Source: www.guardian.co.tt
T&T’ Under 17 boys won their third consecutive match last night at the 2011 UANA Junior Pan American Water Polo Championships in Puerto Rico, when they defeated the home team 5-4. The hosts, who had the backing of vibrant spectators, did not capitalise on their overwhelming home crowd advantage and were upstaged by the T&T team. Just a month ago, T&T returned winless from the CCCAN Championships and were defeated by hosts Puerto Rico. T&T returned the favour last night with Daniel Tardieu again leading the scoring with two goals, and Kierron Emmanuel, Shaquille Mitchell and Jonathan Gillette scoring one goal each.
T&T faced USA yesterday evening. Should T&T have won they would automatically advance to the semifinals, and to the World Championships in Australia. A loss would mean waiting on the outcomes of other matches to determine if they progress. This T&T team continues to remove itself from underdog status as they were probably designated as the tournament whipping boys. The team, while having a rocky start with losses to Brazil and Colombia, have opened the eyes of many onlookers especially after beating CONSANAT Semifinalists Peru, last year's tournament winners Canada, and CCCAN champions Puerto Rico. The team is expected to return home on Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, T&T’s girls finished at the bottom of the table after losing each of their four matches in the group stage. After going down 14-8 to Puerto Rico in their opening game on Saturday, they suffered heavy defeats to the US (22-0) on Sunday, Canada (27-0) on Monday and Brazil (22-4) on Tuesday.