Jul.30.2010

Nigel Simon: www.guardian.co.tt
T&T’s 4x100 metres men’s relay quartet of Rondel Sorillo, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender and Keston Bledman won this country’s seventh gold medal at the 21st Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, last night. Running out of lane four at the Mayaguez Stadium, the T&T quartet raced home in 38.24 seconds, a new Games record to eclipse the previous best of 38.74 set in 1986 by Cuba in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Jamaica was second in 38.78 and Netherlands Antilles, bronze in 38.82.

In the morning semifinal heats, the T&T relay squad of Sorillo, Burns, Marcus Duncan and Bledman was second in heat one, in 39.36 to trail Jamaica (38.96). T&T also picked up a silver medal via discus thrower, Annie Alexander while taekwondo’s Amelia Corbie, got a bronze to increased the record medal haul to 27 (seven gold, eight silver, 12 bronze) yesterday. Alexander, who on Tuesday got a bronze in the shot put final threw the discus 51.03 metres, just short of Venezuelan gold medal winner, Maria Cubillan (52.21m). Mexico’s Paulina Flores got bronze (49.57).

Alexander’s medal was earned on her fourth of six attempts while Cubillan’s won on her penultimate effort. In the women’s 800-metre final, T&T’s 29-year-old Melissa DeLeon was fourth in two minutes, 04.98 just behind bronze medallist, Marian Burnett of Guyana who crossed the line in 2:04.45. Colombian, Rosibel Garcia won in 2:03.77 minutes and Panamanian, Andrea Ferris, got silver in 2:04.16. Gavyn Nero was seventh in the men’s 800-metre final in one minute, 49.11 seconds while Kyron Blaise (16.01m) and Christopher Hercules (15.61m) were sixth and eight respectively in the men’s triple jump final.

The women’s 4x100 metres relay quartet of Sasha Springer Jones, Ayanna Hutchinson, Reyare Thomas and Aleesha Barber finished a disappointing sixth in their final in 45.01 seconds. Corbie battled her way to a bronze medal in the women’s Over 73kg category when she lost by withdrawal to Mexico. Guadalupe Ruiz in the semifinal round. This after she got the better of Venezuela’s Genesis Cordero 7-4 in the quarterfinals while fellow T&T athlete Che Sankar was beaten by Puerto Rico’s Josean Rivera 6-2 in a men’s Under-63 kg round-of-16 clash.