Blackman, Ferguson miss out on medals

T&T swimmers Nikoli Blackman and Zuri Ferguson both missed out on adding to this country’s lone medal when they placed fourth in their respective finals at the second edition of the Junior Pan American Games at the Olympic Aquatic Centre in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday night.

A member of the men’s 4x100m freestyle team which copped a bronze medal on Sunday night, the 20-year-old Blackman finished one hundredth of a second out of the medal positions in the men’s 200m freestyle A-final in a time of one minute, 50.04 seconds, with Argentina’s Matias Santiso grabbing the bronze in one minute, 50.03 seconds.

Brazilian Stephan Steverink was a comfortable winner in a new record time of one minute, 47.23 seconds, while Chile’s Eduardo Cisternas took silver in one minute, 47.99.

A University of Tennessee student-athlete, Blackman, swimming from lane five, got off to a good start and was well placed for a medal at the first 50m mark in 25.11 for the second spot, which he maintained at the halfway stage of the race with a time of 52.37, to trail Steverink.

However, on the third leg, the T&T swimmer was caught by Cisternas and eventually faded into the fourth spot and just missed out on adding to his medal haul.

In the morning heats, Blackman, swimming from lane four in heat three of the men’s 200m freestyle heats, stormed to victory in one minute, 50.62 seconds, with Cayman Islands’ James Allison second in one minute, 50.81, and Santiso third in one minute, 51.55, while T&T’s other entrant in the heat, Zachary Anthony, was sixth in one minute, 56.43, competing from lane seven and did not qualify for the evening session.

The top qualifier to the final was Steverink, who won the fourth and final heat in one minute, 49.75 seconds, with Cisternas second in one minute, 50.73, and Mexico’s David Medina in one minute, 51.39.

In the women’s 200m backstroke A-final, 18-year-old Ferguson also started brightly and was in the third position at the end of the first 50m; however, she slipped to the fourth spot over the next 50m, with the trio of Malena Santillan of Argentina, Mexico’s Celia Pulido, and another Argentine, Cecilia Dieleke, in third.

In the end, Santillan eased to the gold medal in two minutes, 10.36 seconds, a new games record time, while Pulido ended with the silver in two minutes, 11.67 seconds, and Dieleke was third in two minutes, 11.92, while Ferguson touched the wall in two minutes, 16.07 seconds.

When the morning heats took place, Olympian Ferguson, who starts college at the University of Florida later this month, won heat one of the women’s 200m backstroke from lane four in two minutes, 16.15 seconds for the fourth best overall ahead of the final, with Colombian Isabella Budnik second in two minutes, 18.39, and Guatemalan Melissa Diego third in two minutes, 20.90 seconds.

Dieleke won heat two in two minutes, 15.99 seconds, while Pulido topped the overall heats with her time of two minutes, 13.10 seconds in winning the third and final heat, ahead of Santillan, who clocked two minutes, 15.84 seconds.

In the men’s 100m butterfly B-final, Zarek Wilson was fifth in 54.56 seconds after he was also fifth in heat three in 54.99 seconds for the 14th best time overall in the morning session.

Brazilian duo Lucio De Paula won the heat in 52.86, followed by Gabriel Nunes (53.75), Chile’s Elias Ardiles (54.51) and Colombian Emiliano Calle (54.65) in the heat.

Johann-Matthew Matamoro won heat one in 56.53 seconds but placed 19th, with Paraguay’s Ivan Correa second in 56.86 and Kito Campbell third in 58.12, but the trio all missed out on qualification for the A final as well.

In the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, T&T’s foursome of Zachary Anthony, Amari Ash, Ferguson and Wilson combined for a time of three minutes, 47.98 seconds and the sixth spot in heat two for the 14th position overall.

The T&T swimmers will continue their medal hunt today with Ash contesting the women’s 100m freestyle heats, Wilson and Blackman in the men’s 100m freestyle heat, Ferguson in the women’s 100m backstroke heats and Matamoro in the men’s 100m backstroke heats, while T&T is also registered to contest the mixed 4×100 medley relay heats.

At the Rakiura Resort Court, tennis player Zachary Byng, 18, served off his campaign in the men’s tennis singles with a commanding preliminary round victory against El Salvadorean Gerardo Mejia 6-2, 6-0 in 55 minutes and next faces Brazilian Victor Da Cunha in the round-of-32.

At the National Archery Centre, T&T’s Cam’ron Dinnoo was ousted from his men’s individual recurve match against Ecuadorian Juan Pablo Peralta in the round of 16, 1-7.

This after Peralta won three of the four games contested between men, 27-25, 25-24, and 26-24, with Dinnoo picking up a share of the points in the third game, after both men tallied 24 points from a possible 30.

Dinnoo was the first T&T athlete in action on Sunday when he contested the men’s individual recurve ranking round and ended in the 24th position from a field of 25 competitors with a tally of 503 points, 154 behind the table-topper Nanuq Herzog Hamel.

Tuesday, at the National Hockey Centre, the T&T junior men’s hockey team will hope to bounce back from their 4-1 loss to Chile in their Group B opener when they meet Mexico at 9.30 am, with the latter coming off a 4-3 triumph against Canada.

The men’s and women’s cycling teams will also make their competition bow in the Team Sprint events with the trios of Makaira Wallace, Phoebe Sandy and Kyra Williams, and Jelani Nedd, Danell James and Ryan D’Abreau as the participants.

The quartet of Blackman of the University of Tennessee, Wilson of the University of Alabama, and the University of Indianapolis duo Anthony and Matamoro combined for a time of three minutes, 20.38 seconds for T&T’s lone medal thus far, a bronze in the men’s 4x100m freestyle. A final with Brazil taking gold in 3:18.36 and Venezuela the silver in 3:20.38.

The medal by the T&T swimmers is only this country’s third overall at the Junior Pan American Games, following Kelsey Daniel’s silver in the men’s long jump and Tyriq Horsford’s bronze in the men’s javelin four years ago in Cali, Colombia, at the inaugural Junior Pan Am Games.

Earlier on in the morning session, the T&T quartet clocked 3:26.96 to win heat one, followed by Argentina in 3:27.19 and the Bahamas, third in 3:27.33, while in heat two Venezuela won in 3:23.88, followed by Mexico (3:23.96) and Brazil (3:24.09).