TT to play for CAC hockey bronze

TT’s hockey men suffered a break-breaking penalty shoot-out loss to Mexico at the semifinal stage of the Central America and Caribbean Games (CAC) after holding their rivals to a 1-1 draw.

TT went down early on when Francisco Aguilar scored a fifth minute item to give the Mexicans a 1-0 advantage. However, the TT team quickly settled and gained control with large spells of possession. They finally made it count in the second quarter, when Mickell Pierre struck a 19th minute equaliser.

Although TT perhaps should have gone on to score again, the match concluded 1-1 and went to penalties. Mexico were the sharper of the two teams from the penalty spot and converted four shots, while TT scored just two.

With the defeat, TT will play for bronze on Sunday against Guyana.

Mexico will move on to play Cuba – a team TT defeated 2-1 earlier in the competition – in the final.

In other events, Marsha Bullen-Jones represented TT in the 10m air pistol individual preliminary event, where she scored 81, 89, 89, 84, 83, 84 for a total of 510 points. That saw her place 18th and out of the top eight qualification bracket. The preliminary round was topped by Cuban Laina Perez, who scored a CAC record 576 points for a qualifying round.

Bullen-Jones will have another shot at progression to a medal round, when she teams up with Roger Daniel for the team’s 10m air pistol preliminary event.

TT’s water polo women suffered another heavy setback yesterday after getting trounced 22-5 by Mexico. The result followed their 22-3 loss to Venezuela on Thursday.

Shemiyah Ross, who scored one of the three goals on Thursday, got a hat-trick against Mexico. Stafford, also one of the scorers for TT on Thursday, scored in the third quarter, and Summer Gibson got TT’s last goal.

TT were outscored in each quarter: 6-1, 6-1, 4-1 and 6-2.

They will play their third preliminary match against Colombia today, scheduled for 4.40 pm (TT time), followed by their fourth preliminary match on Sunday against Puerto Rico, and finally against Cuba on Monday.

In tennis action, Breana Stampfli began her quest for gold against Bahamian Danielle Thompson.

After an uneasy start, Stampfli took control and won 7-6 (4), 6-3 for a relatively comfortable win.

Stampfli continued her success against Dominican Republic’s Kelly Williford but needed three sets this time.

Stampfli took the opening set 6-4 but saw her opponent reverse the score in the second set to send the match into a decisive third set. Stampfli upped her game to blank the Dominican 6-0.

Today, TT’s Alexei Costa and Teneil Campbell will challenge in the women’s cycling road race. In boxing, Michael Alexander will take on Carlos Figueroa at the quarterfinal stage of the men’s lightweight (60kg) class.

At 3.15 pm (TT time), TT will face Barbados for the women’s hockey bronze medal. Later, at 10 pm, TT and Colombia will play in both teams’ Pool B volleyball opener.