Caribbean Sports Network

THE TRINIDAD and Tobago men’s 4x100-metre relay squad set a competition record en route to a gold medal on Thursday night, in the 21st Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. And the women’s hockey team beat Mexico to take the gold as TT broke their previous CAC gold medal haul of seven set in 1966 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Rhonda Watkins also captured a gold medal in games record 6.67 m in the women’s long jump final

TT’s tally is now 29 medals including nine gold medals.

Rondel Sorillo, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender and Keston Bledman were the gold medal-winning Trinidad and Tobago quartet who, with a time of 38.24 seconds, erased the previous record of 38.74, which was set by Cuba, in 1986, in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

The silver medal went to Jamaica in 38.78, while the Netherlands Antilles got the bronze in 38.82. And Annie Alexander claimed the silver medal in the women’s discus, with a best effort of 51.03 metres.

The 23-year-old, who took bronze in the women’s shot put a few days earlier, was beaten on Thursday night by Venezuela’s Maria Cubillan, who threw 52.21m, while Paulina Flores of Mexico was third with 49.57m.

Also in the track and field arena, Kyron Blaise and Christopher Hercules finished sixth and eighth respectively in the men’s triple jump. Blaise had a best leap of 16.01m while Hercules covered a distance of 15.61m.

Melissa De Leon placed fourth in the women’s 800m in two minutes 4.98 seconds while, in the men’s two-lap, Gavyn Nero was seventh in 1:49.11.

In taekwondo, Amelia Corbie earned bronze medal after being beaten in the semi-final round of the Women’s Over 73 Kg yesterday.

After whipping Genesis Cordero of neighbouring Venezuela in a quarter final contest 7-4 of Pool “A”, she was later stopped by Guadalupe Ruiz of Mexico in the “semis” where she placed third.

Last evening Trinidad and Tobago were expected to feature in two 1,600m relay finals— the men’s were drawn in lane seven while the women will face the starter’s gun in lane five.

Also on last evening’s agenda, boxer Andrew Fermin was scheduled to face Colombia’s Jeysson Monroy in the final of the men’s light heavyweight bout.

Tomorrow, the men’s hockey final is on the agenda, with Trinidad and Tobago squaring off against Barbados.The CAC Games will end tomorrow.