Friday July 18th, Toronto, Canada– Olympic bronze medallist George Bovell won Trinidad & Tobago’s first medal at this year’s Pan Am Games, swimming to 3^rd place and another bronze medal in the men’s 50m free final in a time of 22.17.  Fellow swimmer, Dylan Carter also qualified for the men’s A final but was tied with Puerto Rican Erik Risolvato for the final spot. Carter lost the swim off for the final spot in the A final, but comfortably won the men’s B final in a time of 22.39.

On the cycling track, men’s sprint Pan Am record holder Njisane Phillips successfully navigated his 1/8 final and 1/4 final rides and has qualified for tomorrow’s 1/2 final. Compatriot Justin Roberts missed out on qualification for the men’s sprint event. In the omnium cycling competition Varun Maharajh placed 8^th in the 1Km time trial finals, 6^th in the flying lap and 9^th in the points race. His overall rank following the six-race event is 9^th.

In Beach Volleyball the women’s duo of Davidson and Dyette earned their first victory of the games, defeating the Cayman Islands in straight sets. They will next play Guatemala on Sunday. Davidson first started playing indoor volleyball in high school and tried out beach volleyball with a close friend and discovered that she liked it. Dyette started playing in 2008 when she graduated from college and thinks there are a lot of positives to take from their performances at the PanAm Games. “We were in a tough pool, but I think we gave a really good account of ourselves.”

Over on the men’s side, Williams and Whitfield lost their quarterfinal qualifying match against Mexico in straight sets. Following the game Williams said, “We’re proud of ourselves and Mexico is a really good team, but the scores don’t necessarily reflect how we played. They had a lot of luck on their side too.”

Out on the golf course Monifa Sealy, ended the second round ranked 15^th while Christina Ferreira was ranked 27^th. On the men’s side, Talin Rajendranath is currently ranked 27^th after the second round of play, while Sachin Kumar is ranked 20^th. In the mixed team event featuring all four golfers, Trinidad and Tobago is currently ranked 13^th.

On the water sailors Kelly Ann Arrindell and Andrew Lewis continued to show great form. Arrindell placed 3rd in race eleven and 6^th in race twelve. Lewis was 10^th in race eleven and 3^rd in race twelve. Tomorrow they will both compete in the medal races to determine their final position.

Shooters Marlon Moses and former Commonwealth and Pan Am Games medallist Roger Daniel failed to advance in the men’s 50m rifle prone and pistol events.

The medal hunt for Trinidad and Tobago continues tomorrow with more action in field hockey where the men will take on the United States, and the women warriors taking on Mexico.

TRINIDAD AND Tobago’s cycling contingent opened their 2015 Pan American Games account with a fifth place finish in the Men’s Team Sprint event, as action continued at the Cisco Milton Velodrome in Toronto, Canada, yesterday.

The local trio of Jude Codrington, Justin Roberts and Olympian Njisane Phillip missed out on a place in the final after clocking 45.381 seconds in their showing. Codrington rode the opening lap in 18.032 while Roberts contested the second and crossed the finish line at 31.166s followed by Phillip, who completed the final ride. Originally, Quincy Alexander was scheduled to ride the Team Sprint, but due to a recent groin injury sustained in a pre-tournament meet in Mexico two weeks ago, he was unable to compete, so Phillip filled in. In last night’s final after press time, Canada was scheduled to square off against Venezuela.

In other cycling news, endurance rider Varun Maharajh placed ninth in the opening stage of the Men’s Omnium - Scratch Race. He then showed slight improvement by weaning out an eighth place (4:45.842) finish in the second stage, Individual Pursuit.

Maharajh was also expected to face the starter in the Elimination Race last night, but up to press time his results were unavailable. Meanwhile, T&T’s beach volleyball unit of Daneil Williams and Fabiel Whitfield won their first match of the tourney by getting past El Salvador in straight sets (2- 0) at the Chevrolet Centre. In the opening set, the local pair won 21-15 and was then pushed to the limit in the second, but eventually prevailed with a 26-24 result. Having lost their two previous matches against Puerto Rico and Chile respectively, the TT team still has a shot at progressing when they face Mexico in a quarter-final qualifying match today.

The women however, were unable to secure a win yesterday as they lost their third consecutive Pool ‘D’ match against Cuba 0-2. T&T’s Malika Davidson and Ayanna Dyette went down in the opening set 12-21, then faltered once more in the second to lose 9-21. They now challenge for 13th to 16th places when they do battle with the Cayman Islands today.

In field hockey action, the National men’s team drew 2-2 with Cuba in their second Pool ‘MA’ encounter. Cuba opened the scoring from forward Yoandy Blanco in 22nd minute and held the lead to the break. At the resumption, TT’s Akim Toussaint levelled with a strike in the 51st minute. But, his effort was soon wiped away two minutes later when Blanco struck again to retain a Cuban advantage (1-2). TT defender Solomon Eccles then burst into play five minutes after to save face for the Caribbean team with a drawn result.

The TT men play their final preliminary round match against powerhouses and defending Pan Am champions the USA tomorrow.

At the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Kelly-Ann Arrindell continued to be a threat on the waters as she placed 12th in the eighth race of the Women’s Laser Radial, and followed with an impressive fourth place in the race nine. Male sailor Andrew Lewis also had mixed results as he placed seventh in race eight of the Men’s Laser followed up by a ninth place finish in the following race.

And at the Aquatics Centre and Field House, swimmer Dylan Carter was unable to advance to the finals of the Men’s 100m butterfly after placing fifth in 53.89s.

In action for TT today will be the men’s beach volleyball team against Mexico, the women equivalent facing Cayman Islands, Phillip and Roberts facing the starter in the Men’s Flying 200m, Maharajh continuing his prowess in the three remaining stages of Omnium racing, the Men’s Under-23 football team will meet Paraguay, Arrindell and Lewis on the waters in race 11 and Roger Daniel in 50m Pistol qualification.

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Thursday July 16th, Toronto, Canada – Track Cycling and Golf got underway at Pan Am today with Trinidad and Tobago fielding teams in both events.  On the track, the men’s team of Njisane Phillips, Jude Codrington and Justin Roberts finished 5^th in qualification in the men’s team sprint, just missing out on the chance to compete for the bronze medal. In the omnium cycling competition Varun Maharajh placed 9^th in the scratch finals, 8^th in the individual pursuit qualification and 5^th in the elimination race. The Omnium event consists of six races and takes place over two consecutive days.

Out on the golf course Monifa Sealy, who is currently ranked in the top 120 Women in the world Amateur Golf Rankings, ended the first round in 20^th place.  Sealy has led the winning T&T golf team at the Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship for the last three years, and has won the individual title twice. She plans to turn pro following this year’s games. Christina Ferreira who is the 2^nd highest ranked woman from Trinidad and Tobago on the World Amateur Golf Ranking sits in 27^th place after the first round.  Ferreira is a freshman at the University of Northern Colorado where she is a member of the golf team. Over on the men’s side, Talin Rajendranath is currently ranked 16^th after the first round of play, while Sachin Kumar is ranked 24^th. In the mixed team event featuring all four golfers, Trinidad and Tobago is currently ranked 15^th.

Sailors Kelly Ann Arrindell and Andrew Lewis continued to post solid results on the water. Arrindell placed 12^th in race eight, 4^th in race nine and 8^th in race 10. Lewis was 7^th in race eight, 9^th in race nine and 7^th in race 10.

The men’s field hockey team showed great fight to draw their second match against Cuba 2-2. This was a nice recovery following their first round defeat against Argentina. They will next play the Americans who also lost to Argentina (6-0) on Saturday.

In Volleyball the men’s duo of Williams and Whitfield defeated El Salvador in straight sets. They will face Mexico in the quarterfinal qualifying match tomorrow. On the women’s side of the draw, Davidson and Dyette lost in straight sets to Cuba, and will next play a 13^th-16^th round match against Cayman Islands.

In swimming, Dylan Carter placed 5^th in heat 3 of the men’s 100m butterfly and advanced to the B final. Carter opted out of this race to focus on the men’s 50-metre freestyle event tomorrow.  Olympic bronze medallist George Bovell who has already achieved qualification for next years Rio 2016 Olympics will also compete in the men’s 50m free event.

The medal hunt for Trinidad and Tobago continues on Friday with more action cycling, swimming, beach volleyball, golf and shooting. The men’s football team is also scheduled to play Paraguay.

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) has enlisted All Sport Promotions to handle league operations for the National Super League competition and sponsorship development for the local governing body.

Three new leagues will be introduced as part of the collaboration that will incorporate a newdivision of the National Super League.

A 15-­team Premiership Division of the Super League will be joined by a 12-­team Championship Division to establish a promotion/relegation system.

The Premiership Division is set for its kickoff on July 18 while the Championship Division will make its debut on August 8.

In an effort to further establish stronger youth competitions, the TTFA and All Sport Promotions have teamed up with Republic Bank to bring national youth league competition back to Trinidad and Tobago.

The Republic Bank National Youth League will feature Under-13, Under-15 divisions for boys and Under-17 girls division.

According to TTFA President Raymond Tim Kee, “this collaboration with All Sport Promotions will establish our domestic competitions on both the senior and youth levels in an efficient manner that will enable our footballers to develop to the best of their abilities”.

President Tim Kee further added that “with All Sport Promotions operating our leagues and developing sponsorships, the TTFA can better serve the football family and have an excellent opportunity to invest more of its limited resources into youth and women's football.“

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Peruvian swimming silver medallist Mauricio Fiol is among five positive doping tests to emerge during the Pan American Games, failing for stanozolol, the same anabolic steroid as Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson did at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games.

Brazilian weightlifter Patrick Mendes, who had placed fourth in the men's under 105kg competition and the Puerto Rican baseball team's first baseman Nelson Gomez are among the others to test positive, while Mexican weightlifter Cinthya Dominguez was withdrawn before her competition after registering a failed test in a sample conducted on July 8.

Guatemalan weightlifter Astrid Camposeco also failed a test on May 23 but the results were only received on July 9, at which point she was already here for the Games before being immediately withdrawn.

None of these cases have been publicly confirmed by the Pan American Sports Organization, but have been released to the relevant National Olympic Committees.

It is the case involving Fiol that has generated most buzz here this evening two days after, in what had been hailed as a career breakthrough performance, the 21-year-old had improved his own National Record to 1min 55.15sec in taking second place behind Brazilian Leonardo de Deus in the 200 metres butterfly final.

He had then qualified second fastest for tonight's 100m final, before withdrawing earlier today.

The Peruvian Olympic Committee (COP) were notified this afternoon that he had produced a pre-competition sample on Sunday (July 12) which showed traced of stanozolol, the steroid banned since 1976 which is still responsible for more failures than any other.

In a message posted on Facebook, Fiol claimed to "not understand what may have happened".

He added: “Today is a very difficult day for me because I just found out that I tested positive in a doping control.

"I am very confused since I have always promoted fair play, a healthy lifestyle and I have always reached my goals with a lot of effort.

"I apologise to the whole country, my club, my family, my coaches, my sponsors.

"The COP authorities are behind me and are advising me to see what I can do now."

It remains to be seen whether the athlete will now request for a B-sample.

But if he opts not to or that too is returned positively, he will be stripped of his medal and face a four-year ban from the sport.

While de Deus of Brazil would remain the gold medal winner, his disqualification would lead to Canada's Zack Chetrat moving from bronze to silver, while his host nation team mate Alec Page would shift up from fourth to bronze.

Mendes, meanwhile, now faces a life ban after registering the second positive of his career.

A former two-time United States heavyweight champion, the 25-year-old was suspended for two years in March 2012 for using a human growth hormone before switching nationality to Brazil.

He has now failed for testosterone metabolites after missing out on a medal by just five kilograms in yesterday's final, with the lifter having already left here this morning before news of his failure was confirmed.

Fellow weightlifter Dominguez, a silver medal winner at the 2007 Games in Rio de Janeiro, also faces a life ban after serving a suspension following a failure during the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico

She registered a failed test in a sample conducted on July 8 and was withdrawn before her under 75kg competition.

Puerto Rican baseball player Nelson Gomez, the first baseman who played in the first three games of the competition, including the thrilling comeback victory over the US, has failed for anabolic steroid boldenone, returning home in the aftermath of the news emerging.

Four failed tests were registered during the 2011 Games in Guadalajara, including one by Canadian wakeboarder Aaron Rathy, who was stripped of a silver medal after testing positive for banned stimulant methylhexaneamine.

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