Golden CAC night for TT

ST GEORGE’S: It was a golden night for Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday, as their athletes captured two gold medals at the XIX Central American and Caribbean Games at the National Stadium, here. The Trinidad and Tobago men’s 4x100-metre relay team of Niconnor Alexander, Marc Burns, Jacey Harper and Darrel Brown, set a new meet record of 39.05 seconds, clipping .02 seconds off the old mark set by Cuba in 1995, while Jamaica and the Netherland Antilles took silver and bronze respectively. And Tobagonian Sheridan Kirk won the men’s 800 metres in one minute 49.10 seconds, ahead of Jamaicans Jermaine Myers (1:49.36) and Marvin Watts (1:49.48). Hosts Grenada won three gold medals in less than a half an hour on the night. Bahamas, Jamaica and Barbados also won gold medals on a day that saw several new records set at the games, which helped countries choose athletes to compete in the August Pan-American Games in the Dominican Republic. The crowd erupted in applause, whistles and shouts of joy when Neisha Bernard-Thomas won the 800-metre event, in 2:04.12, and the first gold medal for Grenada ever in the games’ 17-year history. For the first time, Grenada’s national anthem played at an international meet in the Caribbean country’s four-year-old Queen’s Park Stadium as the NCAA champion received her medal. In the very next race, Hazel-Ann Regis took the gold in the 400m with a time of 51.56 seconds. Then came Alleyne Francique who won the men’s 400m event in 45.27 seconds.  The three winners were named to an eight-member team to represent Grenada at the Pan-Am Games. Grenada also won two silver medals, courtesy of Alleyne Lett who placed second in the discus and 100m hurdles.

Jamaica’s first gold of the day came off Alison Beckford, who won the 400m hurdles in a record 55.12 seconds. It was a scorching race that Beckford always controlled as she erased the games’ 55.64 second record set six years ago by Barbadian Andrea Blackett. Blackett ran again Saturday night, but finished third in 56.12 seconds. Another record fell in the women’s 4 x 100 metres relay, as the Bahamian team of Tamicka Clarke, Debbie Ferguson, Christine Amertil and Shandria Brown ran in 43.06 seconds, the second fastest time this year. The Jamaican team was second and Cuba third — and they all broke the old mark of 43.83 seconds set two years ago by the Jamaicans. It was by far the best day of competition for the English-speaking Caribbean as the region secured a total of 27 medals. Jamaica’s Elva Goulbourne successfully defended her long jump title. She won the women’s event in a wind-aided 6.96m but established a new championship record with her 6.95m stretch in her second attempt.