Teenage T&T swimmer Dylan Carter had this country's best showing at the 2015 Pan American Games, Toronto, Canada, thus far on Tuesday night when he placed fifth in the men's 100m freestyle A-Final at the Pan Am Aquatics Centre.

Swimming from lane seven in the eight-man final, Carter who attends the University of Southern California touched the wall in 49.10 seconds to trail Argentina's Federico Grabich (48.26), his schoolmate and hometown swimmer Santo Candorelli (48.57), Brazilian Marc Chierighini (48.80) and another USC swimmer, Venezuelan Christian Quintero (49.06).

The other finishers in the final were Canada's Yuri Kusil (49.26), Brazil's Matheus Santana (49.58) and Suriname's Renzo Tjon-A-Tjoe (49.60).

On Tuesday morning when the heats took place, the 19-year-old Carter, a silver medal winner in the men's 50m butterfly at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Champions was third fastest in heat one in 49.29 seconds behind Condorelli (48.88) and Kisil (49.07).

Grabich (48.60), Chierighini (48.92) and Tjon-A-Tjoe (49.47) were the qualifiers from heat two while Quintero (49.07) and Santana (49.52) advanced from heat three.

Missing out on a spot in the final was USA's Cullen Jones, who at the London 2012 Olympic Games won gold in the 4x100m medley relay, silver in the 50m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay.

Four years earlier, he also won gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, becoming the first African-American man to win a gold medal in swimming at an Olympics (Beijing 2008), while in 2007 at the FINA World Aquatics Championships he won gold in 4x100m freestyle relay and was second in 50m freestyle.

Today, (Thursday) Carter will be back in action in the 100m butterfly heats while tomorrow he joins Olympic and two-time World Championship bronze medallist, George Bovell in the hunt for 50m freestyle glory.

…..Women Soca Warriors, Colombia in 1-1 draw

The national women's football team made it two straight drawn results from their round-robin group after recent Tobago House of Assembly "Sportswoman of the Year" award winner Kennya "Yaya" Cordner netted an 87th minute equaliser against recent Fifa Women's World Cup participants Colombia.

The Colombians who defeated one of the pre-Women World Cup favouites France, 2-0 at the tournament took a fourth minute lead through Ingrid Vidal and dominated possession for most of the match, but the Women Soca Warriors never dropped their heads and with three minutes left, Cordner capitalized on a blunder by goalkeeper Sandra Sepulveda to stab home the loose ball.

It was the second time late match heroics saved the T&T women, who got a last gasp goal from captain Maylee Attin-Johnson in a 2-2 draw with Argentina in their group opener on Sunday at the same venue.

With the two points, T&T remained third on the four-team table, two behind Colombia which had a 1-0 win over Mexico in its curtain raiser. Mexico is second after whipping Argentina 3-1 in Tuesday's first match with a goal each from Teresa Noyla, Nayeli Rangel and Jennifer Ruiz while Florencia Bansegundo scored for the South Americans, who have one point.

On Sunday in the final round of Group A matches, T&T goes up against Mexico in a must win match and will be seeking to avenge a 1-0 Women's Gold Cup loss from 5.35pm while Argentina battles Colombia at 8.35pm.

.......Williams and Withfield stumble

At the Chevrolet Beach Volleyball Centre, top local men's beach volleyball pair,Daneil Williams and Fabien Whitfield came within two points of extending their match against Chilean brothers, Marcos and Esteban Grimalt to three sets, before falling 11-21, 20-22 to drop to 0-2 in the four-team pool.

Having gone under to Norceca Tour rivals, Puerto Ricans, Roberto Rodriguez and Erick Haddock, 12-21, 15-21 in 32 minutes in their opening match on Monday, the Toco-born T&T play must now defeat El Salvador's Carlos Escobar and David Vargas today at noon to have any chance of advancing to the knockout phase.

And in the afternoon session, local women's pair, Ayanna Dyette and Malika Davidson also put up a very commendable showing in losing top one of the all-time top Norceca Tour pairs in Mexicans, Bibiana Candelas and Martha Revuelta, 23-25, 7-21 in 34 minutes.

It was the second loss in as many matches for Dyette and Davidson who were beaten by Argentines Ana

Gallay and Georgina Klug 11-21, 13-21 in their Pool D opener in 38 minutes on Tuesday.

Up next for the T&T women from 4.30 pm today is top Cuban pair, Linma Flores and Leila Martinez.

......Sailor Arrindell bags 38 points

At the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, T&T's 18-year-old Kelly Arrindell was third, seventh and seventh in the women's laser fifth, sixth and seventh races respectively for seventh spot overall with 38 net points, 11 out of a medal place.

Olympian Andrew Lewis stayed in the hunt for a top three finish as he ended eighth, seventh and seventh in his three races on the day in the men's laser class for 38 net points, and seventh spot overall as well, 12 out of a medal spot.

Both men and women events were scheduled to have race eight yesterday, but results were not available up to pres time while races nine and ten are carded for today from 11.35 and 1.35 pm respectively.

Today at the Pan Am Fields, the national men's hockey team will be hoping to bounce back from their 11-0 mauling from powerhouse Argentina when they tackle Cuba from 9 am in Pool A, a rematch of their Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games final, Cuba won 5-1 last November in Guadalajara, Mexico.

In their opener, Cuba battled to an entertaining 3-3 draw with USA, T&T's final round-robin opponent on Saturday from 11 am at the end of which the quarterfinals will take place.

Also today, T&T golfers Sachin Humar and Talin Rajendranath will compete in round one of men's competition from 8 am while women's pair Monifa Sealy and Christina Ferreira tee off at 10.12 am.

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Despite losing their opening match 4-0 to Uruguay at the ongoing Pan American Games on Monday at the CIBC Pan Am Hamilton Soccer Stadium, T&T men's Under-23 football coach Zoran Vranes is backing his team to come back strongly in their remaining matches against Paraguay and Mexico.

T&T found it difficult to match their South American opponents with Fabricia Duarte opening the scoring in the fifth minute after goalkeeper Javon Sample failed to collect a corner kick.

Uruguay doubled its lead in the 20th when Federico Ricca headed home from a corner before Nicolas Albarracin blasted past Sample to put Uruguay 3-0 ahead on the half hour mark.

T&T was then reduced to ten men in the 59th minute when Alvin Jones was issued a straight red card before Brian Lozano completed the rout with a free-kick strike in the 68th.

T&T got more into the match after the break and started to see a bit more of the ball but there was not much offering to trouble Uruguay on the day.

Speaking after the match, the Yugoslavian-born Vranes conceded that his opponents were too much over the 90 minutes.

"We faced very strong opponents and they very inspired," Vranes said.

"Their team has a lot of experience and with players from the recent Fifa Under-20 World Cup and we were missing some key players like Kadeem Corbin and Rundell Winchester, who are with the senior team at the Concacaf Gold Cup.

But it was a good exercise because these are the level of matches that will be good for the players at this age.

"We are getting a good period together here with the training and of course these matches will come in very good for us. Hopefully the team can grow and the players will benefit from it. I expect we will give a better showing in the next two matches," Vranes added.

Paraguay and Mexico drew 1-1 in the other Group B game on Monday while Brazil defeated Canada 4-1 and Panama beat Peru 2-1 a day earlier in Group A action.

T&T faces Paraguay on Friday from 8.35 pm followed by its final round-robin group match against Mexico on Tuesday at 5.35 pm.

Teams

T&T: 18.Jovan Sample (GK); 2.Shannon Gomez (Yellow 88), 16.Alvin Jones (capt) [Red Card 59], 3.Maurice Ford (5.Dario Holmes 54th), 4.Jesus Perez, 8.Tristan Hodge; 15.Neil Benjamin Jr. (17.Aikim Andrews 37th), 10.Duane Muckette (12.Xavier Rajpaul 73rd), 9.Nathaniel Garcia (Yellow 69), 6.Neveal Hackshaw; 13.Ricardo John.

Unused substitutes: 1.Montell Joseph (GK), 7.Jomal Williams, 11.Shackiel Henry, 14.Jelani Felix.

Coach: Zoran Vranes.

Uruguay: - 1.Guillermo De Amores (GK); 2.Sebastian Gorga (Yellow 62) (4.Paolo Lemos 73rd), 3.Federico Ricca, 5.Edgardo Schetino (11.Juan Gonzalez 73rd), 6.Fabricio Formiliano (capt), 9.Junior Arias, 10.Michael Santos, 15.Fernando Gorriaran, 16.Nicolas Albarracin (7.Facundo Castro 79th), 17.Mathias Suarez, 18.Brian Lozano.

Coach: - Fabián Machado.

Referee: - Oscar Reyna (Guatemala).

Source

Despite losing their opening match 4-0 to Uruguay at the ongoing Pan American Games on Monday at the CIBC Pan Am Hamilton Soccer Stadium, T&T men's Under-23 football coach Zoran Vranes is backing his team to come back strongly in their remaining matches against Paraguay and Mexico.

T&T found it difficult to match their South American opponents with Fabricia Duarte opening the scoring in the fifth minute after goalkeeper Javon Sample failed to collect a corner kick.

Uruguay doubled its lead in the 20th when Federico Ricca headed home from a corner before Nicolas Albarracin blasted past Sample to put Uruguay 3-0 ahead on the half hour mark.

T&T was then reduced to ten men in the 59th minute when Alvin Jones was issued a straight red card before Brian Lozano completed the rout with a free-kick strike in the 68th.

T&T got more into the match after the break and started to see a bit more of the ball but there was not much offering to trouble Uruguay on the day.

Speaking after the match, the Yugoslavian-born Vranes conceded that his opponents were too much over the 90 minutes.

"We faced very strong opponents and they very inspired," Vranes said.

"Their team has a lot of experience and with players from the recent Fifa Under-20 World Cup and we were missing some key players like Kadeem Corbin and Rundell Winchester, who are with the senior team at the Concacaf Gold Cup.

But it was a good exercise because these are the level of matches that will be good for the players at this age.

"We are getting a good period together here with the training and of course these matches will come in very good for us. Hopefully the team can grow and the players will benefit from it. I expect we will give a better showing in the next two matches," Vranes added.

Paraguay and Mexico drew 1-1 in the other Group B game on Monday while Brazil defeated Canada 4-1 and Panama beat Peru 2-1 a day earlier in Group A action.

T&T faces Paraguay on Friday from 8.35 pm followed by its final round-robin group match against Mexico on Tuesday at 5.35 pm.

Teams

T&T: 18.Jovan Sample (GK); 2.Shannon Gomez (Yellow 88), 16.Alvin Jones (capt) [Red Card 59], 3.Maurice Ford (5.Dario Holmes 54th), 4.Jesus Perez, 8.Tristan Hodge; 15.Neil Benjamin Jr. (17.Aikim Andrews 37th), 10.Duane Muckette (12.Xavier Rajpaul 73rd), 9.Nathaniel Garcia (Yellow 69), 6.Neveal Hackshaw; 13.Ricardo John.

Unused substitutes: 1.Montell Joseph (GK), 7.Jomal Williams, 11.Shackiel Henry, 14.Jelani Felix.

Coach: Zoran Vranes.

Uruguay: - 1.Guillermo De Amores (GK); 2.Sebastian Gorga (Yellow 62) (4.Paolo Lemos 73rd), 3.Federico Ricca, 5.Edgardo Schetino (11.Juan Gonzalez 73rd), 6.Fabricio Formiliano (capt), 9.Junior Arias, 10.Michael Santos, 15.Fernando Gorriaran, 16.Nicolas Albarracin (7.Facundo Castro 79th), 17.Mathias Suarez, 18.Brian Lozano.

Coach: - Fabián Machado.

Referee: - Oscar Reyna (Guatemala).

Source

A late equaliser from Kennya "Yaya" Cordner kept the hopes of the Women Warriors alive in Group A of the 2015 Pan American Games women's football competition. The senior women's team squared up against Colombia in their second match of the campaign where they had to come from behind again to salvage a draw at the death at the Hamilton Pan Am Soccer Stadium in Toronto, Canada.

Colombia took an early lead when Ingrid Vidal converted a low cross from the right side three minutes in, and then proceeded to dominate the rest of the match until an errant back pass in the 87th minute gave Cordner the ideal opportunity to save the campaign for the T&T women's team.

The result leaves the Women Warriors in a must-win encounter with the Mexicans on Saturday (5.35pm T&T time) in order to qualify for the semi-finals. The Mexicans, ranked 26th in the world, could prove to be their toughest test yet. But the game also presents a chance at revenge for Ross Russell's charges as they lost 4-2 after extra time to the Central Americans lost out on the third automatic World Cup berth at the 2014 CONCACAF Women's Championships.

Tomorrow, the men's Under-23 football team will face Paraguay at the same stadium in their second match in Group B. Despite going into the game without their skipper Alvin Jones, who was sent off against Uruguay on Monday, the young "Soca Warriors" hope to emulate the senior team who are currently doing well at the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The T&T U-23s lost 4-0 to Uruguay on Monday evening.

Over on the beach, the volleyball pair of Fabien Whitfield and Daneil Williams couldn't get the better of the cousins from Chile, Esteban and Marco Grimalt. T&T lost in straight sets 21-11, 22-20. It was their second consecutive defeat in the preliminary round Pool D at the Chevrolet Beach Volleyball Centre. Their female counterparts were also unable to register a win, as they lost in two straight sets against Mexico 25-23, 21-7 yesterday afternoon.

At Royal Canadian Yacht Club yesterday, the men and women's laser competition was still in progress at press time, and Andrew Lewis and Kelly Arrindell were both holding their own. Lewis was in tenth position in trace five of the Men's Laser class, while Arrindell moved up to second in her fifth race in the Women's Laser Radial class.

Today, endurance cyclist Varun Maharajh will be on the track at the Cisco Milton Pan Am Velodrome for the first event of the men's omnium. He will ride today in the scratch race at 11.56am (TT time). Later on he will contest the men's individual pursuit at 12.42pm, and the elimination at 6.56pm.

The men's team sprint team will be in action as well. Despite the withdrawal of Quincy Alexander through injury, Njisane Phillip who takes his place, will attempt to qualify for the final with Justin Roberts and Jude Codrington. The qualification race starts at 12.29pm, while the final, should they make it, will be 6pm this evening.

Today the T&T men’s hockey team have some ground to make up after their 11-0 thrashing from the Argentines on Tuesday. They face Cuba at 9am at the Pan Fields at the University of St George.

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Two goals in stoppage time led to a 4-4 draw between Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday night in their final group match at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Tied 3-3 through regulation, Mexico pulled ahead on an own goal by Trinidad and Tobago defender Cordell Cato in the first minute of extra play. With less than a minute left, Trinidad and Tobago’s Yohance Marshall headed in a corner kick to tie the match.

“We had a plan for the corner kicks, but I picked up the flight of the ball late,” said Marshall, who did not play in the first two Gold Cup games. “But I wound up in the right place. We got a good result.

“I’ve never gone through a final five minutes like that with the national team; with my club teams and school teams, yes. The emotions are high — they go up, they go down. You can be disappointed, but at the end, we were elated. We could have lost, but we could have easily won also.”

Trinidad and Tobago (2-0-1, 7 points) took Group C’s top seed into the quarterfinals, and will face Panama on Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J.

“It was a good game for spectators — not my heart,” said Trinidad and Tobago coach Stephen Hart, whose team is making its best Gold Cup run since reaching the semifinals in 2000.

“We had an objective to get to the quarterfinals. We wanted to win the first game and get the result from Cuba (a 2-0 win on July 12), and not have to play Mexico to get to the quarterfinals.”

Mexico (1-0-2, 5 points) will play Costa Rica in the second quarterfinal game Sunday.

“We didn’t do what we were doing before, especially in the second half,” Mexico coach Miguel Herrera said through an interpreter. “There were a lot of mistakes. We committed a lot of mistakes in the second half.”

Mexico, which has won six Gold Cup titles, took a 1-0 halftime lead on Paul Aguilar’s goal in the 32nd minute, and pulled ahead 2-0 on Carlos Vega’s shot off the left post in the 51st minute.

“We didn’t manage the game well . but we were doing it in the first half,” Herrera said. “After the second goal, we stopped playing. We made careless mistakes.”

Trinidad and Tobago’s Keron Cummings and Kenwyne Jones scored in a 3-minute span to tie the match in the 58th minute. Cummings’ second goal, in the 67th minute, put Trinidad and Tobago ahead 3-2.

“The players, we believe in one another,” said Cummings, who was making his first start in the Gold Cup. “We knew we can come back. Once we dug deep, we came back.”

Mexico made it 3-3 on Andres Guardado’s 25-yarder in the 88th minute.

“The last goal, it was a ball in the corner,” Herrera said. “If you just take the ball to the corner, the clock probably runs out. But it was a little bit of bad luck because the ball could have gone anywhere.”

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Khalifa St Fort is a strong contender for precious metal in today’s girls’ 100 metres dash, at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia. The American-born Trinidad and Tobago sprinter opens her medal quest in the preliminary round. The first heat is scheduled for 11.40am (T&T time). The semis will be contested from 7.10pm, and the final at 9.05pm.

St Fort is the second fastest entrant in the girls’ 100m with the 11.43 seconds personal best she clocked in Florida, USA on May 23. The fastest is American Candace Hill, who carries the favourite’s mantle after stopping the clock at a jaw-dropping 10.98 on June 20. The clocking is the world youth (Under-18) record, as well as the American junior (Under-20) record.

“People are expecting me to run that fast again,” said Hill at Tuesday’s IAAF press conference, “but I know that might have been a once-in-a-lifetime moment. The girl from Trinidad and Tobago is a great athlete. I feel like we’re going to go head-to-head in the finals.”

St Fort’s coach, T&T’s quadruple Olympic medallist Ato Boldon said at the press conference that Hill’s 10.98 run has served as a fillip for his athlete.

“Khalifa’s whole season changed when she saw that 10.98, because when someone she runs against runs a huge personal best, it shows you it’s possible. I know Khalifa is ready to run a personal best here and you can tie it to watching that 10.98.

“It’s the best thing that ever happened and it makes it easier to compete here because nobody is asking her questions. All the pressure is on Candace so it allows her to just come in and compete. She has done everything I’ve asked of her, (Candace Hill) is the only person to run faster than her; this is the beginning.”

St Fort is looking forward to stepping on the track in the Colombian city.

“My expectations are to execute my game plan well. Of course the goal is to get first, but I’ve come a long way and just to be here is an experience. Whatever the outcome is I’ll be happy.”

Another T&T athlete, Akidah Briggs will compete in the girls’ shot put qualifying competition from 10.35 this morning. The final is scheduled for 8.30pm.

Akanni Hislop was expected to face the starter late yesterday in the third and final boys’ 100m semi-final heat. The final was scheduled for ten o’clock last night.

Hislop was a runaway winner of heat two in the preliminary round of the boys’ century. The T&T sprinter clocked 10.53 seconds for a comfortable cushion on second-placed Jack Hale (10.66) of Australia.

Hislop had the sixth fastest time in the opening round. Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, meanwhile, confirmed his status as favourite with victory in heat one in a Championship record time of 10.30 seconds. The previous Championship standard of 10.31 was established by T&T’s Darrel Brown in the 2001 final, in Debrecen, Hungary.

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More Articles …

  1. Keep fetes, car shows out of sporting facilities
  2. Sailors Continue to Shine for Trinidad and Tobago
  3. Youth Talent Continues to Shine at Pan Am Games
  4. Young Gymnast Continues to Impress
  5. TTOC, THA host Youth Camp
  6. Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee offer bonuses for medal winners at Pan American Games
  7. TTFA constitution unanimously amended
  8. The first leg of TTOC’s Olympic Youth Camp 2015 held in Tobago
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