Trinidad and Tobago extend Caribbean Games medal tally to 13

TRINIDAD AND Tobago athletes added nine more medals (three gold, four silver and two bronze) to their 2022 Caribbean Games tally on Friday and Saturday.

The three gold medal performances in Guadeloupe were produced by swimmers Nikoli Blackman and Ornella Walker and, on the track, with the women’s 4x100-metre relay team.

At the Inter-municipal pool in Abymes, both swimmers captured their first gold medals of the competition.

Blackman swam to winner’s row in a personal best time of 50.42 seconds. He convincingly defeated Guadeloupe’s Romeo Boileau (51.71) and St Lucia's Jayhan Odlum-Smith (51.94).

Earlier on, in the women’s 50m backstroke, Walker touched the wall in a time of 31.03 seconds. Adding another medal to TT’s tally was Jahmia Harley (31.20), who took the silver medal. Cuban Andrea Becali (31.48) earned bronze.

In the qualifying round, Becali (30.96) topped the field while Walker (31.00) and Harley (31.29) were the second and third fastest swimmers in that order.

And in the women’s 4x100m relay on Friday night, Akilah Lewis, Leah Bertrand, Rae-anne Serville and Naomi Campbell topped the field in 45.19. They got the better of silver medallists Cuba (45.47) and third placed Dominican Republic (46.21).

The men’s 4x100m relay squad also sprinted to silver in 41.64. Dominican Republic posted a golden time of 41.31 while Antigua rounded off the top three in 41.87.

Meanwhile, Walker and Harley were again among the medals in the 100m backstroke. The former bagged silver in one minute, 06.92 seconds (1:06.92) while Harley (1:07.25) held on to a bronze medal finish. Becali however, bettered the pair this time around as she won gold in 1:06.59.

Additionally, TT’s Mark-Anthony Beckles also earned two medals on Saturday. In the men’s 100m butterfly, he bagged silver in 56.81 while countryman Aqeel Joseph was fifth in 58.05. Beckles then earned bronze in 25.65 in the 50m fly.

These performances sent TT’s medal tally to 13 after three days of competition.

On Thursday and Friday, sprinter Kion Benjamin (men's 100m) and swimmer Beckles (50m freestyle) won gold, while Lewis and Bertrand captured silver and bronze in the women’s 100m.

Meanwhile in track and field action on Saturday, no TT athletes eared podium places.

Tamia Badal was sixth in the women’s 100m hurdles, Lorezno Luces also placed sixth with a 15.26m triple jump leap while Serville did not start in the women’s 400m final.

In netball, St Lucia beat TT 36-32 and will face world number six ranked Jamaica in their final round robin match at 2 pm on Sunday.

Up to press time on Saturday, TT’s Under-23 women’s 3x3 basketball team were scheduled to face the winners of Dominican Republic and Haiti in the semi-final round. If they were victorious, TT are guaranteed a medal.

The men’s futsal team were also victorious on Friday night as they beat Guadeloupe 12-4. They were also in action after press time on Saturday against Suriname. Victory here, would have put them through to the semi-final round.

Cyclist Tariq Woods completes TT’s participation at the debut event in the men’s road race from 10.30 am on Sunday.