Calypso Girls beat Samoa to top Pool G

Trinidad and Tobago's “Calypso Girls” clinched top spot in Pool G yesterday after beating Samoa 66-47 for their fourth straight win at the Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia.

Having enjoyed wins over Singapore and Zambia in their earlier pool matches and previously Barbados in Pool A in the preliminary, a win yesterday at the Allphones Arena was vital if T&T were to maintain hopes of clinching ninth spot, which is the highest placing they can now hope to reach.

New Zealand exacted revenge for last weekend's loss in Sydney with an outstanding 41-13 win over Australia, thus retaining the Bledisloe Cup.

It was a very different story to seven days ago as the All Blacks were relentless as they kicked on in the second-half, turning a 13-6 lead into the final result to cap Richie McCaw's special day with an ideal result at Eden Park in Auckland.

Tries were scored by Dane Coles, a penalty try, Ma'a Nonu (2) and Conrad Smith as the world champions go into the World Cup on a positive note.

It was an nervy start for New Zealand as they forced offloads out of rucks and struggled to contain the Wallaby backline, notably Israel Folau. And eventually Australia were rewarded with three points as Quade Cooper silenced the boos.

That kick on seven minutes didn't wake up the All Blacks as mistakes continued, with the world champions looking somewhat flustered on their home patch.

New Zealand did level matters on seventeen minutes when good work at the breakdown handed Dan Carter a shot from range, which he took superbly before the Wallabies looked to apply pressure in the 22. They certainly did that, but excellent defence kept them at bay.

To compound Australia's disappointment not to add to their tally, New Zealand broke through Carter on halfway as he scythed through like the Carter of old before setting up in-form hooker Coles who sprinted over from 35 metres out.

The sides would trade penalties around the half-hour mark to make it 13-6, with the latter offence, Conrad Smith taking out Adam Ashley-Cooper in the air, seeing the centre fortunate not to see yellow. Carter and Cooper were both striking it well.

Carter wasn't so solid with an attempted drop-goal on half-time, meaning the score was not altered going into the break.

New Zealand were this time the side on song early in the half and it took them just six minutes to put themselves in a commanding position, as wing Nehe Milner-Skudder's brilliant footwork before an even better offload led to Aaron Smith being taken high by Cooper five metres out. The penalty try was awarded and to compound Australia's woes, their fly-half was given his marching orders for ten minutes by Welsh referee Owens. The boos had turned to loud cheers for Cooper.

20-6 soon became 27-6 when Milner-Skudder was again involved, this time kicking down the line before recycled ball was swiftly moved along to Nonu who strolled over for their third try. With Carter's conversion, the All Blacks were dominating.

Their fourth try came thanks to Nonu's bust up to within ten metres and then he was on hand to fire out the assist to centre partner Smith, who was deserving of his crossing after a performance that silenced his recent critics. It was now 34-6.

New Zealand were now cruising against a Wallaby side that was a shadow of last week's team, with Nonu grabbing his brace on 65 minutes when he switched with Carter, brushing off scrum-half Nic White en route to the line. Steve Hansen would then empty his replacements bench which prompted one of the loudest cheers of the night as captain and world record appearance holder Richie McCaw came from the field. He would later get his hands on the coveted Bledisloe Cup.

For Australia this was a lesson and a psychological blow as they were outclassed in Auckland, with Folau's consolation try doing little to paper over what was a hugely disappointing day at the office that sends them into the World Cup shaken.

Man of the match: Plenty stood up for New Zealand after that Sydney defeat but one player who was brilliant in everything he did was Conrad Smith. His efforts in defence and attack saw him rewarded with a score as he edges out Ma'a Nonu.

Moment of the match: It was 13-6 when Nehe Milner-Skudder sliced through with a trademark step. What followed was an unreal offload that led to a penalty try. A close second has to be the ovation for Richie McCaw when he was replaced.

Villain of the match: It wouldn't be Eden Park and Australia in town without Quade Cooper being seen as the bad guy. His yellow for taking out Aaron Smith prompted New Zealand to up the pace and they never looked back from that moment.

The scorers:

For New Zealand:
Tries: Coles, Penalty, Nonu 2, C Smith
Con: Carter 5
Pen: Carter 2

For Australia:
Try: Folau
Con: White
Pen: Cooper 2
Yellow: Cooper (high tackle - 49 mins)

New Zealand: 15 Ben Smith, 14 Nehe Milner-Skudder, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Victor Vito, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Nepo Laulala, 19 Jerome Kaino, 20 Sam Cane, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 Colin Slade, 23 Malakai Fekitoa.

Australia: 15 Israel Folau, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Henry Speight, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Nic White, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 James Horwill, 4 Will Skelton, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore (c), 1 Scott Sio.
Replacements: 16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 James Slipper, 18 Greg Holmes, 19 Dean Mumm, 20 Kane Douglas, 21 David Pocock, 22 Matt Giteau, 23 Kurtley Beale.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes (England), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)

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Historic Parapan Am title for record-breaking T&T thrower

Akeem Stewart wrote his name into the history books in Toronto, Canada, yesterday, becoming Trinidad and Tobago's first-ever Parapan American Games champion. And the 23-year-old did it in style, producing a massive 63.03 metres throw to strike gold in the men's discus F44 event.

Stewart's winning throw is a new Parapan Am Games record. In the opening round of the competition, he landed the 1.5-kilogramme implement 60.36m to improve on the 45.77m standard established by Cuba's Gerdan Fonseca back in 2007. After fouling his next three attempts, and passing in round five, the Tobago field athlete produced the 63.03m monster throw in the sixth and final round to re-set the Games record.

Stewart missed out on the F44 world record by just 43 centimetres, American Jeremy Campbell's 63.46m mark barely surviving the “Akeem Onslaught”. Stewart, though, had the satisfaction of whipping Campbell, the three-time Paralympic gold medallist settling for silver yesterday with a 57.32m throw. Another American, David Blair secured bronze with a 56.83m effort.

Stewart was actually listed as an F43 athlete on the Parapan Am Games website, and his winning throw was announced as a new F43 world record. However, both T&T Paralympic Committee (TTPC) president Ken McKell and treasurer Sudhir Ramessar confirmed that Stewart is F44, the classification for athletes with “single below knee amputation or those that can walk with moderately reduced function in one or both legs”.

This evening, Stewart competes in the men's javelin F44. Also in action for T&T will be swimmer Shanntol Ince in the women's 100m Freestyle S9.

On Wednesday, Carlos Greene fell just short of the podium. The visually impaired T&T athlete threw the iron ball 10.58m to finish fourth in the men's shot put F11/12 event.

The bronze medallist, Venezuela's Anibal Bello produced a 10.68m effort for a 10-centimetre cushion on Greene. Brazilian Alessandro Da Silva grabbed gold with a 12.54m throw, with silver going to Colombia's Edwin Rodriguez Gonzalez (12.26m).

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Women's football in Trindad and Tobago took an eventful turn in the last eight weeks. Fans of the women's game were able for the first time to witness the first women's league where paid professionals would take to the field when the Women's Premier League (WPL) kicked off on 18th June at the St James Barracks.

A lot of the final product however, was a result of the work of the Brazil Link Company. The Brazil Link, or TBL was the brainchild of Narada Wilson and Cy Padmore three years ago. The company is based in Brazil, but also has a branch in Barataria where they have been operating during the entire duration of this year's inaugural WPL.

The company mainly deals with cultural exchanges between South America, mainly Brazil and Trinidad. Two years ago, they split the company into three sub sectors which are education, travel and sport. It was their sports segment that was the busiest in the past six months, as they were called into action to recruit players.

"The Minister had a vision to have a professional league for women," said Narada Wilson the company's sports executive.

"They were looking for about 40 internationals, and we put forward a proposal to bring 20-22 players from South and North America."

Despite the league being a platform to help develop the game of the national players, there also needed to be a foreign presence in the league to help raise the standard of competition.

TBL recognised that, and were on board to facilitate the influx of Latin American players.

"T&T is not yet at the stage to have a pro league with six teams made up of all local players," he said. 

He also agreed with the general feeling that the foreigners would raise the profile and standard of the league.

"The reality is: if we don't have the standard in Trinidad, the only way to get the standard is to bring in foreigners so that the others could see and learn by example."

The company dug into their South American resources and were able to bring across the best players who were not at the Women's World Cup, which was taking place in Canada around the time the WPL had finally kicked off. These players included the Brazilians, who were mostly national U-20 players and a few former national senior team selects, players from Paraguay as well as Colombia, and even players from North America.

"I worked at the Copa Libertadores in 2012, as well as the FIFA World Cup Organising Committee in Pernambuco for three years," he said.

"I had access to different clubs and players, so I went speaking to different clubs and players about coming to the league."

Part of their negotiations were player contracts and salaries.

"They offered what the salaries would be. If we had difference in salaries in terms of a player being a higher calibre, or their clubs paying a higher fee, we decided we would cover the difference in order for the player to still come."

Despite the reservations of the media, as well as organisational issues along the way, the inaugural WPL came to a climactic end on July 30th and was generally well-received by the general public.

Wilson is already looking forward to the future where local women's football is concerned. According to the Minister of Sport Brent Sancho, the WPL has already been sanctioned to continue for three more years.

"The time-frame for the WPL is perfect," he said.

"University players are on break as well as players from South America, the US and England, who will all have their off-season breaks."

Wilson said that the WPL should go back to it's originially-carded three-month season next year, as it would allow them to bring in more professionals, and more corporate stakeholders would be able to get involved as well.

Locally, TBL are involved in athlete representation, player management and taking care of the off-the-field side of the game. They currently have on board women warriors Lauryn Hutchinson, and Akheela Mollon, as well as Zane Coker, the starting keeper for the beach football team and Ryan Augustine the team's captain.

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Dallas and Houston have been announced as the hosts of next year's Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, with the top two teams in the eight-strong tournament set to advance to Rio 2016.

The 2015 World Cup winners and hosts, the United States, have been placed into Group A with all of their matches in the round-robin phase of the tournament set to be played in the Toyota Stadium, home of Major League Soccer side FC Dallas.

Canada and Mexico have also been guaranteed berths in the qualifying tournament and they are set to be joined by three nations from the Caribbean and two from Central America, who are both due to hold regional qualifiers in September.

Following the conclusion of the regional qualifiers, the group stage draw for the Olympic Qualifying Championship will be held, with teams who are drawn in Group B due to complete their round-robin matches at the BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston.

The group phase is scheduled to take place from February 10 to 16, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the semi-finals, which are due to be held in the BBVA Compass Stadium on February 19.

The venue will also play host to the final on February 21, with the two competing nations having already sealed Olympic berths by achieving victories in their respective semi-finals.

Home fans will be expecting the US to be competing in the final as they prepare to build towards the defence of their Olympic title at Rio 2016.

The US are also hosting the men’s qualifying tournament, due to take place from October 1 to 13, with matches set to be held at the StubHub Center in California, Sporting Park in Kansas, Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Colorado and the Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah.

Defending Olympic champions Mexico are due to compete in Group B, while the hosts are set to take part in Group A, with the full draw scheduled to take place on Tuesday (August 18) in Los Angeles.

As with the women’s tournament, the winners of the semi-finals will advance to next year’s Olympics, while the victor in the third-place match will advance to a play-off against South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) representative Colombia, who finished as the runners-up in the 2015 South American Youth Football Championship.

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