Keshorn throws to javelin gold

JELANI BECKLES and ANDREW GIOANNETTI

KESHORN Walcott left his best for last, snatching the gold medal away from Grenadian Anderson Peters on his sixth and final throw in the men’s javelin at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Colombia, yesterday.

TT now have 30 medals - nine gold, eight silver and 13 bronze.
Walcott looked as if he had to settle for silver entering the final round, but the two-time Olympic medallist threw the spear 84.47m on his final throw to capture gold.

Peters led after four rounds with a throw of 81.80m, but had to settle for silver as Walcott prevailed.
Before the final throw, Walcott threw 81.78m on his first attempt before fouling his second attempt.

He passed on this third and fourth attempts and threw 70.91m on his fifth attempt. Grabbing bronze was Mexican David Carreon with a top effort of 76.27m.

The TT women’s 4x100m relay team of Zakiyah Denoon, Semoy Hackett, Khalifa St Fort and Reyare Thomas earned silver in 43.61 seconds, finishing behind Jamaica which won gold in 43.41. Rounding off the top three was Dominican Republic in 43.68.

The TT men’s 4x100m relay team of Keston Bledman, Jalen Purcell and twin brothers Nathan and Jonathan Farinha missed out on a medal finishing fourth in 38.90. Barbados won gold in 38.41, Dominican Republic took silver in 38.71 and Jamaica copped bronze in 38.79.
TT men’s rugby sevens team were scheduled to play in the bronze medal match against Jamaica last night, after losing the semifinals 29-5 to Mexico.

Satyam Maharaj was the first in action for TT. The 25-year-old competed in canoeing where he challenged the men’s K1 200m gold medal event and finished nineth, clocking 45.985 seconds, nearly 10 seconds behind the gold medal winner, Fidel Vargas of Cuba.

Vargas clocked 36.399 seconds, ahead of Mexico’s Alberto Briones, who won silver in 37.236 seconds and Eddy Barranco of Puerto Rico was the bronze medal winner in 37.479 seconds.

The men’s volleyball team went up next in the seventh/eighth place play-off against Guatemala. Both teams were neck and neck for the majority of the first three sets, with the scores reading 25-22, 27-25, 23-25 before Guatemala sealed a comfortably victory in the fourth set, which they won 25-17. The match lasted nearly two hours with TT finishing eighth of eight teams.
TT entered the seventh/eighth place play-off after three successive losses in the group stage.