…locals second on medal table, third overall
T&T 15 & Under boys and girls water polo teams added to this country’s gold medal tally at the 2015 edition of the Central American and Caribbean Championship which ended on Tuesday with Water Polo and Open Water competition in Puerto Rico.
The Water Polo competition was contested from Saturday, T&T led by Most Valuable Player and Best Goalkeeper award recipient Zoe Van Reeken as the visitors defeated the host country 7-3 in the final.
On Monday, the Puerto Ricans had secured their spot in the final with a 14-7 win over Jamaica, with the latter taking the bronze medal.
In the round-robin phase, T&T also got the better of Puerto Rico 11-7 and Jamaica 14-2 to end with a 3-0 record.
The 15 & Under Boys gold medal decider was a much closer affair as T&T inspired by the tournament’s Most Goal and Most Valuable Player awardee Chad Rowley (28 goals), 15-13.
The win capped off an impressive tournament for the T&T 15 & Under boys who avenged a 12-17 loss to Puerto Rico in the round-robin while they blasted Jamaica 32-5 in their other match.
On Monday, T&T secured its place in the final by beating the Jamaicans 27-7 for the latter’s second bronze medal.
However, in the 18 & Under boys and girls finals, the Puerto Ricans were able to turn the tables on.
T&T, by capturing both titles, 12-8 over T&T boys and a narrow 11-10 triumph against the girls in the red, white and black swim caps.
Over in Barbados where the 5K Open Water took place, T&T failed to add to its medal tally while the day ended with the Duet and Team competitions in Synchronized Swimming.
In the 14-17 Girls Open Water 5k swim, T&T’s Sabrina David was fourth in 1:22:38.38 to trail Barbadian Alexis Clarke (1:14:41,77); Cost Rica’s Nicole Franco ((1:19:07.56) and Puerto Rico’s Karla Otero (1:20:46.61).
Briana Patterson (1(22:52.39), and Chisara Santana (1(27:18.43), T&T’s other entrants in the event got home, sixth and eighth respectively.
Gabriel Bynoe (1:16:37.52) and Sebastien Marchand (1:23:08.27) were seventh and tenth in the 14-17 boys age-group while Aleem Mohammed (1:18:37.27) sixth in the 18 & Over boys category. Keanu Otero did not finish.
In the end, Puerto Rico topped both the medal and points tables from the four disciplined contested.
In the medals race, Puerto Rico tallied 72 medals (30 gold, 23 silver, 19 bronze) ahead of T&T with 47 (29 gold, 16 silver, two bronze); Barbados with 56 (22 gold, 18 silver, 16 bronze) while Costa Rica which won the most medals overall 73 was fourth with 17 gold, 23 silver and 33 bronze.
And on the points table, Puerto Rico was a clear winner with a whopping 1,300.33 points well clear of second placed Costa Rica (1044) and T&T (808.83) which ended second and third respectively.