Sunday July 26th, Toronto, Canada– Trinidad and Tobago added two medals to its Pan Am total last night, claiming gold and bronze in the men’s 4x400 and 4x100 metre relays.
In the Men’s 4x400 relay, the quartet of Renny Quow, Jarrin Solomon, Emmanuel Mayers and Machel Cedenio came together to produce a blistering season’s best time of 2.59.60 to take first place and the gold medal. Quow ran an excellent first leg handing off to Solomon with a slight lead. Solomon maintained the pace and handed off to Mayers in second who briefly fell to third before Cedenio on anchor picked off the competitors from Cuba and the United States.
Following the race Solomon said, “This feels real good. After all the races this week, gold and a medal bonus is nice way to top it off.” Solomon, Cedenio, Quow and Mayers will receive US$9000 from the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee’s (TTOC) 10Golds24 Athlete Welfare and Preparation fund.
In the men’s 4 x100 relay the sprint quartet of Rondel Sorillo, Keston Bledman, Emmanuel Callendar and Dan-Neil Telesford finished 3rd to claim the bronze in a time of 38.69. The race was not without controversy as Canada originally claimed victory. A protest was launched by the United States, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil however claiming a lane violation by Canada in the third leg handover. The challenge proved to be successful and Canada was eventually disqualified.
Speaking after the race, Callendar said, “There are rules in every sport and we have to abide by it. It’s not the way we expected to win but but we’ll take this bronze; and continue moving forward to every meet, trying to perfect our chemistry so by the time world championships comes around we can get the gold.” Callendar also expressed joy about the medal bonus that they successful relay team members will receive from the TTOC.
In the Women’s 4x400 final, the relay quartet of Janeil Belille, Romona Modeste, Alena Brooks and Sparkle McKnight finished 7th in a time of 3:33:31. Out on the road, 2007 Pan Am silver medallist, Emile Abraham placed 8th out of thirty competitors in the men’s cycling road race with a time of 3:46:35. It was an extremely competitive race with Venezuelan Miguel Ubeto claiming the gold in 3:46:26 and Eric Marcotte of the United States and Boivin Guillame of Canada claiming the silver and bronze in the same time.
Finally, in field hockey Trinidad and Tobago defeated Cuba 13-0 to end the tournament ranked 7th.
Trinidad and Tobago ends this year’s Pan Am Games ranked 15th with eight medals (3 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze), one more than it’s highest ever Pan Am medal haul.