21 hours ago
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Senior Multimedia Reporter
Trinidad and Tobago cyclist Kwesi Browne rode to his first individual gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games when he won the men’s keirin final at the Olympic Center Velodrome in the Dominican Republic yesterday.
The gold medal by Browne carried T&T’s golden haul to four, with the three others coming in swimming, which has also produced one silver medal, while cycling has accounted for six of seven bronze medals, with swimming securing the other among the 12 medals.
In the six-man final, Browne, 32, used a late surge to get to the finish line in the six-lap event in 10.254 seconds, with Colombians Cristian Ortega, second in 10.274, and Kevin Quintero, securing the bronze in 10.310 seconds.
It was the third medal of the games for Browne, who also won bronze in the men’s team sprint with Ryan D’Abreau and Danell James and a bronze in the individual men’s match sprint.
T&T’s other competitor, James, won the seventh to 12th ride-off in 12.030 seconds, beating Cuban Maikel Cifran (12.099) and Mexican Ridley Malo (12.332) to the line.
In the semifinals, Browne secured the third spot in his heat in 11.065 seconds to book his place in the six-man gold medal ride behind Ortega, who won in 10.395, while Torrees was second in 10.644 with James, fifth in 12.277.
Verdugo won the first semifinal heat in 10.558 to advance to the gold medal ride along with Syvlanise (10.572) and Quintero (10.738), the second- and third-place finishers.
Swimmers Liam Carrington and Dylan Carter also added to the medal haul by claiming silver and bronze, respectively, at the Juan Pablo Duarte Aquatic Center.
Bolles High School swimmer Carrington swam to a silver medal in the men’s 50m backstroke from lane two in 25.10 seconds, trailing Mexican Marcus Reyes, who won gold in 24.83, and Bermudan Jack Cameron Harvey, who copped the bronze in 25.33.
In the morning heats, Carrington won the first men’s 50m backstroke heat in 25.82 seconds to qualify as the fifth fastest, with Colombian Simon Bermudez second in 26.23 and Guadeloupe’s Sael Laporte third in 26.81 to qualify.
Harvey won heat two in 25.37, with Colombian Anthony Rincon second in 25.89 and Dominican Republic’s Anthony Piñeiro third in 26.20. In heat three, Reyes of Mexico won in 24.63, the top time overall, with Aruba’s Patrick Groeter second in 25.58 and Puerto Rican Yeziel Morales third in 25.77 in the third and fourth qualification swims.
Carter then won his first individual medal of the games when he placed third in the men’s 100m butterfly in 52.99 seconds behind winner Venezuelan Manuel Diaz, who raced home in 52.45, with compatriot Jorge Otaiza second, while T&T’s Zarek Wilson was tenth in 55.03 seconds.
USA-based swimmer Zuri Ferguson was fourth in the women’s 50m backstroke final from lane seven in 29.19 seconds, just shy of bronze medal winner, Colombian Laura Melo, who clocked 29.10 seconds.
Mexico’s Celia Pulido won the gold medal from lane four in 28.58 seconds, with another Colombian, Jasmin Pistelli, winning the silver medal in 28.85.
In the morning heats, Ferguson, who attends the University of Florida, was second in the third women’s 50m backstroke heat in 29.58 seconds, just behind Melo, who won the heat in 29.54, for the seventh and sixth fastest qualification times, respectively, overall.
Pulido (29.08) and Miranda Grana (29.29) were one-two in the fourth and final heat and also had the top two qualification times to the final, with Bermuda’s Madelyn Moore (29.40) and Puerto Rico’s Ella Busquets (29.44) third and fourth in the heat and overall as well.
T&T cyclists continued to rack up the medals at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center Velodrome in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
This was after the duo Alexi Costa-Ramirez and Teniel Campbell secured the bronze medal in the five-team field in the women’s madison, just missing out on the gold medal by four points.
Costa-Ramirez, 30, and Campbell, 28, secured a maximum of five sprint points on the fifth, sixth, and seventh laps before earning ten points on the 12th lap to end with a total of 39 points, four shy of gold medal winners, Colombians Elizabeth Castano and Lina Hernandez, who tallied 43 points, three more than Mexicans Sofia Arreola and Yareli Acevedo.
T&T’s Kyra Williams was sixth in the women’s keirin final in 12.150 seconds to miss out on adding to the medal tally, with Mexico’s Luz Gaxiola taking the gold medal in 11.612, while Colombian Stefany Cuadrado got silver in 11.638 and Mexican Yuli Verdugo got the bronze in 11.669.
Phoebe Sandy, T&T’s other entrant, was eighth overall after she placed second in the seventh to 12th ride in 12.232 seconds.
In the women’s keirin morning heats, Sandy was third in heat one in 13.022 to advance to the repechage, with Cuadrado (11.929) and Guatemalan Nicole Hacohen (12.866) advancing automatically to the semifinals, while in heat three, Williams was also third in her heat in 12.616 to finish behind Verdugo (12.059) and Hernandez (12.169) and missed automatic qualification to the semifinals as well.
In the repechage, Sandy topped the first heat in 12.362 and qualified to the semifinals along with Venezuelan Michell Manzi (12.416) and Barbadian Arielle Greaves (12.451), while Williams (12.652) also qualified from heat two as the runner-up behind Droude (12.412), along with third-place finisher Venezuelan Mariangel Nieves, who clocked 12.805.
Gaxiola topped heat two in the first round in 11.817 and qualified to the semifinals along with Barbadian Amber Joseph (11.934).
In the men’s Madison, T&T’s Liam Trepte and Tariq Woods failed to finish the event.
T&T medal winners
Gold
Nikoli Blackman (swimming) – men’s 50m freestyle
Nikoli Blackman (swimming) – men’s 100m freestyle
Liam Carrington, Dylan Carter, Zarek Wilson, Nikoli Blackman (swimming) – men’s 4x100m freestyle relay,
Kwesi Browne (track cycling) – men’s keirin
Silver
Liam Carrington (swimming) – men’s 50m backstroke
Bronze
Kwesi Browne (track cycling) – men’s individual sprint
Teniel Campbell (road cycling) – women’s time trial
Akil Campbell (track cycling) – men’s omnium
Kwesie Browne, Danell James, Ryan D’Abreau – (track cycling) – men’s team sprint
Teniel Campbell, Kyra Williams, Phoebe Sandy – (track cycling) – women’s team sprint
Teniel Campbell, Alexi Costa-Ramirez – (track cycling) – women’s madison
Dylan Carter (swimming) – men’s 100m butterfly
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