Manswell punches for Pan Am gold

SANTO DOMINGO: Tobago-born heavyweight boxer Kerston Manswell advanced to the gold medal bout at the XIVth Pan American Games. Manswell moved within sight of  the biggest fight of his career after he beat American Devin Vargas Miles in their heavyweight semi-final bout at the Carlos Teo Cruz Coliseum, Wednesday night. Manswell, in spite of a close 14-12 points win, showed control over his opponent in every round and secured a 100 percent winning record over the American after beating him in the first Pan Am qualifier. “He’s tough and he’s strong, but I beat him before,” Manswell told CMC Sport. The bout was tied at five after two rounds but Vargas lost ground in the third round, going into the fourth and final round down four points. “I didn’t give it my all, I just boxed and did enough to let me prevail in the end,” Manswell added. Manswell, who got silver medals at last year’s Commonwealth and Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, will now meet Cuba’s world champion Odlanier Solis in tonight’s gold medal bout.

But Trinidad and Tobago had a bit of bad fortune yesterday when top taekwondo specialist Cheryl-Ann Sankar underwent surgery for a broken leg sustained during her Under-57 kilogramme bout against a Guatemalan opponent. The injury occurred during the second round of the fight, with the scores locked at one apiece. Barbados became the latest English-speaking Caribbean nation to strike gold at the Games when cyclist Barry Forde won the men’s keirin on Wednesday. Forde wrote his name in the history books as the first Barbadian to win gold at the Pan Am Games as he repelled a strong challenge from American Guideon Massie to secure the keirin title. “This (gold) is for everybody in Barbados,” Forde said. “I want people to recognise that Barbados is a big fish in the game (even though) we might be a small dot on the map,” added Forde, who got a  bronze medal  in the event at the World Championship in Stuttgart, Germany, earlier this month. Venezuela’s Ruben Osorio finished third and Jamaican Ricardo Lynch — who will face Forde in the match sprint quarter-finals — placed seventh.
On a satisfying day for Caricom nations, Trinidad and Tobago’s George Bovell grabbed his second medal at swimming, while Jamaican Nigella Saunders advanced to the gold medal encounter in badminton.

Bovell finished impressively to pick up the silver in the men’s 100 metres freestyle at the Aquatic Centre. After winning gold in the 200-free Monday night, Bovell clocked a Trinidad and Tobago record time of 49.61 seconds to finish behind Jose Martin Meolans of Argentina (49.27), with Brazilian Gustavo Borges third in 49.90. Barbadian Damian Alleyne contested the “B” final and finished 14th overall in 51.89 seconds. Bovell’s younger brother, Nicholas won the “B” final in 2:05.22 for ninth overall. Sharntelle McLean qualified for last night’s “B” final in the women’s 100m butterfly in 1:04.59, while Shannon Duval will compete in the “B” final of the women’s 100m backstroke, after clocking 1:17.00 in her heat yesterday. And Ayeisha Collymore of Trinidad and Tobago finished 15th in the women’s 100 metres backstroke.