Emmanuel Callender joined an elite club at the Telmex Athletics Stadium, in Guadalajara, Mexico, yesterday, becoming only the third sprinter from Trinidad and Tobago to earn a Pan American Games 100 metres medal.
Callender clocked 10.16 seconds to bag bronze in the men's century final.
Lerone Clarke added Pan Am gold to the Commonwealth Games title he captured last year, the Jamaican stopping the clock at 10.01 seconds. On Monday, Kim Collins won his semi-final heat in 10.00--a new Pan Am Games record. But the St Kitts and Nevis track star was unable to reproduce that run in the championship race, and had to settle for silver in 10.04.
Twenty-seven-year-old Callender is the first T&T athlete in 36 years to secure a top-three finish in a Pan Am Games 100m final. Hasely Crawford was the last to achieve the feat, the powerful sprinter previewing his 1976 Olympic triumph with silver at the 1975 Pan Am Games, in Mexico City, Mexico.
Before Crawford, Mike Agostini was the only T&T sprinter to achieve a Pan Am Games 100m podium finish. At the 1955 Games, also held in Mexico City, Mexico, Agostini seized silver in the men's 100m. Agostini repeated the feat four years later, in Chicago, USA. However, on that occasion, he earned century silver for the British West Indies, and not as part of a T&T team.
Callender's medal was the third for T&T at the 2011 Pan American Games. Shooter Roger Daniel snapped up silver in the men's 10m air pistol event, and cyclist Njisane Phillip claimed bronze in the men's sprint.
Moriba Morain will be at the Telmex Stadium today, bidding for a berth in the men's 200m semis. The 19-year-old T&T sprinter will run in the third of five first round heats. The semis will also be contested today, while the final takes place tomorrow.
Another T&T athlete, Emanuel Mayers will compete today in the first of three men's 400m hurdles semi-final heats.
In the men's football tournament, T&T produced another good result, holding Uruguay to a 1-1 draw at the Omnilife Stadium, yesterday, to complete their Group A schedule unbeaten.
In their previous matches, T&T battled to 1-1 draws with Mexico and Ecuador. However, the three points earned by the Young Soca Warriors were not enough to secure a semi-final berth. Mexico topped the group with seven points, while Uruguay finished second with four. In today's semis, Mexico face Costa Rica, and Uruguay tackle Argentina.
In yesterday's showdown with Uruguay, the T&T under-22 team went ahead in the ninth minute through Shahdon Winchester. But Mathias Nicolas Abero drew the South Americans level in the 17th. There were no further goals in the game, and Uruguay progressed to the semis.
T&T's hockey women square off against Cuba at 6.30 p.m. today (T&T time). The winners of this match will play for fifth spot against the winners of the Mexico/ Barbados clash. The losers will do battle for seventh spot.
Source: www.trinidadexpress.com
By Kwame Laurence