GAMES

Cyclist Njisane Phillip earned T&T’s second medal at the 16th Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, yesterday, a bronze in the Match Sprint event. At the Pan American Velodrome, Phillip put up a great challenge against the eventual gold medallist Venezuelan Hersony Gadiel Camelon in the semifinal round but lost and had to battle Fabian Hernando of Colombia for the bronze. His time was 10.244 seconds while Camelon completed the race in 10.210 in that round. In his final ride of the day, he crossed in 10.507 to beat another Venezuelan Angel Pulgar (10.935), to bag the bronze for T&T.

Shooter Roger Daniel got T&T’s first medal on Sunday when he secured the silver in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol. Phillip followed up his record breaking ride of 9.977 in the Match Sprint qualifying round with victories over Cuban Alejandro Mainat, USA’s Michael Benjamin Blatchford in the round-of-16 and quarterfinals. The top T&T cyclist outclassed Mainat in their one-off round of 16 heat before he crushed Blatchford in two straight rides in their best-of-three event in 10.620 and 10.252. In tennis, Dexter St Louis battled past Ecuador’s Geovanny Coello 11-7, 12-10, 11-6, 8-11, 16-18, 12-14, 11-9 to secure second spot in the four-player Group G round-robin series to set up a round-of-32 encounter with USA’s Mark Hazinski

On Tuesday night, St Louis was beaten by Paraguay’s Marcelo Aguirre 11-13, 7-11, 7-11, 11-9, 7-11 as the South American top the group with three wins. In the women’s tournament, T&T Rheann Chung went under to Venezuelan, Ruaida Ezzeddine 5-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 6-11, 8-11 in a virtual battle for second spot Group C. With the loss, Chung ended with four points, one behind  Ezzeddine while Ariel Hsing topped the group with six points. At the Vallarta Yacht Club, Andrew Lewis placed 13th and tenth respectively in races five and six in the laser event, to hold the tenth spot. He will get a day off today but will be back in action tomorrow to compete in two more races.

In hockey, Argentina, led by four goals from Maria Noel Barrionuevo, crushed T&T women 11-0.
Augustina Garcia Carla Rebecchi and Delfina Merino added two goals each and Rosario Luchetto, the other for Argentina. Canada blasted Barbados 10-0 in the other Group A match while in Group A, USA crushed host Mexico 5-0 and Chile panked Cuba. In men’s Trap Qualification, Robert John Auerbach was 12th with a mark of 116 with two other competitors, eight adrift of Guatemala’s Jean Pierre Brol and three shy of the last qualifier for the six-man final in Sergio Pinero of Dominican Republic.

On Tuesday afternoon, the beach volleyball pair of Elki Phillip and Ayana Dyette put up a brave showing in a 14-21, 23-21, 15-6 loss to Ecuador’s Vilela and Chila. Today, the T&T men’s hockey team starts its campaign against Canada at the Pan American Hockey Stadium from 10 am TT time while the senior Soca Princesses come up against Mexico in their second match from 9 pm. T&T was beaten by Colombia 1-0 on Tuesday’s opening day.

-Nigel Simon / Rachael King

Source: www.guardian.co.tt

October 20 - The Telmex Athletics Stadium, which is set to host the Pan American Games track and field event here, has been officially opened by Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO) President Mario Vázquez Raña at a special ceremony just three days before the athletics competition begins.

The Games got underway last Friday (October 14), with the athletics event - the blue-ribbon event of the competition - set to begin on Sunday (October 23).

However, the athletics competition for the Games has been in severe doubt over the recent months because the 15,000 capacity Telmex Athletics Stadium faced countless delays in being built with construction only beginning late in 2010.

Heavy rain storms were one of the biggest contributing factors in causing delays to the $28 million (£17 million/€19 million) project but after a frantic race against time, the impressive Stadium has been completed and opened just in the nick of time meaning all venues for the Pan American Games are now officially complete.

The special opening event saw Raña, who is also Mexico's International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board member, cut a ribbon to symbolically open the venue, while there were a number of other dignitaries in attendance including Guadalajara 2011 Organising Committee general director Carlos Andrade Garin.

"It has been a long a difficult road to get here and there were times when we thought we would not have this stadium ready in time so we are delighted to be opening it today ahead of the athletics competition," Garin told insidethegames.

"It looks absolutely fantastic and I am very happy with all the team who worked so hard to deliver this venue despite the real adversity we faced, particularly the bad weather which we could do absolutely nothing about.

"Everything is now in place for what I'm sure will be a fantastic athletics competition event in a beautiful stadium that Guadalajara and all of Mexico can be proud of."

It was only last week that the athletics track received the seal of approval from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) when Mexico's Cesar Moreno Bravo, a senior IAAInternational Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) technical delegate, announced that his organisation had given the Guadalajara 2011 Organising Committee the certificate of approval for the venue making it eligible to host elite competition.

Some of the sport's top athletics stars, such as Jamaica's Usain Bolt and America's Tyson Gay, will not be representing their teams in at the venue here largely due to the fact that the Games aretaking place so late in the year.

After the Pan American Games, the stadium will become a multipurpose venue hosting sports including athletics and baseball, as well as music concerts.

By Tom Degun

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

In a low tempo encounter, Colombia obtained a narrow victory over Trinidad and Tobago

City: Guadalajara, Jalisco, México

Colombia beat Trinidad and Tobago by 1-0 in Women's football during the second game of the opening day, held at the Omnilife Stadium, Colombia obtained their first three points at the Pan American tournament.

The opening minutes of the game were highly contested in the midfield, neither team threaded in danger areas, they settled for having possession of the ball, harsh plays multiplied in the game, as well as fierce tackles without any clarity on the offense.

The only goal of the game came at minute 20, Patricia Andrade from Colombia entered the penalty area and kicked a right cross, and penetrated Trinidad and Tobago’s goal, guarded by Kimika Forbes.

After Colombia scored, the match entered a period in which both teams struggled for the ball, Trinidadian athletes strengthened their forward defense lines, and subsequently got their first approach in minute 36, but Colombia´s defender, Fatima Montaño saved her team by getting the ball out the court as it was headed for the goal.

In the second half, the game continued with skirmishes in the midfield. In minute 60, the Caribbean squad created another scoring opportunity, Kennya Cordner shot from outside the area but it was well dealt with by Milena Sepulveda, Colombia’s goalkeeper, who fled to the second post and deflected the ball to a corner kick.
The game continued and Trinidad and Tobago’s squad did not get more chances.Colombia added three units in Group A and will face Chile in their next game, while the Trinidadian squad was left with no points, and will measure against Brazil on the second day.

October 18 - There are growing fears among the 6,000 athletes from the 42 competing nations competing here at the Pan American Games regarding the fact that meat across Mexico is contaminated with the banned anabolic steroid clenbuterol.

The issue was very much a live one heading into the event but has dramatically increased in magnitude this week after tests conducted in a laboratory in Germany showed that the majority of the players who competed at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Mexico earlier this year returned positive doping tests due to the contaminated meat with 19 of the 24 teams having squad members with traces of clenbuterol in their bodies.

The banned anabolic agent was found in 109 of 208 urine samples taken at the tournament but FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decided not to prosecute in of the any cases because the weight of evidence pointed to meat contamination.

The Organising Committee have claimed that they are confident the problem will not reoccur at the Pan American Games with Carlos Andrade Garin, the director of Guadalajara 2011, trying to offer assurances that the athletes would be fine as long as the stick to the food in the Athletes' Village.

"We are obviously aware of the problem and of what has happened before [regarding the positive tests from the FIFA Under-17 World Cup] but we are doing our best to control the issue here," he said.

"The meat at the Athletes' Village is 100 per cent reliable and we have urged the teams to stick to that.

"We know where it has come from and we have no doubts.

"The meat has been analysed and is being watched by police to avoid any chance of contamination so we do not expect problems if the teams follow our advice."

WADA has issued a statement before the Pan American Games began advising athletes travelling to Mexico to "exercise extreme caution with regards to what they eat and where they eat while the organisation's legal director Olivier Niggli highlighted the seriousness of the issue saying that it "would be perfect excuse for those who try to use doping."

The majority of the teams have admitted that they are doing everything in their power to avoid contaminated meat with United States Olympic Committee (USOC) chief of sport performance Alan Ashley saying that his team are taking the upmost care in Guadalajara.

"That's one of the things that we really try to advise them, that you've got to really watch out where you eat," said Ashley.

"They're quite used to this because in their daily lives, almost everywhere they go around the world, they're faced with eating choices and nutritional choices.

"Even if the water's purified, if it's just a different culture and a different community, it sometimes upsets you.

"Ultimately, we really just stay on the safe side because all the training, all the time, all the effort to come here, you don't want that to be the one thing that messes up your ability to compete well."

Dr Andrew Marshall, the chief medical officer of Canada's Pan American Games delegation, also said his team will be taking extra care following the revelations from the FIFA Under-17 World Cup - a tournament won by the host country Mexico - but praised the Organising Committee for ensuring safe meat in the Athletes'' Village.

"The Organising Committee have known about the issue for a long time and have been very diligent to ensure that they can guarantee safety of the food in the Village," he said.

"But while you can guarantee it in the Athletes Village, you cannot guarantee it anywhere else, even in high-quality restaurants in town, so we are being diligent."

The problems steams from the face that rogue Mexican farmers illegally inject clenbuterol into their cattle because the drug reduces fat and increases lean meat in cattle.

It is a practice that continues despite being outlawed in Mexico but health official Mikel Arriola added authorities have begun a programme of arresting farmers and shutting down slaughterhouses to stop the issue from continuing.

"We are going to continue these inspections in order to avoid poisoning the general population and doping [athletes]," he said.

-Tom Degun

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

T&T’s beach volleyball team of Elki Phillip and Ayanna Dyette was unsuccessful in their second match at the Pan American Games which is being held in Guadelajara, Mexico. The local duo went down to Cubans Nirian and Onayami Sinal in two sets 12-21, 14-21 in their Pool F match at the Beach Volleyball Stadium in Jalisco. In their opening match they were beaten 5-21, 16-21 by world champion duo Juliana Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil. In the Taekwondo event, T&T’s Leon Hypolite was pounded by Venezuelan Carlos Vasquez in the Men’s Under 80kg Division. He went down 15-3. In yachting, T&T’s Andrew Lewis finished 11th in laser race one. He sailed in behind eventual winners Saladin Aguayo of the Dominican Republic. In second place was Bruno Da Silva from Brazil and third was Julio Alsogaray of Argentina.

After three days of action in the 16th edition of the event, T&T has won one medal thanks to top local shooter Roger Danie, who took silver in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol final on Sunday. Today, the “First Citizens Sportsman of the Year” for 2010, will be aiming for another medal when he competes in the Men’s 50m Air Pistol event at the Pan American Games Polygon in Jalisco. Another local athlete Robert John Auerbach will see action in the Men’s Trap qualification.

Also, Dexter St Louis and his step-daughter Rheann Chung will represent T&T in their respective table-tennis events. St Louis, who is ranked 15th, will first play Juan Acosta (32) from Peru then Paraguay’s Marcelo Aquirre (7) in the Men’s singles while 21st ranked Chung will have three matches in the Women singles against American Ariel Hsing (3) in her first match, Analdy Lopez (38) of Guatemala and finally Venezuela’s Ruaida Ezzeddine (17). Beach volleyballers Phillip/Dyette will take on Ariana Vilela/Katherine Chila of Ecuador in their final preliminary round match. Andrew Lewis returns today, to compete in the two Laser races in the Sailing event. At the Panam Velodrome, T&T cyclist Njisane Phillip will look to advance out of the qualification round in the Men’s Sprint event.

-Rachel Thompson-King

Source: www.guardian.co.tt