Two goals in stoppage time led to a 4-4 draw between Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday night in their final group match at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Tied 3-3 through regulation, Mexico pulled ahead on an own goal by Trinidad and Tobago defender Cordell Cato in the first minute of extra play. With less than a minute left, Trinidad and Tobago’s Yohance Marshall headed in a corner kick to tie the match.

“We had a plan for the corner kicks, but I picked up the flight of the ball late,” said Marshall, who did not play in the first two Gold Cup games. “But I wound up in the right place. We got a good result.

“I’ve never gone through a final five minutes like that with the national team; with my club teams and school teams, yes. The emotions are high — they go up, they go down. You can be disappointed, but at the end, we were elated. We could have lost, but we could have easily won also.”

Trinidad and Tobago (2-0-1, 7 points) took Group C’s top seed into the quarterfinals, and will face Panama on Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J.

“It was a good game for spectators — not my heart,” said Trinidad and Tobago coach Stephen Hart, whose team is making its best Gold Cup run since reaching the semifinals in 2000.

“We had an objective to get to the quarterfinals. We wanted to win the first game and get the result from Cuba (a 2-0 win on July 12), and not have to play Mexico to get to the quarterfinals.”

Mexico (1-0-2, 5 points) will play Costa Rica in the second quarterfinal game Sunday.

“We didn’t do what we were doing before, especially in the second half,” Mexico coach Miguel Herrera said through an interpreter. “There were a lot of mistakes. We committed a lot of mistakes in the second half.”

Mexico, which has won six Gold Cup titles, took a 1-0 halftime lead on Paul Aguilar’s goal in the 32nd minute, and pulled ahead 2-0 on Carlos Vega’s shot off the left post in the 51st minute.

“We didn’t manage the game well . but we were doing it in the first half,” Herrera said. “After the second goal, we stopped playing. We made careless mistakes.”

Trinidad and Tobago’s Keron Cummings and Kenwyne Jones scored in a 3-minute span to tie the match in the 58th minute. Cummings’ second goal, in the 67th minute, put Trinidad and Tobago ahead 3-2.

“The players, we believe in one another,” said Cummings, who was making his first start in the Gold Cup. “We knew we can come back. Once we dug deep, we came back.”

Mexico made it 3-3 on Andres Guardado’s 25-yarder in the 88th minute.

“The last goal, it was a ball in the corner,” Herrera said. “If you just take the ball to the corner, the clock probably runs out. But it was a little bit of bad luck because the ball could have gone anywhere.”

Source

Khalifa St Fort is a strong contender for precious metal in today’s girls’ 100 metres dash, at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia. The American-born Trinidad and Tobago sprinter opens her medal quest in the preliminary round. The first heat is scheduled for 11.40am (T&T time). The semis will be contested from 7.10pm, and the final at 9.05pm.

St Fort is the second fastest entrant in the girls’ 100m with the 11.43 seconds personal best she clocked in Florida, USA on May 23. The fastest is American Candace Hill, who carries the favourite’s mantle after stopping the clock at a jaw-dropping 10.98 on June 20. The clocking is the world youth (Under-18) record, as well as the American junior (Under-20) record.

“People are expecting me to run that fast again,” said Hill at Tuesday’s IAAF press conference, “but I know that might have been a once-in-a-lifetime moment. The girl from Trinidad and Tobago is a great athlete. I feel like we’re going to go head-to-head in the finals.”

St Fort’s coach, T&T’s quadruple Olympic medallist Ato Boldon said at the press conference that Hill’s 10.98 run has served as a fillip for his athlete.

“Khalifa’s whole season changed when she saw that 10.98, because when someone she runs against runs a huge personal best, it shows you it’s possible. I know Khalifa is ready to run a personal best here and you can tie it to watching that 10.98.

“It’s the best thing that ever happened and it makes it easier to compete here because nobody is asking her questions. All the pressure is on Candace so it allows her to just come in and compete. She has done everything I’ve asked of her, (Candace Hill) is the only person to run faster than her; this is the beginning.”

St Fort is looking forward to stepping on the track in the Colombian city.

“My expectations are to execute my game plan well. Of course the goal is to get first, but I’ve come a long way and just to be here is an experience. Whatever the outcome is I’ll be happy.”

Another T&T athlete, Akidah Briggs will compete in the girls’ shot put qualifying competition from 10.35 this morning. The final is scheduled for 8.30pm.

Akanni Hislop was expected to face the starter late yesterday in the third and final boys’ 100m semi-final heat. The final was scheduled for ten o’clock last night.

Hislop was a runaway winner of heat two in the preliminary round of the boys’ century. The T&T sprinter clocked 10.53 seconds for a comfortable cushion on second-placed Jack Hale (10.66) of Australia.

Hislop had the sixth fastest time in the opening round. Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, meanwhile, confirmed his status as favourite with victory in heat one in a Championship record time of 10.30 seconds. The previous Championship standard of 10.31 was established by T&T’s Darrel Brown in the 2001 final, in Debrecen, Hungary.

Source

This letter is meant to highlight the plight of the residents of Central Park in Couva who, on a regular basis, are being held hostage in their homes and bombarded with excessive noise from the Ato Boldon Stadium. The noise has nothing to do with legitimate sporting activity but rather from fetes, car shows and various activities which are being hosted in the stadium car park with increasing frequency.

The housing development is adjacent to and downwind of the compound of both the stadium and the National Cricket Centre. These facilities were built long after the housing development which has been in existence for over 30 years. It is grossly unfair that these relatively recent facilities should be the source of untold distress to residents who purchased land and built their homes (without any government’s help) in a quiet neighbourhood hoping to escape the hustle and bustle of our increasingly stressful society.

The events start at low noise levels but increase with time and sometimes go on for more than six hours—late into the night and into the early hours of the morning. Residents are totally stressed out by continuous, excessive noise over long periods, depriving them of their peace and quiet and enjoyment of their property.

The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) has shown empathy and tries to mediate a win-win situation, but it appears that they are obligated to grant a variation to the ambient noise levels.

The stadium management has indicated the need to raise revenue and therefore is constrained to allow these events. The police intervene from time to time but the noise levels increase once the officers leave.

We are calling on the Minister of Sport to look into this very distressing state of affairs. We shudder to think that the cycling velodrome and the aquatic centre, both of which are being constructed near to the stadium and could be opened soon, might adopt a similar policy.

It is time for the authorities to step in and protect the legitimate rights of law-abiding, taxpaying citizens who, instead of looking for handouts, engage in lawful employment and just want some rest, relaxation and rejuvenation after battling the stresses of the workday or work-week.

E Rampaul

Couva

Source

Wednesday July 15^th, Toronto, Canada – Sailors Kelly Ann Arrindell and Andrew Lewis continued to post solid results after another day on the water. Unofficial results have Arrindell 3^rd in race five of the women’s laser, 7th in race six and 7^th in race seven. This is Arrindell’s second top 3 finish in the competition. Lewis was 8^th in race five, and 7^th in races six and seven of the men’s laser event. Both sailors have four more races to complete before competition ends.

In volleyball, the duos of Davidson and Dyette and Williams and Whitfield lost in straight sets to Mexico and Chile respectively. While both matches were keenly contested, the teams were unable to turn things around in time to force a third set.

The medal hunt for Trinidad and Tobago continues on Thursday with action in golf, track cycling, swimming, field hockey and volleyball.

Tuesday July 14^th, Toronto, Canada – Dylan Carter swam to an impressive fifth place finish in the men’s 100m freestyle final at the Pan Am Games. Carter entered the final as the sixth fastest qualifier with a time of 49:29, and bettered that time in the final with a personal best of 49.10.  Clearly pleased with his performance, Carter tweeted following the race, “5^th place tonight and movement in the right direction! Rome wasn’t built in a day.” TTOC President Brian Lewis also offered his congratulations to Carter following the race.

In football, the women warriors fought to a 1-1 draw against Columbia, with Kennya Cordner scoring the equalizer on the same day that she was named Tobago House of Assembly (THA) sportswoman of the year 2014. This result leaves Trinidad and Tobago third in Group A with 2 points. They will next face Mexico on Saturday July 18^th.

Sailing also continued with Kelly Ann Arrindell and Andrew Lewis placing 10^th and 6^th respectively in race 4 of the Laser event. Seven races are left in the competition.

In beach volleyball the women’s duo of Davidson and Dyette lost to Argentina in straight sets. They will next face Mexico on Wednesday. In field hockey the men’s team featuring Shaquille Daniel, son of flag bearer Roger Daniel suffered a heavy defeat to Argentina, losing 11:0 in their opening match. They will next face Cuba on Thursday.

In other events fighter Christopher George lost to his Uruguayan opponent Manuel Beuno in men’s Judo -100Kg and is out of the competition.  In trap shooting Anthony Maraj ended day 2 of qualification ranked 28^th out of 29 competitors, and will not advance to the final.

On Wednesday July 15^th sailing will continue along with beach volleyball.

July 14^th, Toronto, Canada – Gymnast Marisa Dick continued to impress after qualifying for the women’s individual all round competition on Monday night. Dick finished 14^th in the competition, posting solid scores in all four disciplines balance beam, vault, floor exercise and the uneven bars. Following the event Dick expressed pride in her performance saying, “Things went as well as they could go. I’m really proud of myself, and I just want to make everyone in Trinidad proud too.”

Sailing continued with Kelly Ann Arrindell placing 12^th and 9^th in her second and third races in the women’s Laser Radial event, while compatriot Andrew Lewis finished 5th and 6^th in the 2^nd and 3^rd races for the men’s event.

In volleyball the men’s duo of Williams and Whitfield lost their opening game against Puerto Rico in straight sets (21:12 and 21:15). In football the men’s team suffered a tough defeat to Uruguay, losing their opening game 4-0. The warriors also lost the services of captain Alvin Jones, who received a red card and will have to sit out their next game against Paraguay on Friday. Competing in the men’s trap shooting competition, Anthony Maharaj is currently ranked 28^th after one day of qualifying action.

Trinidad & Tobago will continue the hunt for its first medal of this year’s Pan Am games later today in Men’s Field Hockey, Women’s Volleyball, Judo and Swimming. The women warriors will also play their second game against Columbia.