World Para champ Stewart struggles at shot put final

AKEEM STEWART, the World Para Athletic Championships shot put gold medallist, had a tough time at yesterday’s Commonwealth Games shot put final, at the Carrara Stadium, Gold Coast, Australia.

Stewart, in a field of 12, placed ninth with a best effort of 19.10 metres.

A day after setting a new Games record of 22.45 metres, Tomas Walsh of New Zealand secured gold with a throw of 21.41m, followed by Nigeria’s Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (21.14m) and Canada’s Tim Nedow (20.91m).

Both Renny Quow and Machel Cedenio were unable to book places in today’s final of the men’s 400m.

In the semi-final leg yesterday, Quow, in heat two, finished sixth in 47.21 seconds while Cedenio was third in heat three in 46.19. Cedenio’s time was not good enough to see him progress as one of two “fastest losers”.

There were mixed results, and a change of fortunes, for TT in beach volleyball, at the Coolangatta Beach Court One.

The women’s duo of Abby Blackman and Rheeza Grant got the better of Fiji’s Iliseva Ratudina and Laite Nima 21-13, 21-16 in their 40-minute battle. This was third first win in Pool B after three attempts. But the men’s pair of Daneil Williams and Daynte Stewart suffered their first loss of the Games, in their third and final Pool A contest.

The TT twosome fell to a 21-18, 24-22 defeat to Australia’s Christopher McHugh and Damien Schumann.

The Williams-Stewart pair will be involved in quarter-final action today, from 3 am (TT time) against New Zealand’s Ben O’Dea and Sam O’Dea.

Boxer Michael Alexander was eliminated in the second round stage, in the men’s lightweight category, at the Oxenford Studios, courtesy of a 4-0 scoreline against India’s Manish Kaushik.

Today, Nigel Paul will make his Commonwealth debut when he tackles another Indian, Satish Kumar, in the quarter-final phase of the men’s heavyweight.

Veteran shooter Roger Daniel placed fifth in the men’s 10-metre air pistol final with a tally of 170.6 points, trailing Jitu Rai of India (235.1), Kerry Bell of Australia (233.5), Om Mitharval of India (214.3) and Daniel Repacholi of Australia (193.4).

In the qualification stage, at the Belmont Shooting Centre, Daniel was second with 572-17x while Rhodney Allen was 16th with 551-9x.

And, on the first day, in the queen’s prize pairs finals, the tandem of Delborn Joseph and Michael Perez were 15th, in the 16-team field, with 268-12v.

TT will also be in action today in badminton, squash, table tennis and track and field.