Silver medals for Campbell, Ahye

ROAD cycling sensation Teniel Campbell continued to create history for herself and the country yesterday as she became the first woman to win a medal for TT in a cycling event at the Pan American Games.

Campbell, a CAC Games road race champion, closed the 18.5km course in 24 minutes, 50.24 seconds, to claim silver, finishing only behind five-time World Championship gold medallist Chloe Dygert Owen, of the United States, who won gold in 23:36.51.

Although Dygert finished a considerable distance ahead of Campbell, the TT rider finished even further ahead of the bronze medallist, Laurie Jussaume of Canada, who closed in 26:27.15.

TT was also represented in the road race by Alexi Costa, who clocked 27:53.69 to finish 16th.

Hours after Campbell’s success, Michelle-Lee Ahye battled hard to become the second woman to medal for TT at this year’s event, picking up silver in the women’s 100m final with an effort of 11.27 seconds.

Kelly-Ann Baptiste, who placed fifth in the 100m final at the Pan Am Games in Toronto four years ago, finished eighth yesterday in 11.52 seconds.

Jamaica, which made considerable strides in the medal standings yesterday, took gold with Olympic champ Elaine Thompson clocking 11.18 seconds. Brazil’s Cristina Silva Rosa came third in 11.30 seconds.

The men’s 100m final took place moments later with TT’s lone representative Keston Bledman finishing eighth in 10.43 seconds. USA’s Michael Rodgers took gold in 10.09 seconds.

One of the more shocking results came in the men’s 400m heats in which Machel Cedenio suffered an uncharacteristically underwhelming result.

Neither Cedenio, who won a silver medal in Toronto in 2015, nor team-mate Dwight St Hillaire, qualified for the final.

Cedenio recorded the fastest reaction time - 0.138 seconds, but was quickly overtaken by the heat winner Jhon Perlaza Zapata, who closed in 45.21 seconds. The TTO quarter-miler finished in 46.77 seconds, well off his season-best 44.52 seconds, which he recorded only ten days prior at the NAAA Open Championships in Port of Spain.

St Hillaire, who ran in the following heat, finished fifth in 46.04 seconds and narrowly missed out on a spot in the final. Another Colombian, Anthony Zambrano De La, won that heat with the fastest overall time of 45.13 seconds.

Alena Brooks challenged the women’s 800m final and finished in sixth, clocking 2:02.75. Jamaica’s Viola Goule won in 2:01.26.

Andwuelle Wright, TT’s only long jump athlete at the event, placed seventh with an effort of 7.62m. That event was won by Cuba’s Juan Echevarria Lafle with 8.27m.

Experienced TT Olympic rower Felice Chow clocked seven minutes, 48.79 seconds in heat two of the women’s singles sculls, which saw her finish second in the preliminary heat and the second fastest among the four finalists.

The 42-year-old trailed the heat two winner, Canada’s Jessica Savick, by 4.46 seconds. Jennifer Forbes (7:57.40) and Chile’s Soraya Jadue (7:57.60) placed first and second, respectively, in heat one, and third and fourth overall over the two heats.

The final is scheduled for tomorrow at 11 am (TT time).

In sailing, Andrew Lewis and Kelly-Ann Arrindell were again forced to postpone their respective opening series races, as wind conditions proved undesirable for competition. They resumed action last evening and finished after press time.

Dylan Carter, who won his 200m freestyle heat and placed fourth overall in the preliminaries, also competed in his final last night.

Giselle Gursoy swam in the women's 200m freestyle preliminaries, finishing fifth in her heat in 2:07.38 and moving into the B final.

Kael Yorke placed fifth in heat three of the men's 100m butterfly, clocking 55.53 seconds.

Gursoy and Yorke also competed in their respective B finals last night.

In archery, Daniel Catariz amassed 649 points to close the men's recurve individual ranking round in 20th place. The top ranked archer, Brady Ellison of the United States scored 702 points, breaking a three-year-old record of 700 points, held by Korean Kim Woojin.

Catariz will take on Cuba's Hugo Franco Padron in the round-of-16 elimination round tomorrow.