Hockeymen, boxer capture CAC silver

The hockey and badminton events are taking place in the Dominican Republic while the remaining sporting disciplines are being staged in Cartagena, Colombia.

The men’s hockey final saw top national player Wayne Legerton turn from hero to villain in a matter of moments, as he netted twice for the TT lads as they battled to hold the Cubans to a 2-2 scoreline after 70 minutes of full-time and 20 minutes of golden goal extra-time.

But the 2005 TT Player of the Year missed his penalty flick as the Spanish-speaking nation took the precious gold.

There was double success for the Cubans, as their women squad thrashed Trinidad and Tobago 6-1 in the “semis”. The national team will now play Barbados for the bronze medal.

Trinidad and Tobago also took silver in the boxing competition when Kurt Fermin was fairly competitive against Cuban Yordany Despaigne before losing the 75kg middleweight final 3-1 on points.

Despaigne suffered a horrible cut near his left eye that forced the ringside doctor to stop the bout and the Cuban collected the victory because he was ahead on points.

Xavier Brown produced a terrific finish for the 200-metre gold medal on Friday night that gave Jamaica a rare men’s sprint success.

Brown’s strong finish landed him the gold medal in the half-lap race in 20.74 seconds for Jamaica’s first men’s sprint title at the CAC Games since Les Laing won the 200 metres in 1954 in Mexico.

The Cubans, already with the most gold medals entering day 13, moved impressively to the top in the medal count, surpassing Mexico with medals-won overall as well.

The Cubans have a massive 123 gold medals, 78 silver and 51 bronze for a total of 252.

The Mexicans have 248 medals, 94 gold, 78 silver, and 76 bronze, followed by Colombia (67-63-67) and Venezuela (46-79-115).

The Jamaicans climbed one place up to seventh with seven gold, five silver and six bronze and lead the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, ahead of Barbados (6-2-10) in eighth and Trinidad and Tobago (1-5-11) in 13th position.