Historic Parapan Am title for record-breaking T&T thrower

Akeem Stewart wrote his name into the history books in Toronto, Canada, yesterday, becoming Trinidad and Tobago's first-ever Parapan American Games champion. And the 23-year-old did it in style, producing a massive 63.03 metres throw to strike gold in the men's discus F44 event.

Stewart's winning throw is a new Parapan Am Games record. In the opening round of the competition, he landed the 1.5-kilogramme implement 60.36m to improve on the 45.77m standard established by Cuba's Gerdan Fonseca back in 2007. After fouling his next three attempts, and passing in round five, the Tobago field athlete produced the 63.03m monster throw in the sixth and final round to re-set the Games record.

Stewart missed out on the F44 world record by just 43 centimetres, American Jeremy Campbell's 63.46m mark barely surviving the “Akeem Onslaught”. Stewart, though, had the satisfaction of whipping Campbell, the three-time Paralympic gold medallist settling for silver yesterday with a 57.32m throw. Another American, David Blair secured bronze with a 56.83m effort.

Stewart was actually listed as an F43 athlete on the Parapan Am Games website, and his winning throw was announced as a new F43 world record. However, both T&T Paralympic Committee (TTPC) president Ken McKell and treasurer Sudhir Ramessar confirmed that Stewart is F44, the classification for athletes with “single below knee amputation or those that can walk with moderately reduced function in one or both legs”.

This evening, Stewart competes in the men's javelin F44. Also in action for T&T will be swimmer Shanntol Ince in the women's 100m Freestyle S9.

On Wednesday, Carlos Greene fell just short of the podium. The visually impaired T&T athlete threw the iron ball 10.58m to finish fourth in the men's shot put F11/12 event.

The bronze medallist, Venezuela's Anibal Bello produced a 10.68m effort for a 10-centimetre cushion on Greene. Brazilian Alessandro Da Silva grabbed gold with a 12.54m throw, with silver going to Colombia's Edwin Rodriguez Gonzalez (12.26m).

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Women's football in Trindad and Tobago took an eventful turn in the last eight weeks. Fans of the women's game were able for the first time to witness the first women's league where paid professionals would take to the field when the Women's Premier League (WPL) kicked off on 18th June at the St James Barracks.

A lot of the final product however, was a result of the work of the Brazil Link Company. The Brazil Link, or TBL was the brainchild of Narada Wilson and Cy Padmore three years ago. The company is based in Brazil, but also has a branch in Barataria where they have been operating during the entire duration of this year's inaugural WPL.

The company mainly deals with cultural exchanges between South America, mainly Brazil and Trinidad. Two years ago, they split the company into three sub sectors which are education, travel and sport. It was their sports segment that was the busiest in the past six months, as they were called into action to recruit players.

"The Minister had a vision to have a professional league for women," said Narada Wilson the company's sports executive.

"They were looking for about 40 internationals, and we put forward a proposal to bring 20-22 players from South and North America."

Despite the league being a platform to help develop the game of the national players, there also needed to be a foreign presence in the league to help raise the standard of competition.

TBL recognised that, and were on board to facilitate the influx of Latin American players.

"T&T is not yet at the stage to have a pro league with six teams made up of all local players," he said. 

He also agreed with the general feeling that the foreigners would raise the profile and standard of the league.

"The reality is: if we don't have the standard in Trinidad, the only way to get the standard is to bring in foreigners so that the others could see and learn by example."

The company dug into their South American resources and were able to bring across the best players who were not at the Women's World Cup, which was taking place in Canada around the time the WPL had finally kicked off. These players included the Brazilians, who were mostly national U-20 players and a few former national senior team selects, players from Paraguay as well as Colombia, and even players from North America.

"I worked at the Copa Libertadores in 2012, as well as the FIFA World Cup Organising Committee in Pernambuco for three years," he said.

"I had access to different clubs and players, so I went speaking to different clubs and players about coming to the league."

Part of their negotiations were player contracts and salaries.

"They offered what the salaries would be. If we had difference in salaries in terms of a player being a higher calibre, or their clubs paying a higher fee, we decided we would cover the difference in order for the player to still come."

Despite the reservations of the media, as well as organisational issues along the way, the inaugural WPL came to a climactic end on July 30th and was generally well-received by the general public.

Wilson is already looking forward to the future where local women's football is concerned. According to the Minister of Sport Brent Sancho, the WPL has already been sanctioned to continue for three more years.

"The time-frame for the WPL is perfect," he said.

"University players are on break as well as players from South America, the US and England, who will all have their off-season breaks."

Wilson said that the WPL should go back to it's originially-carded three-month season next year, as it would allow them to bring in more professionals, and more corporate stakeholders would be able to get involved as well.

Locally, TBL are involved in athlete representation, player management and taking care of the off-the-field side of the game. They currently have on board women warriors Lauryn Hutchinson, and Akheela Mollon, as well as Zane Coker, the starting keeper for the beach football team and Ryan Augustine the team's captain.

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Dallas and Houston have been announced as the hosts of next year's Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, with the top two teams in the eight-strong tournament set to advance to Rio 2016.

The 2015 World Cup winners and hosts, the United States, have been placed into Group A with all of their matches in the round-robin phase of the tournament set to be played in the Toyota Stadium, home of Major League Soccer side FC Dallas.

Canada and Mexico have also been guaranteed berths in the qualifying tournament and they are set to be joined by three nations from the Caribbean and two from Central America, who are both due to hold regional qualifiers in September.

Following the conclusion of the regional qualifiers, the group stage draw for the Olympic Qualifying Championship will be held, with teams who are drawn in Group B due to complete their round-robin matches at the BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston.

The group phase is scheduled to take place from February 10 to 16, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the semi-finals, which are due to be held in the BBVA Compass Stadium on February 19.

The venue will also play host to the final on February 21, with the two competing nations having already sealed Olympic berths by achieving victories in their respective semi-finals.

Home fans will be expecting the US to be competing in the final as they prepare to build towards the defence of their Olympic title at Rio 2016.

The US are also hosting the men’s qualifying tournament, due to take place from October 1 to 13, with matches set to be held at the StubHub Center in California, Sporting Park in Kansas, Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Colorado and the Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah.

Defending Olympic champions Mexico are due to compete in Group B, while the hosts are set to take part in Group A, with the full draw scheduled to take place on Tuesday (August 18) in Los Angeles.

As with the women’s tournament, the winners of the semi-finals will advance to next year’s Olympics, while the victor in the third-place match will advance to a play-off against South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) representative Colombia, who finished as the runners-up in the 2015 South American Youth Football Championship.

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Another 13 countries today publicly backed Sebastian Coe's campaign to become the new President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Twelve of the Federations to have come out in support of Britain's double Olympic 1500 metres champion are from the North American, Central America and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC).

Coe had visited the NACAC Championships in Costa Rica's capital San José last weekend, along with Sergey Bubka, his rival from Ukraine.

The countries backing him are Antigua and Barbuda‎, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Puerto Rico, St Vincent and Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and US Virgin Islands.

They join Canada and Jamaica, members of the NACAC who had already publicly backed Coe ahead of the election to replace Senegal's Lamine Diack, who is stepping down after 16 years, at the IAAF Congress in Beijing next Wednesday (August 19).

Several other of the NACAC's 31 members are also expected to vote for Coe, including the United States, who have already revealed they will not say publicly who they are supporting.

Greece have also joined the growing number of European countries supporting Coe.

Last night Ghana had become the first country from Africa to publicly promise to vote for Coe, while Peru, Paraguay, Singapore and Thailand had pledged their support for Bubka, the 1988 Olympic pole vault champion.

It takes to 36 the number of countries who have publicly endorsed Coe, compared to five for Bubka.

Coe, who arrived in Beijing today, said: “I am extremely humbled as well as encouraged that so many Member Federations have come out and expressed their support for my candidacy ahead of next week’s election.

"It means so much to have their support and public backing at this time and I am looking forward to meeting and talking with many more Federations as they arrive in Beijing ahead of our Congress."

Puerto Rico and Greece had been widely expected to vote for Bubka so their decision to align themselves with Coe is something of a surprise.

“I strongly feel that this is a major turning point and a crucial milestone for our beloved sport," wrote Kostas Panagopoulos, President of SEGAS, the Greek Athletics Federation, in a letter to Coe expressing his support.

"I once more wish you all the best, not only for your personal aspirations, but also for the good of all of us and athletics.”

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Trinidad and Tobago's Calypso Girls endured their toughest encounter yet since their openers against powerhouses Australia and New Zealand in Group A a week ago at the Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia. But they prevailed against Scotland by one goal.

The playoff match to decide which team would play for ninth and tenth place against Samoa, had gone to extra-time at the Allphones Arena when the scores were tied at 47 after regulation time.

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TT ATHLETE Akeem Stewart wrote his name into the record books yesterday, smashing not simply the meet record but the World Men’s Discus mark on day four of the World Parapan Games in Toronto.

He achieved a distance of 63.03 metres, and in fact crossed the 60-metre line twice during the competition.

Stewart, a powerfull- built athlete from Tobago was virtually assured of the gold medal after the opening round, hurling the disc a fantastic 60.36 metres; none of the other competitors was able to reach 58 on the day. He then fouled on his next three attempts before skipping his fifth opportunity.

In the final round, Stewart hurled the discus 63.03 metres to add world renown to his gold medal.

Americans Jeremy Campbell (57.32) and David Blair (56.83) finished second and third respectively. Stewart’s throw beat the previous Parapan Games record of 55.81 metres, set by China’s Xia Dong in London 2012 by more than four-and-a-half metres.

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