Hezekiel Romeo, the national Under-18 shot put champion earned this country’s first ever medal at the Fourth Commonwealth Youth Games at the National Sports Centre, Isle of Man, yesterday. Romeo had a heave of 17.97 metres to finish behind gold medal winner, India’s Navjetdeep Singh (18.81m) and silver medallist Ruan Combrick of South Africa, who had a best heave of 18.57m. Jamaican, Chadrick Da Costa, was fourth (17.44) while Singapore’s Wong Kai Yuen, the only other man to go over the 17m mark was fifth with 17.04m. In July, the 17-year-old Romeo broke the national (Under-18) record when he threw the iron ball 18.03m at a National Association of Athletics Administration Developmental Meet at Ato Boldon Stadium Couva in March. Four months later he improved on that record at the Seventh IAAF World Youth Track and Field Championship in Lille, France with a throw of 19.68m in the qualifying round, a national junior record.

Swimmer Carter fourth again
Local swimmer, Dylan Carter had to settle for a second fourth place finish, this time in the men’s 100m backstroke final yesterday by 0.10 seconds despite decimating his own national record for a second time.
Carter sped home in 55.05 seconds to better his record of 55.82 set in being the third fastest qualifier from the heats. The 15-year-old T&T swimmer, the youngest  in the race, also erased the National Open Record of Nicholas Bovell of 55.33 which was set in February 2007, to become the T&T’s fastest short course 100m backstroke swimmer of all time. The trio of New Zealand’s Corey Main (53.53), Australian Robert Gerlach (54.05) and home-town swimmer Grant Halsall (54.55) who grabbed gold, silver and bronze respectively.
In the heats, his 55.82 clocking had shattered his previous record of 58.44 established in March at the National Short Course Championship in March.

On Friday, Carter was also a fourth in the 50m butterfly (24.94); was sixth in the 50m backstroke (26.03), and seventh, in the 200m backstroke (2:02.90), all new national 13-14 age-group records. Joshua Romany also failed to medal after he  finished sixth in the men’s 50m freestyle in 23.13 seconds. This after he had the fourth fastest time of 22.90 in the heats to become the first Under-17 T&T swimmer under the 23 seconds barrier. Australian duo Te Haum Maxwell (22 secs) and Chris Raven (22.41) along with South Africa’s Luke Pendock (22.61) took the medals. Romany’s morning swim erased the 15-17 boys’ 2009 age-group national record of 23.05 which was held by Caryle Blondell. On Saturday, Romany clocked (50.02) in the  men’s 100m freestyle and was 0.08 seconds out of the medals for fourth spot.

He was also fifth in the 200m freestyle final (1:50.22) on Friday and qualified for the men’s 100m butterfly (56.74) which he opted out of to focus on the 50m freestyle event. The other T&T swimmer to participate Kristin Julien was seventh in the women’s 50m backstroke final in 29.87 a new national age-group record.
Her time was just shy of the 29.84 she set in the heats as the seventh fastest qualifier. Her old age-group record of 30.20 seconds was set in March 2011 at the National Age Group Short Course Championships, while the Open record was held by Kimberlee John-Williams in a time of 29.99. In her other two events, Julien was 11th in the 50m freestyle in 26.90, a personal best time to add to her 12th place finish in the 50m butterfly, 29.37 on Friday, which was also a national record.

Rugby team loses again
At the Bowl Stadium, T&T rugby sevens team was beaten 24-12 by Sri Lanka in the Bowl final after both teams were beaten in their Plate semifinals. Host, Isle of Man defeated Sri Lanka 26-13 while T&T suffered a fifth straight loss from as many matches, losing to Canada, 7-60. Earlier in the day, T&T which ended Group B round-robin play without a win on Saturday was thrashed 53-0 by Group A winner, Australia in its main draw quarterfinal. On Saturday, the local squad suffered defeats to England (53-0),  South Africa (62-0), Sri Lanka (17-5) in Pool B.

Source: www.guardian.co.tt

By Nigel Simon