Sprint cyclist Njisane Phillip landed Trinidad and Tobago’s second medal of the Pan American Games last evening when he copped silver in the match sprint final in Toronto, Canada.
Phillip’s silver improved on ace swimmer George Bovell’s bronze in the men’s 50 metre freestyle final on Friday night.
Yesterday at the cycling velodrome, Olympian Phillip went down in straight rides to Canadian Hugo Barrette in the final, but had progressed there by beating Brazil’s Flavio Cipriano in straight rides in their semi-final match-up earlier yesterday. Phillip won the first ride in 10.711 seconds before returning to take the second ride-off in 10.761. He also registered a straight-rides success over Canada’s Joseph Veloce in their quarter-final duel on Friday night.
Taking third was Venezuela’s Hersony Canelon who beat Cipriano also in straight rides.
On Friday, Bovell clocked 22.17 seconds, but the USA’s Josh Schneider won gold in 21.86, with Bruno Fratus of Brazil taking silver in 21.91.
T&T’s other swimmer, Dylan Carter, won the B final in 22. 39 seconds after losing a swim-off against Puerto Rico’s Erik Risolvato for the final spot in the men’s A final after both men were tied for eighth position going into the final.
It was also a productive day at the beach for T&T’s women volleyballers Ayana Dyette and Malika Davidson. They defeated the Cayman Islands’ Chante Smith-Johnson and Lleann Powery 21-18, 21-18, for a 2-0 straight set victory in a playoff to decide positions 13 through 16. They now face Guatemala to decide 13th position at 10 a.m. today.
And the men’s pair of Fabien Whitfield and Daneil Williams missed out on a medal spot when they were defeated 21-16, 21-9 by Mexico’s Juan Virgen and Rodolfo Ontiveros in their quarter-final contest on Friday. Whitfield and Williams rebounded to beat Nicaragua’s Dany Lopez Alvarado and Reuben Mora Romero, 23-21, 17-21, 15-13, for a 2-1 win in a playoff match for positions 9th-12th. They face Venezuela tomorrow for ninth place.
In field hockey action, T&T’s men team suffered a narrow 2-1 loss at the hands of the USA in a Pool MA preliminary round match. William Holt gave the Americans the lead in the sixth minute and Alex Grassi made it 2-0 in the 13th before Ishmael Campbell pulled a goal back for T&T a minute later.
T&T’s Under-22 male footballers were beaten 5-1 by Paraguay late on Friday after midfielder Nathaniel Garcia gave them the lead in the 53rd minute of the match. The South Americans responded with goals from striker Carlos Ferreira (63rd & 71st), who came on as a substitute in the 56th minute, Ivan Ramirez (65th), Derlis Alegre (76th) and Arturo Aranda in the 79th.
T&T’s women footballers also went down 3-1 to Mexico and thus were denied a place in the semi-finals.
Stephany Mayor got a double in the first half for the Central Americans, But Mariah Shade replied six minutes into the second half before Monica Ocampo restored Mexico’s two-goal advantage in the 70th minute.
And in action on the water, T&T’s sailors Kelly-Ann Arrindell and Andrew Lewis had mixed fortunes. Arrindell captured top spot in the Women’s laser radial class medal race to pick up two race points but it was not enough to get her on the podium as her combined total of 72 points saw her finish joint fifth with Lucia Falasca of Argentina.
USA’s Paige Riley won gold with a total of 50 points, with silver going to Dolores Moreira of Uruguay while Brazil’s Fernanda Demetrio took bronze.
In the medal race of the Men’s laser, Lewis finished eighth and picked up 16 race points in the process to finish with a combined total of 90 which was good enough for seventh position overall.
Guatemala’s Juan Maegli won gold with a combined low score of 39 points with Robert Scheidt of Brazil capturing silver and Canada’s Lee Parkhill collecting bronze.