44 pm.

In the women’s high jump, 24-year-old USA-based Tyra Git­tens just missed out on qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the fi­nal af­ter she placed sev­enth of nine ath­letes in the Group A qual­i­fy­ing round with a best of 1.76m on her sec­ond at­tempt at the mark, af­ter which she failed to clear the 1.81m dis­tance.

She will hope for much bet­ter for­tune to­day (Fri­day) when she con­tests the long jump qual­i­fy­ing round in Group A from 6.40 am.

The T&T men’s 4x400 men’s re­lay quar­tet will line up against Bar­ba­dos, Kenya, In­dia and Turks and Caicos from 6.49 am in semi­fi­nal heat two while Papua New Guinea, Nige­ria, Ja­maica, Zam­bia, Botswana and Sin­ga­pore will con­test semi­fi­nal one from 6.37 am with the fi­nal card­ed for Sun­day from 3.30 pm.

Para-ath­lete Akeem Stew­art makes his Games bow when he com­petes in the men’s shot put fi­nal from 2.06 pm while Asa Gue­vara runs in the men’s 400m semi­fi­nal from 4.20 pm af­ter he placed third in the sec­ond heat in 45.98 sec­onds on Wednes­day to ad­vance as an au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fi­er with the sev­enth best over­all, be­hind heat win­ner, Ja­maican Nathon Allen, who won in 45.18, and Botswana’s Le­un­go Scotch, sec­ond in 45.75 in heat one.

In his semi­fi­nal, Wright will bat­tle with Sri Lan­ka’s Katin­ga Hewa Ku­marage, Zam­bia’s Kennedy Luchem­be, Niger­ian Sam­son Nathaniel, Ja­maica’s Nathon Allen, Eng­land’s Matthew Hud­son-Smith, Botswana’s Le­un­go Scotch, and Ba­hami­an Alon­zo Rus­sell.

Teniel Campbell of T&T, right, and Simone Boilard of Canada, left, compete in the women’s cycling individual time trials during the Commonwealth Games, in Wolverhampton, England on Thursday.

Rui Vieira

Paul beat­en in Su­per Heavy­weight quar­ters

Box­er Nigel Paul, 32, who won a bronze medal at the 2021 World Cham­pi­onship in Bel­grade last year came up short in his ef­fort to ad­vance to the medal round af­ter los­ing 5-0 on points in his men’s su­per heavy­weight (over 92kg) quar­ter­fi­nal against Eng­land’s De­li­cious Orie, who had a first-round bye.

On Sun­day, Paul made an im­pres­sive start to his cam­paign in the men’s su­per heavy­weight (over 92kg) against Jean Christophe Stephan Otendy of Mau­ri­tius win­ning his bout af­ter the ref­er­ee stopped the con­test with one minute, 38 sec­onds in the open­ing round at the Num­ber 5 Hall 4 in their round-of-16 bout.

Tiana Guy al­so stepped in­to the ring for her women’s feath­er­weight (over 54 - 57 kg) quar­ter­fi­nal bout against Niger­ian Eliz­a­beth Os­ho­ba, but did not ad­vance af­ter a nar­row 2-3 loss on points.

The judges’ score­card had Os­ho­ba win­ning 29-27 while the fifth judge had Guy win­ning by a sim­i­lar mar­gin, and the three oth­er judges all called it 28-all with the Niger­ian be­ing de­duct­ed a point dur­ing the con­test.

Cy­clist Camp­bell 7th in women’s In­di­vid­ual Time Tri­al

T&T women’s cy­clist Te­niel Camp­bell, 24, end­ed in sev­enth spot from a field of 31 en­trants in the Road Cy­cling In­di­vid­ual Time Tri­al at West Park in a time of 42 min­utes, 07.99 sec­onds, just two min­utes, 02.79 sec­onds out­side of the gold medal rid­er, Aus­tralian Grace Browne’s time of 40:05.20.

Se­cur­ing the sil­ver medal was Eng­land’s An­na Hen­der­son in 40:38.55 while New Zealan­der Geor­gia Williams bagged bronze in 41:25.27 fol­lowed by Aus­tralian Geor­gia Bak­er (41:44.85), and Isle of Man duo, Lizzie Hold­en (41:48.78) and Re­bec­ca Stor­rie (41:53.49).

No suc­cess for ta­ble ten­nis play­ers in dou­bles

The lo­cal pair of Char­lotte Knag­gs and Chayse Mc­Quan were de­feat­ed in their Mixed Dou­bles round-of-32 by Cana­di­ans Hol­lie Naughton and Nick Sachvie 7-11, 4-11 at the Uni­ver­si­ty Hock­ey and Squash Cen­tre and in ta­ble ten­nis at the NEC Ta­ble Ten­nis Court, five-time Caribbean women’s Sin­gles cham­pi­on, France-based Rheann Chung, 37, and 18-year-old Der­ron Dou­glas put up a spir­it­ed ef­fort in a loss to Col­in Dal­gliesh and Re­bec­ca Plais­tow of Scot­land, 9-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 9-11.

North­ern Ire­land keeps Ca­lyp­so Girls win­less

At the NEC Are­na, T&T “Ca­lyp­so Girls” net­ballers end­ed their Pool B cam­paign with a dis­mal 0-5 record af­ter a 41-32 loss to North­ern Ire­land.

The de­feat for the Kem­ba Dun­can-coached T&T fol­lows loss­es to Eng­land (22-74), Ugan­da (28-68), New Zealand (24-80), and Malawi (30-70).

The Eu­ro­peans who al­so en­tered the match with a 0-4 record as well were led by goal shoot Cia­ra Cros­bie’s 27 goals from 34 at­tempts while goal at­tack Em­ma Mageeadde eight from 14 as they held com­fort­able leads of 14-5, 24-15 and 32-22 at the end of the first three 15-min­utes quar­ters be­fore T&T won its first quar­ter of the com­pe­ti­tion, 10-9, the fi­nal pe­ri­od.

The sub­sti­tute pair of goal shoot, Jen­na Bow­man, with four goals from eight at­tempts, and goal at­tack, Georgie Mc Grath, with two from three, were the oth­er scor­ers for the win­ners.

A pos­i­tive for the ‘Ca­lyp­so Girls’ was goal shoot Afeisha Noel who had a per­fect 18 goals from 18 at­tempts, while goal at­tacks, Joelisa Coop­er and her re­place­ment, Tahi­rah Hollingsworth both added sev­en from nine at­tempts, re­spec­tive­ly.

The de­feat means that T&T with its 0-5 win-loss record in Pool B will face Bar­ba­dos, who fin­ished bot­tom of Pool A with­out a win as well in the play­off for the 11th spot from 9 am to­day (Fri­day).

Arm­strong, Chase end beach vball cam­paign win­less

In women’s beach vol­ley­ball, debu­tants Phyle­cia Arm­strong and Suraya Chase fin­ished at the bot­tom of their Pool B four-team round-robin se­ries af­ter los­ing by de­fault 0-21, 0-21 due to an in­jury against Sri Lankans Deepi­ka Ban­dara and Chathuri­ka Weer­ans­inghe, from 4 pm.

In their pre­vi­ous match­es, the T&T women were al­so beat­en by Aus­tralians Talique Clan­cy and Mari­afe Ar­ta­cho del So­lar 7-21, 6-21 as well as Mano­li­na Kon­stan­ti­nou and Zoi Kon­stan­topoulou of Cyprus 7-21, 17-21.

T&T has so far won three medals at the games, all by cy­clist Nicholas Paul, a gold, sil­ver and bronze, to equal the medal haul of four years ago which was (two gold, one sil­ver) with sprint­ers, Ahye and Jereem Richards the gold medal win­ners and Carter, adding a sil­ver.

Paul, a for­mer Na­pari­ma Col­lege stu­dent, has so far won all three medals for T&T, a gold in the keirin, sil­ver in the match sprint and bronze in the kilo­me­tre Time Tri­al and joined fel­low cy­clist Roger Gib­bon, Mike Agos­ti­ni (ath­let­ics), Michelle-Lee Ahye (Ath­let­ics), Kent Bernard (ath­let­ics), Ato Boldon (ath­let­ics), Hugo Git­tens (weightlift­ing), Wen­dell Mot­t­ley (ath­let­ics), Jereem Richards (ath­let­ics), Ed­win Roberts (ath­let­ics) and Rod­ney Wilkes (weightlift­ing) as gold medal win­ners for T&T at any Com­mon­wealth Games.